Kodak now has two business lines - which one is LF in?

[John NYC]

http://www.minyanville.com/businessmarkets/articles/kodak-kodak-bankrupcty-kodak-restructuring-fuji/1/10/2012/id/38779

Is LF under their commercial or consumer group?

[Juergen Sattler]

All film is now under the commercial group.

[John NYC]

All film is now under the commercial group.

How do you know that? That is not what the article says:

1. Commercial: will include Kodak's Graphics Communications Group (CPG), and two product lines from the Film, Photofinishing and Entertainment Group (FPEG) -- entertainment imaging and commercial film.

2. Consumer: includes the Consumer Digital Imaging Group (CDG), plus three lines from FPEG, those being paper & output systems, event imaging solutions, and consumer film and intellectual property.

[Steve Smith]

Whichever one you think it is, it's probably the other one.


Steve.

[Frank Petronio]

They'll do something goofy like make 35mm consumer and larger film commercial....

[BrianShaw]

Commercial vs Consumer is an interesting way to split a business. Other industries do similar... and then there is a lot of overlap where common technologies are used. I've never understood corporate orgainizations and re-organizations... but generally believe based on experience that it usually has to do with empire building/retention and punishment of poor/unloved performers than any kind of a rationale business plan.

[Juergen Sattler]

How do you know that? That is not what the article says:

1. Commercial: will include Kodak's Graphics Communications Group (CPG), and two product lines from the Film, Photofinishing and Entertainment Group (FPEG) -- entertainment imaging and commercial film.

2. Consumer: includes the Consumer Digital Imaging Group (CDG), plus three lines from FPEG, those being paper & output systems, event imaging solutions, and consumer film and intellectual property.

There was an ABC news article on the web this morning that said that ALL film was now under the commercial unit. Since then there seems to be more information AND more confusion. The ABC article's headline also sounded like Kodak had actually abandoned film altogether. I guess we'll have to wait a little longer to find out what is really going on.

[Brian Ellis]

All film is now under the commercial group.

Maybe you know something that isn't in the article but just reading the article I'd have guessed that the kind of film photographers use (e.g. 35mm, medium format, and sheet film) was in the consumer group and that "commercial" film meant stuff like xray film. But that would just have been a guess, it doesn't seem very clear from the article. Frank probably has the best take on it, i.e. they'll do something that makes no sense to anyone outside of Kodak.

[tgtaylor]

I always thought that the professional films was in the commercial division. Why not dial the main number and ask the division?

Thomas

[SW Rick]

As the Romans said re. reorganizations in 210bc:


"We trained hard....but every time we formed up teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn that we meet any new situation by reorganizing. And a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization."
Petronius Arbiter, 210 bc

This comforted me thru the years... :)

[Frank Petronio]

ah Uncle Petronius

I had another relative who killed all the Jews in Libya for the Empire.

(Of course we may not be related at all, he may have just owned us.)

[srbphoto]

35mm, 110 and disc film will be under commercial. Remember they use to have a lot of "commercials" for them.

Hey, it makes as much sense as anything else they have been doing lately:)

[Kevin Crisp]

"Meet the Swinger, the Polaroid Swinger....."

[Brian Ellis]

The real reason for doing this is to make it more difficult to compare previous financial results, which were based on five groups, with current and future results based on only two groups. Perez thinks that if the numbers can't be easily compared nobody will realize how badly they're doing.

[Frank Petronio]

Ha

In the local Rochester paper I got the impression that our film will be consumer and movie film will be commercial. Hopefully if they do anything to the production of film itself they'll coordinate.

[Sevo]

As the Romans said re. reorganizations in 210bc:


"We trained hard....but every time we formed up teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn that we meet any new situation by reorganizing. And a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization."
Petronius Arbiter, 210 bc


Fun, but entirely fake. Petronius Arbiter was a advisor of Nero, living some 150 years earlier - and not known to have written anything apart from Satyricon. Which is not on reorganization, btw.

[John NYC]

Fun, but entirely fake. Petronius Arbiter was a advisor of Nero, living some 150 years earlier - and not known to have written anything apart from Satyricon. Which is not on reorganization, btw.

Yes, supposedly it is this guy...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlton_Ogburn

[John NYC]

Here is the official press release. It does sound like film is being split between the two groups.... and it does not say which films will be where.

http://www.kodak.com/ek/US/en/Kodak_Creates_New_Business_Structure_to_Accelerate_Digital_Transformation.htm

"The changes are effective January 1, 2012. Under the new structure, the Commercial and Consumer Segments will replace the current Graphic Communications Group (GCG), which provides digital printing equipment, consumables and software to the publishing and commercial printing industries; the Consumer Digital Imaging Group (CDG), which helps consumers capture and print images; and the Film, Photofinishing and Entertainment Group (FPEG), which represents the company’s traditional film and photographic paper products."

"The Commercial Segment will include all of GCG plus two product lines currently in FPEG – Entertainment Imaging and Commercial Film."

"The Consumer Segment will include all of CDG plus three FPEG product lines – Paper & Output Systems, Event Imaging Solutions, the Consumer Film and the Intellectual Property business"

[clay harmon]

This has to be about the dumbest thing I have seen in a while. So they split film sales and marketing up into two divisions. Just how are they going to assign costs from what is most likely a common manufacturing plant to each division? I can just imagine the future battles as division heads try to foist the larger share of manufacturing costs onto each other.

This a cost accountant's dream and a shareholder's nightmare.

[jp]

I can just imagine the future battles as division heads try to foist the larger share of manufacturing costs onto each other.

This a cost accountant's dream and a shareholder's nightmare.

Maybe it's an Enron like trick where they can make/lose money selling film to the other division, or shifting profits where convenient to make the film-de-jour or film-boss-de-jour look good.

[clay harmon]

Your're probably right. Every time I ask myself whether I am getting too cynical, events transpire that indicate I have not been cynical enough.


Maybe it's an Enron like trick where they can make/lose money selling film to the other division, or shifting profits where convenient to make the film-de-jour or film-boss-de-jour look good.

[SW Rick]

Fun, but entirely fake. Petronius Arbiter was a advisor of Nero, living some 150 years earlier - and not known to have written anything apart from Satyricon. Which is not on reorganization, btw.

Can't be- I got it from the internet!

[Wayne Crider]

Here is the official press release. It does sound like film is being split between the two groups.... and it does not say which films will be where.

http://www.kodak.com/ek/US/en/Kodak_Creates_New_Business_Structure_to_Accelerate_Digital_Transformation.htm

"The changes are effective January 1, 2012. Under the new structure, the Commercial and Consumer Segments will replace the current Graphic Communications Group (GCG), which provides digital printing equipment, consumables and software to the publishing and commercial printing industries; the Consumer Digital Imaging Group (CDG), which helps consumers capture and print images; and the Film, Photofinishing and Entertainment Group (FPEG), which represents the company’s traditional film and photographic paper products."

"The Commercial Segment will include all of GCG plus two product lines currently in FPEG – Entertainment Imaging and Commercial Film."

"The Consumer Segment will include all of CDG plus three FPEG product lines – Paper & Output Systems, Event Imaging Solutions, the Consumer Film and the Intellectual Property business"

I wonder if they're setting themselves up to sell one division.