Oct 3, 2011

Leadership Kudos and Gaffes: Amazon taking the Kindle to the next level and Kodak’s board for ruining a great company

Leadership Kudos this week go to Jeff Bezos of Amazon, introducing his latest product breakthrough, a new tablet called Kindle Fire. Listed at a remarkable price of $199 (Apple charges $499), the Fire will offer users a remarkable array of Amazon products, all stored on Amazon’s cloud and rapidly downloaded. Staying true to his convictions, Bezos stayed the course with his on-line retail strategy in 2002 when the stock market collapsed and his stock lost 92% of its value. Then he invested heavily in Amazon’s first hardware product, the Kindle, revolutionizing the book reading business. This week Amazon’s market capitalization topped $100 billion. You have to admire Bezos’ courage is taking on Apple frontally, something H-P and others have failed to do.

Leadership Gaffes go this week to the Kodak Board, which has presided over the demise of a once-great corporation. In past twelve years Kodak stock has lost 99% of its value, plunging from $75 to a new low this week of $0.78. (That’s not a typo!) Anticipating the digital revolution but unable to develop an internal leader, the board went outside its ranks to recruit George Fisher, then CEO of Motorola, who served as CEO from 1993-2000, but was unable to move the company into the 21st century. Fisher was succeeded by Dan Carp, who drifted from one strategy to the next during his five years as CEO. Then Antonio Perez was recruited from H-P to save the company once again, something he has failed to do. A sad tale, much like H-P, of a board that can’t figure out what business it is in.