Kodak Invented the Digital Camera. And Still Died.

There was a time when Kodak was not just a company. It was culture.

You did not say, “Take a photo.” You said, “Get a Kodak moment.”

And then, poof. The company that defined memories became just that, a memory.

Here is the kicker most people miss: Kodak invented the digital camera. In 1975. Yep, they literally built the future before the future arrived. And then locked it away like your grandma’s fine china set.

Why? Because film sales were minting money. And when the money is rolling in, why mess with it, right? Except, the thing about comfort is it always overstays its welcome. By the time Kodak looked up, the party was over, the lights were off, and someone else was uploading the photos to Facebook.

The Danger of Comfort

Kodak’s failure was not about missing technology. It was about being too comfortable.

Comfort whispers, “Do not fix what is not broken.”

Reality slaps back, “If you wait until it breaks, it is already too late.”

Kodak had the patents. The prototypes. Engineers begging leadership to take digital seriously. But comfort makes leaders blind. It feels harmless, even rational, until one morning your entire business model is trending on #ThrowbackThursday.

Why This Should Make You Uncomfortable Too

Fast forward to today. AI, automation, consumer behaviour shifts, these are our digital cameras.

Everyone talks about them. Everyone experiments. But very few have the guts to bet on them. Leaders convince themselves, “We will get to it once this quarter stabilizes.” Translation? Never.

And that is how companies die, not with a bang, but with a boardroom nodding in agreement that yesterday’s plan will work tomorrow.

The Lesson Buried in the Rubble

Kodak’s real tragedy is not that it failed to invent. They did invent. They just did not have the courage to back their own invention.

Innovation is not about showing the shiny prototype at conferences. It is about cannibalizing your current success before someone else does it for you.

That takes guts. And maybe a little madness.

At Ergode, I remind my team constantly: if we are not busy building the thing that could make us irrelevant, someone else out there is. Probably right now, in a garage, with fewer resources but way more hunger.

So here is my reminder to every leader (and to myself): Do not just ask, “What is working today?”

Ask, “What will embarrass us tomorrow if we ignore it?”

Because Kodak proved the easiest way to die is to invent the future… and then hide it in the closet.

– Rupesh