Fujifilm: The Second Foundation — How a Company Invented Its Way Out of Extinction
This case examines how Komori's Second Foundation strategy turned 80 years of film science into four monopoly-grade businesses.
This case examines how Komori's Second Foundation strategy turned 80 years of film science into four monopoly-grade businesses.
The business that almost destroyed Corning in 2001 is now its largest again. What saved it was not research spending, which it cut by 45%, but where it moved the scientists.
Xerox invented the personal computer and earned almost nothing from it. Filings from eight companies show why: value goes to whoever owns what the invention needs, not who spends most on R&D.
Xerox invented the future and lost it; Fujifilm lost its core and rebuilt. Two partners, two books.
He chose the freewheel—not the frame, wheel or saddle—the hardest component to manufacture well. The logic was simple: the most difficult part gives you the right to make everything around it. Quality, price and service became the founding creed.