A New Cultural "Kodak Moment" for American Innovation
Is America's presidential choice this week really between 🎞 Kodak vs Fujifilm🤳?
"Our ability to change our culture is the leading indicator of our future success."
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft
In the 1970s, McDonald’s faced growing pressure over its styrofoam packaging as environmental groups warned about pollution. What seemed like a small concern over packaging hinted at something much bigger—a cultural shift toward environmental consciousness. McDonald’s partnered with the Environmental Defense Fund to protect its reputation, developing eco-friendlier packaging. This move wasn’t just a brand decision; it foreshadowed the broader sustainability movement that would define corporate responsibility for decades.
By the 2000s, another cultural shift was brewing, this time around health. Fast-food chains came under scrutiny as public awareness around obesity and diet grew. McDonald’s adapted, adding salads and displaying calorie counts. What seemed like a simple menu update signaled a deeper change in how Americans thought about food and wellness. Today, that shift has reached new heights with GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, transforming the healthcare industry and reshaping economies with their impact on weight loss and public health.
Each moment underscores a fundamental truth for corporate America: transformational, disruptive cultural shifts are often five to ten years ahead of business trends, hinting at changes that will redefine industries. Companies that adapt early and develop strategic foresight can lead; those that ignore the signals risk being left behind.
This week, American enterprise finds itself at another crossroads, with cultural, political, and technological forces converging to reshape business innovation yet again. Leaders must now decide whether to double down on legacy products or embrace a more adaptive approach that stays culturally responsive.
Here is where the contrasting innovation stories of Kodak and Fujifilm offer a timely lesson. When digital photography disrupted their industry, Kodak clung to film, hoping tradition would carry them through. Instead, it led to bankruptcy. Meanwhile, Fujifilm saw the writing on the wall and redirected its chemical expertise into skincare, aligning with the wellness movement gaining momentum. This wasn’t just a pivot—it was a transformation that created a cultural feedback loop, with product innovation and societal trends reinforcing one another.
In this article, I offer a quick case study exploring how Kodak and Fuji’s contrasting paths hold key insights for today’s business and policy leaders.
How Fujifilm Transformed Legacy Expertise into Market Relevance
When Fujifilm saw film declining, it didn’t just look for a quick fix. Instead, it took a strategic approach that combined its chemical expertise with trends in beauty and wellness, resulting in the Astalift skincare line. Since its 2007 launch, Fujifilm’s skincare brand Astalift quickly rose in Japan’s trillion-yen skincare market, reaching over ¥10 billion in annual sales by 2010. By 2018, the company was growing skincare and supplement sales to ¥100 billion, with 20% coming from overseas markets.
Key steps in Fujifilm’s approach included:
Applying Technology to New 🆕 Markets: Fujifilm leveraged its expertise in antioxidants and collagen (originally for film preservation) to develop anti-aging skincare products, tapping into Japan’s high-growth skincare market.
Embracing Diversification: Entering skincare allowed Fujifilm to reduce its dependence on film, strengthen resilience, and create new revenue streams.
Aligning with Cultural Shifts: Fujifilm recognized growing interest in wellness and positioned Astalift as a premium brand that reflects these norms.
In contrast, Kodak doubled down on film even as digital photography surged. Though Kodak had the resources to innovate, its reluctance to evolve eventually led to bankruptcy.
Fujifilm didn’t simply enter a new market; it created a cultural feedback loop where product development responds to and shapes consumer norms. Aligning with cultural trends around beauty and wellness enabled Fujifilm to position Astalift as a lifestyle choice, reinforcing the brand’s role in consumers’ lives. This feedback loop demonstrates the value of Creative Brain Capital™ in the Wonder Economy—a framework where team creativity drives cultural relevance and financial resilience of companies and economies.
Where Culture, Policy & Business Strategy Merge
The contrast between Kodak’s preservationist mindset and Fujifilm’s adaptive strategy mirrors a broader divide in American business and politics. This week, our nation is presented with two divergent paths. One path centers on economic protectionism and reflects Kodak’s legacy-focused approach. The other emphasizes strategic foresight resembling Fujifilm’s alignment with cultural and technological shifts. There are lessons here for all leaders managing change.
Key Lessons from the Fujifilm-Kodak Contrast:
Adaptation vs. Preservation
Kodak’s decision to remain film-focused mirrors a protectionist approach prioritizing the status quo over adaptability. Fujifilm saw the decline of film as a chance to apply its expertise to new markets. Policies that encourage diversifying to uncover opportunities within emerging industries offer leaders adaptability and encourage creative thinking, self-awareness, and resilience. These are among the top World Economic Forum skills that will define the winners and losers in the future of work. Acquiring these skills often means breaking with legacy mindsets to explore growth avenues.
Responding to Cultural Shifts
Kodak’s downfall partly stemmed from overlooking shifts at the intersection of culture change and consumer behavior, like the growing preference for digital and instant sharing. Focusing on traditional power models reflects a tendency to prioritize nostalgia over innovation. On the other hand, Fujifilm saw an opportunity in the rising interest in self-image and wellness. Policies reflecting the increasing importance of building collaborative, networked leadership offer expanded opportunities and possibilities. For businesses, this contrast highlights the need to track and respond to cultural shifts instead of resisting them.
Sustainable Growth Through Forward-Thinking
Fujifilm’s success—and Kodak’s failure—illustrate that sustainable growth often requires a forward focus. Companies clinging to legacy products risk stagnation, while those that adapt to trends build resilience. Embracing Fujifilm’s approach means integrating cognitive diversity, technology, and cultural insight into core strategy.
Creativity Is a Cultural Process
This week’s presidential race seems to represent a Kodak vs Fuji strategy decision for America. But, no matter who wins, our nation will need to find better ways to collaborate. When paired with our legendary sense of wonder and human creative potential, America's immense technological advantages can ensure a future in which we all can play a role and benefit. However, our nation's many forms of creativity—cognitive, emotional, and social— only become a strategic asset when we can work as a team.
From small entrepreneurial teams to teams of teams in large corporations, unlocking America’s human creative potential is a cultural process—an adaptable, cyclical framework business leaders can use to embed sustained innovation.
Fujifilm's strategic approach offers practical guidance for business leaders seeking to harness this process. Each phase of creativity serves as both a guidepost and a set of actionable steps, creating a feedback loop that aligns innovation with cultural and consumer shifts.
1. Creative Deconstruction: Leveraging Existing Strengths for New Markets
Purpose: Creative Deconstruction challenges existing norms, allowing space for new opportunities by repurposing expertise in fresh ways.
Action: Identify ways to apply your current strengths in emerging sectors. For example, companies with architectural expertise could explore wellness, sustainability, or similar growth areas.
Fujifilm Insight: Fujifilm leveraged its antioxidant and collagen knowledge, originally developed for film preservation, to create anti-aging skincare, tapping into the expanding wellness market. This reapplication of expertise demonstrates how Creative Deconstruction can open new avenues for growth.
2. Creative Tension: Staying Consumer-Centric Amidst Cultural Shifts
Purpose: Creative Tension surfaces competing ideas and insights from consumer culture, sparking innovation through these intersecting demands.
Action: Regularly assess shifting consumer needs and cultural trends, integrating these insights into product development. Staying attuned to evolving cultural norms, language, technologies, behaviors, and beliefs ensures that offerings resonate and evolve with customers.
Fujifilm Insight: Fujifilm’s success in skincare was driven by its alignment with consumer interest in wellness and self-care, positioning Astalift as an elevated identity brand rather than just a skincare product.
3. Creative Reconstruction: Building a Feedback Loop that Reflects and Shapes Culture
Purpose: In Creative Reconstruction, organizations synthesize insights from cultural observations and consumer trends, creating innovations that resonate with and influence the market.
Action: Foster a cultural feedback loop where products and services reflect and shape consumer norms. Treat innovation as a dynamic two-way exchange that evolves alongside market and cultural trends.
Fujifilm Insight: Fujifilm established a feedback loop in which its skincare products mirrored and reinforced cultural trends around wellness and self-image. This approach positioned the brand as part of a lifestyle, creating relevance that outlasted initial market entry.
4. Creative Growth: Challenging Nostalgia to Enable Sustainable Innovation
Purpose: Creative Growth refines and scales new solutions, ensuring they stay relevant without clinging to outdated norms or nostalgia.
Action: Avoid preserving legacy products or processes solely for familiarity’s sake. Evaluate growth opportunities with an emphasis on forward-looking decisions that align with current and emerging trends.
Kodak Insight: Kodak’s resistance to digital innovation and reliance on its legacy film business are cautionary examples. By contrast, Fujifilm’s willingness to evolve allowed it to build resilience through diversification, underscoring the importance of leaving nostalgia behind.
5. Creative Integration: Embedding Diverse Perspectives for Cultural Relevance
Purpose: Creative Integration embeds innovations into an organization’s culture, aligning new norms with broader societal trends and ensuring ongoing cultural relevance.
Action: Incorporate diverse perspectives to stay aligned with cultural shifts. This diversity strengthens the ability to understand and adapt to changing consumer expectations, making the organization more agile and inclusive.
Fujifilm Insight: By integrating a range of insights, Fujifilm ensured its products aligned with evolving consumer norms, allowing the company to adapt its brand identity and stay culturally relevant as wellness trends evolved.
Each phase—Creative Deconstruction, Creative Tension, Creative Reconstruction, Creative Growth, and Creative Integration—builds on the last to establish a sustainable, adaptive feedback loop. This cycle enables organizations to cultivate the Wonder Economy, where creativity isn’t just a function but a strategic capability. By embedding these practices, leaders can drive continuous innovation and align with the cultural and consumer shifts essential for resilience and growth.
Embedding Creativity
Creativity America’s Wondervation® Accelerator program offers a structured, six-step approach for embedding creativity as a sustained capability in organizational teams, moving beyond sporadic innovation to establish a culture of systemic creativity.
Each step operates as follows:
Work Like Artists: Encourage teams to imagine possibilities without constraints. This phase nurtures potential aligned with team motivation.
Example Prompt: How would this idea look if created purely to inspire joy or wonder?
Observe Like Researchers: Root creativity in data, blending divergent thinking with analysis. Teams assess feasibility while staying open to diverse perspectives.
Example Prompt: Which unexpected data sources could add new perspectives to our analysis?
Navigate Like Entrepreneurs: Embrace iterative learning, testing ideas, and adapting based on feedback. This builds resilience, agility, and collective problem-solving.
Example Prompt: What assumptions are we making, and how can we test them?
Dazzle Like Nature: Like naturally occurring patterns, inspire teams to find cultural patterns that can become surprising elements in a product or service, increasing engagement and motivation.
Example Prompt: How can we embed a pattern or story that feels natural and draws people in?
Embrace Mystery Like Humans: Allow for ambiguity, encouraging diverse thinking and adaptive solutions.
Example Prompt: How can we let uncertainty guide us to new questions beyond the solutions we already know?
Radiate Like Stardust: Everything humans have ever built contains two things—materials we have pulled from the Earth and human imagination. Both of these were quite literally created from the same thing: stardust. When scaling creative successes across and beyond the organization, consider how innovation success also rewrites the cultural stories and embedded practices everyone is following. For example, consider how design thinking reshaped how innovation is done in companies. What is the next design thinking?
Example Prompt: How can we share this success to inspire wider action within our company or industry?
Reclaim Wonder. Reclaim the Future.
Creativity America argues that, in a world fixated on efficiency, the most secure leadership path is to ignite wonder. Wonder fuels creativity, creativity fuels innovation, and innovation shapes the future. Leading with wonder unlocks not only productivity but also purpose and limitless growth.
Creativity America offers a pathway for leaders to create environments where curiosity thrives, empowering teams to explore, question, and innovate. Efficiency alone won’t differentiate companies in a tech-driven landscape, but a culture of wonder will. Wonder pushes teams beyond what is and into what could be, making them resilient, inclusive, and adaptable—ready for future challenges. The next world-changing idea, company, product, and movement will begin with three powerful words, “I wonder if…” We are here to help America’s most promising entrepreneurs, enterprises, and economies find and fuel the innovation story of what comes next.
Theo Edmonds, Culture Futurist® & Founder, Creativity America | Bridging Creative Industries and Brain Science with Future of Work & Wondervation®
© 2024 Theo Edmonds | All Rights Reserved. This article contains proprietary intellectual property. Any reproduction, distribution, or adaptation, in whole or in part, is prohibited without explicit written permission from the author. Please attribute content accurately when referenced or shared. The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of any affiliated organization or institution.