Lessons from Kodak's downfall

I heard about the declaration of bankruptcy by Kodak today. Saddening to learn about such an iconic American company that invented the camera and printing of photographs—that capture specific points or way points in our lives. I did not even know that Kodak invented the digital camera. For the executives to not have pursued the digital camera wave, for fear of cannibalizing the film portion of their business—was short sighted. This reminds me of other technology innovators in my lifetime, e.g., Palm (brought us the Palm Pilot PDAs or even the Apple Newton), tapes replaced by CDs and now MP3s, AOL (ISP regardless that it was 56K, at its peak bought by Time Warner), Wang, Compaq (now owned by HP), well, you get the idea.
It is difficult to compare Kodak’s predicament to a movie franchise’ (1^st, 2^nd, or 3^rd sequel such as Star Wars), or a successful TV series’ demise (such as “Friends” or “Seinfield”). Most if not all (well, maybe with the exception of “the Oprah Show”) TV shows or sequel movies “jump the shark.” The story line or the characters (I would guess due to scriptwriters attempt to extend the show’s success) becomes unexciting, inane, does not make sense, feels old, lame, or plain boring. Sometimes, the actors or actresses depart from the show, asking for astronomic pay raise. Sometimes, for just unforeseen or inexplicable reason, the viewership dwindles and falls irreversibly.
To me, Kodak’s downfall is due to failure to innovate regardless that the marketplace was changing. There is a lesson to be learned here. Technology and product lines now change in weeks and months, not a year or 2. From a career perspective, our personal “brand” has to change with the needs of the marketplace as well. To continue to rest on past successes would be foolish on anybody’s part.