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Provider PerSPeCTive Try to Avoid This kodak Moment The experts at Kodak couldnÕt read the writing on the wall. Are PCOs also still singing ÒDonÕt take my Kodachrome awayÓ? By Bryan Rader / Bandwidth Consulting LLC I feel bad for Kodak product managers during the 1990s. Tey must have been fying frst-class to international trade shows, having twomartini lunches, reviewing the latest ad campaign ideas and leaving work early to avoid trafc. Yes, tough job. Why would they worry? After all, Kodak was one of the most respected brands in the world. It was part of the fabric of American culture, and it captured the "moments of our lives." Everyone bought Kodak flm. Americans trusted the product enough to use it for weddings and vacations, forgoing cheaper flm from Fuji. Te most difcult decisions Kodak product managers faced were of the "Should we sponsor the Olympics or the Super Bowl?" variety. I'm sure that kept the executives busy in the boardroom for a while. But where was their vision for the future? Where was the idea that very successful companies should continue to reinvent themselves? While Kodak was making lots of money, did anyone ask, "Are we ahead of or behind the digital technology curve?" I know, it's more fun to pick models for the next TV commercial and decide how many spots to buy during the World Series than to think strategically. So Kodak missed the moment to look forward, to think beyond the next corporate event and to transform its business – until it was trampled by new digital technology and changing consumer behavior. Since that time, the world has gone digital, and Kodak has never been the 8 same. It cut its workforce by 75 percent. It shut down factories. It stopped Olympic sponsorships and Super Bowl advertising. And I'm sure it cancelled the trade shows, martini lunches and golf as the product managers who still remained huddled in conference rooms trying to decide how to be relevant in a digital world. Kodak's product managers should have embraced the digital revolution. Tere were opportunities for them everywhere. Kodak could have led the way in making printers and selling ink cartridges. It could have expanded into documents, cloud storage and a host of other business and consumer lines. Instead, it was late to join the revolution, and it got trampled. EvERyThINg LOOkS WORSE IN BLACk AND WhITE How many "Kodak product managers" are there in the private cable operator (PCO) industry? I still come across a few, and that worries me. A little more than a decade ago, PCOs were signing exclusive, long-term retail deals with apartment owners. Once those deals were in place, PCOs faced little competition for end users. Many operators enjoyed 65 percent to 80 percent cable TV penetration rates and growing broadband take rates too. Life was good. Operators could leave work a little early, grab their golf clubs, have a martini ... until the PCO industry changed forever when it experienced its own revolution – the introduction of "choice" from FiOS and U-verse. With telephone companies | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | July 2013 ofering video and broadband packages, property owners decided to give their residents options, and PCOs no longer had exclusive deals. As most of their initial terms burned of, property owners signed new agreements with PCOs on a nonexclusive basis. "Duke it out with FiOS," an MDU owner would say. "It's good for my residents." Some PCOs believed they could win. But most saw those high penetration rates drop to 30 percent, 25 percent or less. Building a business around those numbers is tough. For PCOs, the Kodak moment is now. It's time to see the changes in the market, in customer behavior and in technology and get ahead of them. Te MDU market is changing. Customers want superfast broadband – maybe 100 Mbps, even a gig. Customers want their content on all connected devices, available on demand from the cloud. Tey want very little equipment, and they like Wi-Fi, mobility and cloud storage. PCOs are in the perfect spot to develop this solution for them, just as Kodak was 20 years ago. Te Kodak product managers of the '90s failed, but PCOs don't have to. Let's "capture this moment" and win! v Bryan Rader is CEO of Bandwidth Consulting LLC, which assists providers in the multifamily market. You can reach Bryan at bryanjrader@yahoo. com or at 636-536-0011. Learn more at www.bandwidthconsultingllc.com.