Why looking out for ‘weak signals’ can help European companies stay in business

<p>A Kodak engineer built the first digital camera in 1975. The bosses said: “That’s cute, but don’t tell anyone”. On inventing a filmless device that would revolutionise photography, the reaction inside the company, was more or less that it was a charming little toy and that they should probably keep quiet about it.</p> <p><a href="https://www.kodak.com/en/company/page/milestones/">Kodak</a> had owned photographic film for most of the 20th century. That was the problem. They were so attached to what had made them rich that they could not see their own invention for what it was. Bankruptcy followed in 2012.</p> <p>I start <a href="https://www.springerprofessional.de/en/seven-building-blocks-of-a-successful-corporate-restructuring/50365024#TOC">my book “Seven Building Blocks of a Successful Corporate Restructuring”</a> with that story on purpose. After three decades running corporate restructurings as a CFO and then a CEO, I am convinced this simple anecdote explains almost everything