HTS- Cloud Services and Software: Polaroid. The long, slow demise of a tech giant

Polaroid was the Apple (Computer) of its day. Founded by Edwin Land in the 1940’s, his genius propelled Polaroid to the height of the instant camera craze of the 1970’s. Alas, change was coming. The 1980’s brought with it not only competition from Kodak, the 800-pound gorilla of photography, but also the Internet and the rise of the digital era. With the aid of the courts (and a dozen patents), Polaroid vanquished Kodak. By the 2000’s, both succumbed to the Internet. Join Sam Liggero, a former Polaroid executive and, now, a professor at Tufts University, in a discussion of the long, slow demise of a tech giant.

What you will learn:

- An appreciation that business risk is not limited to start-ups.
- An understanding that companies with unlimited technology at their disposal do not necessarily make the wisest decisions about deploying it.
- A realization that employee retention policies can sometimes backfire.