Strategic Misalignment

How companies fail even when they see the future

I often think about Kodak when considering how firms respond to structural change. It saw the future clearly but could not reorganise itself around what it saw. That failure was misalignment, not technology or timing.

Kodak understood digital imaging early. Its engineers built the first digital camera in 1975. By the late 1990s, the company held key patents and had insight into where the market was heading. The weakness lay in how it allocated capital and focus. The business model, incentives, and culture remained anchored in chemical film. Managers were rewarded for protecting margins rather than shifting resources to build digital capability.

The company tried to sustain both models. It launched digital products but continued to prioritise film revenue. That approach diluted focus and slowed progress. Meanwhile, firms such as Canon and Sony structured themselves entirely around digital technology. Their systems and incentives matched the shift. Kodak’s did not.

When I analyse this through the lens of Thematic Strategy (which I developed during my PhD), it shows why foresight alone is not enough. A firm must translate what it knows about the external environment into internal alignment. That means linking the theme to capital plans, talent strategy, and organisational design. Without that connection, foresight stays theoretical and opportunity slips away.

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I write about Thematic Strategy - a method for leveraging drivers of technological and social change to achieve market dominance.

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