Company profile
- Industry
- Photography
- Founded
- 1937
Profiles are auto-generated and infrequently updated.
Decisions on record
2 verified Decision Records on Polaroid, and the casebook each one belongs to.
| Fork date | Decision type | What Polaroid chose | Where it stood | The story | Casebook |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | The Loss Leader | Bet company on SX-70 | the original Polaroid Corporation filed for Chapter 11 (2001-10) | Read the story → | The Loss Leader Casebook → |
| 1976 | The Fork | Sue Kodak on patents | Kodak paid Polaroid $925 million to settle and end the 15-year battle (1991-07) | Read the story → | The Fork Casebook → |
Videos on Polaroid
Run one of these yourself
The decisions Polaroid faced, as kits you can run.
Each pack takes one of these decisions and gives you the framework, a deck for the room, a model that resolves to one number, and the sourced cases behind it. $499, one-time.
The analyses
The Fork · Decision Forks
Polaroid Sued Kodak in April 1976 and Waited Fifteen Years to Collect $925 Million
Polaroid filed against Kodak the same month Kodak entered instant film in 1976. A court ruled against Kodak in October 1985, its injunction forced Kodak out of the business in January 1986, and Kodak paid $925 million in a 1991 settlement. By then the prize both companies were fighting over was dying.
8 min
The Loss Leader · Business Model
Polaroid Built the Perfect Razor-and-Blades Machine. Then Digital Removed the Blade.
Polaroid's film threw off margins executives projected as high as 70%, with cameras as the delivery vehicle. The model didn't fail because Polaroid missed digital - by 1989 it spent 42% of R&D on it. It failed because the whole company was built to defend a consumable digital deleted.
8 min