A future of winning together – Ralf Gerbershagen, CEO, Kodak Alaris

This is an exciting week for me as I begin my new responsibilities. I am honored to lead a billion-dollar startup company that has so much growth opportunity. Kodak Alaris’ great customer profile, strong teams, profitable products and solutions, and fresh start make it an incredible company.

To our customers, thank you for trusting Kodak Alaris with your business. Your loyalty means everything to us. It fuels success for both your business and ours, and we look forward to engaging with you more.

For some background about me, my passions include driving long-term growth by way of innovation, empowerment, and accountability. And those passions are behind everything I want to do for Kodak Alaris and our customers to enable success for all.

During the next few months, I will begin travelling to meet with customers, partners, distributors, suppliers, and employees. I welcome your questions and comments, so please write to me at ceo@kodakalaris.com if you would like to connect. I value open and honest communication.

We have much to be proud of during our seven months as Kodak Alaris and, at the same time, much to accomplish. I’m excited about our future of winning together. Thank you for your ongoing support. We are honored to work with you now and for many years to come.

Ralf

The new Kodak Moments HD App for your tablet!

I love my iPad. I find myself using it over my laptop more and more, whether it’s looking up recipes in the kitchen or checking IMDB while watching a movie in the living room. After a look at the statistics, I don’t think I’m alone. By 2015 there will be 82.1 million tablet users in the United States. The average tablet user spends 90 minutes a day on their tablet. 80% of tablet users say it has improved their work/life balance and ummm 35% of people say they have used their tablet in the bathroom!

It only makes sense that you should be able to make photo books and order prints on your tablet too! Today Kodak Alaris introduces KODAK MOMENTS HD App for your iPad. You can easily create a photo book on your tablet which has a nice big screen, larger than your mobile phone, but still has the power of your laptop, without the bulkiness. Since there is a larger screen, this app is able to take advantage of such features as drag and drop.

The Kodak Moments HD app has unique features such as Smartfit technology that allows your images to be easily dragged and dropped into simple-to-use templates that automatically format. That way nothing important is lost from your images. You also get KODAK Perfect Touch Enhancement Technology for even better looking pictures.

You can pull your photos from Facebook, Instagram and Flickr. Or from your iPad camera roll. You know what I’m talking about. I have totally seen people on vacation in front of landmarks, holding their tablets up in the air, taking photos.

After you have made your photo book or selected your prints (while lounging on the couch or a lawn chair) you can send your order to a major retailer like Target or Bartell Drugs for pick-up. Or you can have it shipped to your home.

So go and download the Kodak Moments HD App, try it out and let us know what you think.

Stay tuned for the Android version and new photo products like cards and calendars!

2014 Gallery Elite Awards

This weekend, the annual Academy Awards will be announced at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood and the iconic Oscar statuettes will be handed out amidst much applause and tears.

For every Hollywood artist, an Oscar represents the pinnacle of achievement. For scientists, it’s the Nobel Prize and in literature, the Man Booker Prize. They appeal to a fundamental human insight: to be the very best in some aspect of our lives.  These awards inspire and encourage us to reflect on the things that have entertained us over the past year, to consider the effect these individuals have made on society and what we might aspire to become.

In 1985, Kodak introduced the Gallery Awards as a way to honor, promote and celebrate the importance and value of excellence in professional photography. Kodak, and now Kodak Alaris, has always represented quality imaging through its many products and services and will continue its work to elevate the importance of exceptional professional imaging within the industry.

Across the United States, more than 300 Gallery Award submissions are entered and judged each year at annual Professional Photographers of America (PPA) district and state affiliate print competition conventions. Awards are judged on a regional and state basis with winners going on to compete at the national level for the Gallery Elite Award, Kodak Alaris’ highest honor which showcases the “Best of the Best“. The Elite Awards feature a Grand Prize winner as well as second, third and fourth place designations. The four winning photographs are displayed in the Kodak Alaris booth at Imaging USA, the National PPA convention.

Since its inception, hundreds of professional photographers have won the Gallery Award Trilon, a crystal trophy commemorating the award. But it’s about more than a trophy for many photographers. It’s the recognition of hard work, creative vision and the knowledge that others are as passionate about their craft as they are.

Professional wedding and portrait photographers are by profession and passion part artist, historian and archivist. They capture and preserve moments of visual history. Moments in people’s lives and in nature’s working that will never occur again in the same way. The professional photographer has the power to create not only a photo, but an everlasting feeling.

It is because of these individuals and the work they do that we once again salute and support outstanding professional photography and photographers. This year we celebrate the talent, creative vision and professionalism of four outstanding photographers

The winners of the 28th Annual KODAK Gallery Elite Award are:

• Grand Prize: Ben Shirk, Shirk Photography, Wilton, Iowa for “When the Music Ends”, printed by WHCC

• 2nd Place: Ken Martin, Ken Martin Photography, De Pere, WI for “Nature’s Palette”, printed by Pechman Color

• 3rd Place: Robin Swanson, Robin Swanson Photography, La Canada, CA for “A Moment to Dream”, printed by Bay Photo

• 4th Place: David Humphrey, Masters Photographic, LLC, Flint, MI for “Tree of Life”, printed by JD Photo Imaging

We invite you to visit the KODAK Gallery Elite Award: Winners Showcase to learn more about these photographers and see their inspiring images. Over the next few weeks all of the state and regional Gallery Award winners from 2013 will also be featured on the Winners Showcase so check back again soon.

Kodak Alaris names CEO

Today Steven Ross, Kodak Alaris Holdings Limited’s Interim Chairman, publicly welcomed our first Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ralf Gerbershagen.  It is my pleasure to welcome Ralf.  His appointment adds to our strong team as he possesses a wealth of talent and expertise as well as a perspective that will help to drive our business. This is an exciting announcement for our new company.

Thank you.  Your loyalty drives our success.

– Dennis Olbrich

Kodak Alaris Holdings Limited business update from Steven Ross:

I am pleased to announce that Ralf Gerbershagen will join Kodak Alaris Holdings Limited as CEO on Tuesday, April 1, 2014. He will report to me in my role as Interim Chairman of Kodak Alaris. He will assist in finalising the new board structure, and continue our transformation required to take the business forward.

Ralf joins us from Motorola Mobility—currently part of Google—where he held several leadership positions including Managing Director Motorola Germany GmbH and VP & General Manager Motorola Mobility Europe. Ralf started his professional career at Siemens where he was in charge of the Passive Components business in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. He holds a degree in general electronics and computer science from Bingen University.

He is on the board of directors at the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany; the board of BITKOM, the IT and telecomm industry association; and is a member of the CeBIT advisory board—the world’s largest IT trade fair.

Ralf’s considerable business knowledge and leadership experience combined with Kodak Alaris’ strong resources and management talent position us well to lead the development of breakthrough products and services that you expect from the diverse Kodak Alaris businesses.

He will be based in the UK at Hemel Hempstead. Gary Fisher, Kodak Alaris Interim Human Resources Director; Phil Gibbons, Kodak Alaris Chief Financial Officer; Dolores Kruchten, President, Kodak Alaris’ Document Imaging division; and Dennis Olbrich, President, Kodak Alaris’ Personalized Imaging division, will report to Ralf.

I hope that you will have an opportunity to meet with Ralf in the near future. He has tremendous enthusiasm for the business and a deep commitment to fostering success for and with our customers.

Thank you for your ongoing support. We are honored to work with you now and for many years to come.

Yours Sincerely,

Steven Ross

Chairman, Kodak Alaris Holdings Limited

Meet Kodak Alaris

Today marks the beginning of a bright new future for us in Personalized Imaging and Document Imaging, as we unveil Kodak Alaris. The new company and its name preserve the heritage and legacy of the Kodak brand, while embodying the greater speed and agility of a nimble company that will meet market needs and changes.

As you know, earlier this spring, Eastman Kodak Company announced it would sell our Personalized Imaging and Document Imaging businesses to the U.K. Kodak Pension Plan. Today, as that sale completes and we introduce our new company, we reflect proudly upon our heritage within Eastman Kodak Company, but even more importantly, look forward to a bright new future as Kodak Alaris.

Kodak Alaris’ Personalized Imaging combines a unique heritage, expertise and market leading positions, and includes four businesses:

• Film Capture, which includes some of the world’s most popular and recognizable award-winning still film for professionals and consumers;
• RSS, a worldwide leader in instant printing with the retail instant photo kiosks offering consumers personalised photo products and the industry-leading APEX dry labs;
• Paper and Output Systems, the broadest portfolio of high quality media, including traditional photographic paper, for a variety of professional print operations and workflow solutions for photo specialty retailers, professional and wholesale labs; and
• EIS, the leading provider of digital souvenir photography services and solutions  at theme parks, iconic destinations & resorts

The introduction of Kodak Alaris marks the first step toward becoming a more dynamic company focused on improved innovation, faster time-to-market, stronger customer service, and sustainable, profitable growth.  We will continue to deliver the industry leading products and services that you know and trust.

We will also deliver these products and services under the Kodak brand. This means you will still see “KODAK Picture Kiosk, “KODAK PROFESSIONAL Film,” “KODAK PROFESSIONAL ENDURA Media,” and “KODAK Express,” among others.

With our industry heritage, people, products and solutions, I’m confident that together we will deliver on our vision for Kodak Alaris. We will make it easy for you to enrich, share and re-live your moments, your stories, your memories, your life. We will achieve this because:

• Kodak Alaris’ Personalized Imaging is a successful and profitable business – still with the world’s foremost imaging brand and now with a long-term investor providing a strong platform for future growth.
• Kodak Alaris’ Personalized Imaging has a fantastic and synergistic portfolio of market leading products, which span RSS, POS, EI and FC.
• Kodak Alaris’ Personalized Imaging is committed to bringing innovative new solutions to the consumer imaging space that provide the best consumer experience with the pre-eminent photo brand

Thank you for your ongoing support of our brand and our businesses. We look forward to delivering the highest quality products and services to you, both today and into the future.

Refresh!

Welcome to the new Kodak 1000 Words Blog. It might still be winter but with spring around the corner we decided it was time for a new look and feel for the blog. A fresh start!What won’t be changing are great posts from people here at Kodak talking about photography and all the cool things you can do with your photos.

Are you wondering where all the old posts are? There were seven years worth! We are working on getting them migrated here and hope to have them uploaded at some point. Until then, there will be more changes to come on this blog and we are happy to have you along for the ride.