Great article, thank you for the historical perspective and the deeply personal experience with a local company that had been a global wonder.

I think you're too kind to private equity and the pitfalls of allowing a distressed business to be 'helped' by a PE firm.

Blackstone is no exception. Jim Continenza is a blustery, powerbroking, politically savvy private equity partner who has made a career of buying struggling businesses and inserting himself as chairman and CEO in order to help the navigate back to financial health. This plan only succeeds about half of the time, and even then, success is subjective. They strip assets and pay consulting firms large sums to build them new modern technologies. It sounds intelligent but when you factor in who is running the show, you see why it often fails. The distressed business is likely to have laid off or lost all of its young, talented people, leaving it with senior executives languishing in antiquated thinking. But still clinging to power. Add some New York preppies from the PE firm and their brash, big shot style, and you have a recipe for disaster. No self-respecting geek will work for these guys, therefore nobody understands the future and how to design for it. The VIPs in the boardroom don't ask for ideas and are not curious and do not want to listen to smart, well informed architects who could have steered them from here to success. They also love to report good news, so investors and board directors are not aware of impending crash until it is upon them.

Kodak deserved its slow collapse, because its fossilized management got into bed with PE partners who don't see the future. This should not, and cannot, succeed.