KODAK ENDS THE MOMENT

HOW FIRMS LIKE KODAK STRUGGLE TO ADAPT TO AN INCREASINGLY DIGITAL WORLD



From the point of wiew of business it's the demise of a dinosaur rendered irrelevant by modernity. Symbolically, though, it holds meaning greater than the sum of its parts.

The new millennium has not been kind to an enterpise whose research enabled celluoid film, home videos, print and digital photography, The company, which employed at the height of its success during the 1980s 145,000 workers, had been reduced to a workforce of 50,000 as it entered the 21st cetury but neverheless turned a healthy profit.

Over the past few years, though, it has been leaking money at a crippling rate: hundreds of millions of dollars a year and just 19,000 employees at the cusp of 2012.

The irony lies in the fact that it is being killed by its own child: in the mid 1970 it was Kodak that pioneered research into digital photography, but by the 1990 .Asian electronic manufacturers leaped ahead in that market. According to business analysts, Koday did not see the need to break from its old lines of conducting business.

As one analyst put it "they were the ones who invented the digital camera but they did's believe in it"

The passing of the Kodak moment comes at a time when another, perhaps even more significant, development in the digital age seems to have occurred. On Friday, the US Congress shelved two pieces of anti IN ternet piracy legislation that had becom the centre of a storm of controversy.

Many analysts argue that the web has in fact, completely changed the playing field as far as the rules of doing business are concerned. Rather than attempting to force people to play by the old rules, more innovative methods of doing business are needed.

The world turns and, as the end of the Kodak moment teaches us, you must turn with it.

GIVING JAKARTA'S MADNESS MEANING

TRAFFIC JAMS, GRAFFITI AND STREET SIGNS ARE THE MOTIFS PEPPERING THE WORK OF YOUNG JAKARTA ARTISTS GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO VENT THEIR FRUSTRATIONS AT THE SMOGCHOKED CITY THEY CALL HOME

Jakata'traffic jams,graffiti and street signs are the motifs peppering the work of young Jakarta artists given the opportunity to vent their frustrations at the smog choked city they call home.

Patrons at the Hybrid Project's opening show at Bentara Budaya gallery in Palmerah picked their way around an assembly of curious objects to the vertures of an industrial hum.

Bringing meaning to the madness curator Annisa Rahadi 25, an art theory graduate student from the Bandung Institute of Technology.

This month's exhibition, she explained, was a chance for upcoming independent artists to air their criticisms of the "hard daily life" they experience in Jakarta.






Their neat Japanese inspired collages arrange manipulated digital photography with pressed flowers and pastel patterned wallpaper.

The effect is at once domestic and whimsical, and the intentof the clean, minimalist style is clear as the artists imagine a suburban Jakarta freed from crowding and pollution.

The Balance in Burma

MAKING THE LADY MICHELLE YEOH AND LUC BESSON WERE ACUTELY AWARE IT COULD HURT SUU KYI

Delighted to give cdinema another powerful female figure a character all too rare on screens malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh portray Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi in The Lady.

To perfect her portrayal, the heroine of kung fu films spent six months learning Burmese, shed 10 kilograms and met Suu Kyi in person.

She was the only member of the crew granted entry to the country, albeit for just 24 hours.

And now that the Burmese goverment has seen the film directed by Luc Besson, Yeoh is blacklisted from visiting again, We were able to speak to both of them about the circumstances.
"We don't have many iconic heroines. As an actress, you always try to find characters that are very challenging at many different levels, and here you have such an amazing story." Yeoh said.

TAIWAN CAFE BREWING GOOD BUSINESS

THE STRAITS TIMES
TAIPEI

independent cafes in Taiwan vie for a share of the market as coffee culture takes root.

At Taipei sidewalk cafe is almost always a short stroll away in Taiwan. Some come with simple seats and flower beds. Others are decked out with mini chandeliers and plush brocade chairs.

"ambience is key" said Emma Weng a sales executive at an electronic components maker who frequents Lara Cafe, a languid, European-style corner coffee place in a lane not far from the Taipei 101 skyscrper.

Then there are English learners being tutored by American teachers in the finer points of grammar, tarot masters doing regular readings, and financial adviser dishing out investment tips.
in the decades that followed, the usually dimly lit, wood-floored coffee shops were the exclusive domain of the rich and the upper class with a penchant for Japanese-style syphon dripped coffee.

It war not until the entry of Starbucks in the late 1990s that coffee ground and brewed by machines was finally poularised.

At the Castle cafe however, patrons are treated to a breathtaking wiew of the pacific ocean and spacius dining space spread out over two storeys. The company also built footpaths and pavilions around the cafe to offer a "healthy recreational' experience.

The cafe has proven to be such a hit that roads leading to it are often jammed on weekends.

The reception has been overwhelming.they already plan to open another similar cafe elsewhere.

ORGANIC STYLE ,AT JAKARTA

HEALTHY LIVING,MORE NATURE-FOCUSED COMMUNITIES GO FOR THE NATURAL AND ORGANIC

Organic food products are made in ways that limit the use of synthetic substances including pesticides and chemical fertilisers. amng items on offer were vegetables, grain such as white rice, red rice and black rice, miscellaneous snacks made from cassava sweet cassava and bananas, teas ranging from regular green and black tea to rosella and kumis kuring (orthosiphon spicatus),forest honey and palm sugar.

But the term organic in not only a matter of being pesticide free-the food must also be preserved in a chemical free environment.

Theophillia Arispraptami of the Indonesian Forest Honey Network is promoting tropical forest honey, which is dubbed as organic as the honey is not maufactured by humans.

The Honey is derived from Apis dorsata bees , the most producive Asian bees living in trpical and subtropical areas such as indonesia,Philiphines, India and Napal.

Closes the door on Alibaba said Yahoo

APPOINTMENT OF A NEW CEO MAKES THE SALE OF THE US ONLINE GIANT'LIKELY'

E-commerce company Alibaba may not find it easy to buy Yahoo after the largest us web portal appointed a new chief executive office, analysts said.

Scott Thompson as chief ececutive officicer said on wednesday, and has directed toe former president of Ebay,PayPal unit to complete a strategic review and reverse a slump in growth that led to the ousting of Carol Bartz in september.

The new CEO need to assess options that include divesting its Asian assets and selling a stake in itself to private equity companies. and appointment makes the sale of all Yahoo less likely.

Yahoo considerate a wid range of opportunities for the company's bussiness as well as specifc investments or dispositions of assets.


Alibaba said it looks forward to working with Yahoo's new chief executive to deliver value to yahoo shareholder.

Bloomberg new And China Daily