This signature collection was sent in by Rob Middleton who was a research chemist in Clark involved in various film product. When I was first involved as the temporary and part time research director of film research laboratory, the first major project was to convert "random grain" film emulsion (which came from du Pont) to "cubic crystal" emulsion which became the mainstream technology of the industry for its more stable performance. The first product, Rapid Access film was code named as PQX in the laboratory and when it became a product the code name itself became the product name. The product launch was organized by Mike Adelman then the Film Product marketing manager very successfully and the PQX product became one of the major line of Polychrome products. The success came in my humble opinion not by the outstanding quality of the product but by the excellent cross departmental launch team essential in modern product launch. You will recognize many familiar names in the list from all the departments concerned, R&D, QC, production, marketing and sales. Rob was able to decode the difficult handwritings and added typed note which was not in the original signature assembly. Hope someone can recognize the last signature yet to be decoded!
Polychrome Corporation, a brainchild of Mr. Halpern, is now a major part of Kodak Co. and continues to live on. But the small company spirit died on Jan 1. 1998 when the company became a part of DIC-Kodak joint venture. This blog is dedicated to the memory of those who proudly call themselves "Polychromer". ..... Ken Shimazu shimazukenichi@gmail.com
Sunday, September 23, 2018
Sunday, September 16, 2018
1997 Telephone Directory
We received internal telephone directory from time to time. They were usually pasted on the wall of office or neatly filed for easy access. In my case these were pasted on a note book and was carried around. Some scribbles are my own handwriting. How many names do you recognize?
Wednesday, September 5, 2018
Integration of Polychrome into Sun Chemical . ... from Mr. Iwata's book
DIC’s plan to integrate Polychrome into Sun Chemical was very complicated. Polychrome produced more plates in Europe than in US. When president Piot showed his plan to bring European technical staff to US and concentrate R&D effort, DIC technical staff stationed in Polychrome GmbH R&D loudly opposed his plan and accused him of his amateurish management. Given this S Kawamura had to decide to retire J Piot. Don Wheeler who came from McKinsey was picked to be the next president to ensure smooth integration into Sun Chemical run by E. Barr.
At around that time there was an overture from Kodak, but DIC did not trust J Piot to be able to handle such a delicate issue. In addition there was another issue of disposal of resin company Polychrome owned and it was run by a self promotiing "next president of Polychrome". It was considered rather difficult to remove him. And S.Kawamura himself needed to persuade him to go along with J Piot.
At around that time there was an overture from Kodak, but DIC did not trust J Piot to be able to handle such a delicate issue. In addition there was another issue of disposal of resin company Polychrome owned and it was run by a self promotiing "next president of Polychrome". It was considered rather difficult to remove him. And S.Kawamura himself needed to persuade him to go along with J Piot.
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