In an interview in the January Conde Nast Portfolio, columnist Kevin Maney discusses with Antonio Perez, chairman and CEO of Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N.Y., the transition from an analog business -- with 14 film factories and 60,000 employees -- to digital business with multiple printing platforms with 40,000 employees.

  "The banner that was spread in my office read 'Expand the Benefits of Film,'" said Perez. "That was the first thing that I took down. Kodak had 14 factories dedicated to film. We had to close 11 of them in the past three and a half years."

  Perez says the company has completed its necessary restructuring: "We're finished with the restructuring -- no more layoffs. Now we're going to grow our properties as fast as we can. I want Kodak to be, and I think Kodak will be, the leading imaging company in the world. We are right in the intersection of material science and digital imaging. That's the space where we have more of the intellectual property and where the brand is the strongest."

  He also spoke with respect for the legacy technologies that he had to decide to de-emphasize.

  "If you go to Kodak Park and see how we make film, you're going to see a machine tool that is about 50 feet long," he said. "It has a piece of plastic that is about 6 feet wide, running at incredible speed. And then you're going to have 18 different coatings that are falling onto the piece of plastic moving at that speed. The purpose of the exercise is to locate the right amount of each of the 18 coatings in the right place on the plastic. That's all. To make it more interesting, you have to do it in the dark, because it's photosensitive."

  It was the legacy of analog film manufacturing technology that allowed the company to transition to digital printing systems. Perez observed: "I remember saying that I thought we should be the best commercial printer in the world. Because instead of 18 coatings, we're going to use six inks. Instead of plastic, we're going to use paper, which is a much nicer recipient. And we're going to switch on the lights. We had a lot of the technology in color management, and sure enough, we now have a $3.6 billion business growing 9 percent in the last quarter and doing very well. So there's a lot of the past that can be applicable."