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ANTONIO M. PEREZ
Eastman Kodak Co. Chairman and CEO
No. 35 in The 2007 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity®
FAST FACTS
• Led the worldwide
transformation of
Kodak from a film-based business to a
digital-based business
that today comprises
70 percent of company
revenue
• Corporate vice
president, member of
executive council at HP
• Spearheaded HP’s
digital imaging and
electronic publishing,
generating worldwide
revenue of more than
$16 billion
• Was president and
CEO of HP’s inkjet
imaging business for
five years
• Was president and
CEO of Gemplus
International and took
company public
HOW HE TOOK RESPONSIBILITY FOR
HIS SUCCESS:
I focused on delivering results, plain and
simple. Without results, no amount of
friends, mentors, assignments or education
would have helped me succeed. Now, to
give myself a better chance at achieving
those results, I made sure I was well
rounded in every way. I read incessantly. I
listened to interesting people. I took risky,
difficult jobs that others didn’t want to do.
I was flexible geographically, moving seven
different times through Spain, Germany,
the United States, France and England, and
had international responsibility. I was also
flexible across disciplines, working in R&D,
manufacturing, sales and marketing several
times and taking lateral assignments, all
before I became a general manager.
When you move like I did, you bring
a professional and personal background
with you that will be rejected by some and
embraced by others ... I focused my energy
on delivering results for the people who
believed in me. Eventually, when they decided to speak on my behalf, I welcomed it.
BEST ADVICE: BE VISIBLE
Your computer is not going to decide your
next promotion; therefore, you have to
get out and make yourself visible to your
colleagues, not through chitchat but by
involving yourself generously into extra
activities that will benefit the company ...
People make you a leader, not birth, books,
lectures or belief in some philosophy.
Leaders are made by identifying and
synthesizing shared visions, having great
teamwork abilities, gaining wisdom from
failures, and ultimately helping the teams
realize their dreams.
I have always been a person who is
intellectually curious, which helps me dive
into things and see them from many different angles. It is this diversity of thought
and this broad perspective, accumulated
over the years, that have helped me the
most in my career development.
I did not have a grand plan to become
a CEO one day; there was no recipe or
roadmap. Having said that, I will say that
there are some aspects of who I am, and
the experience I sought and accumulated,
that seem to come together well for a
person who might be a CEO one day. For
instance, I always liked to build new things.
I liked working with people in teams ... As
importantly, over the years I’ve learned to
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I DID NOT HAVE A GRAND
PLAN TO BECOME A CEO ONE
DAY; THERE WAS NO RECIPE
OR ROADMAP.
feel comfortable dealing with uncertainty.
Finally, I have always chosen jobs that
I had a passion for and never settled for
something that did not motivate me a
great deal. If there is one secret ingredient,
this is the one. I’ve always loved what I’m
doing, just as I do now, and that is half of
the battle in achieving success.
