Reinvention of WNY economy urged
Gary DiCamillo, CEO of Polaroid, delivers keynote at Industry University Day

By JENNIFER LEWANDOWSKI
Reporter Staff

Polaroid Chairman and CEO Gary DiCamillo wasted no time in getting down to the business of Western New York's current state of economic affairs at UB's third Industry University Day.

"Reinvention is needed here and is required," said the Niagara Falls native, who was one of the keynote speakers for the event held Oct. 28 in the Center for the Arts atrium that brought together nearly 300 individuals from the business, government and education sectors of the region. "Western New York is at the threshold of its need for reinvention."

DiCamillo echoed the sentiments of the day's theme-"Vital Partners: Collaborating for Excellence"-as did the other speakers, including state Sen. Mary Lou Rath; Sheldon Silver, speaker of the state Assembly, and Council on Competitiveness President John Yochelson. DiCamillo noted that in order to achieve success, universities, government and industry all need to collaborate. Success, he said, "is not going to happen without any one of these."

DiCamillo joined Polaroid four years ago at a time when, he said, the company "hadn't had a successful product in over 15 years." The Fortune 500 company once considered the "darling of industry" in the 1950s and '60s-famous for the first-ever instant camera-and "synonymous with innovation," he recalled, was facing a tarnished reputation after some very visible and expensive failures in the 1980s. Among them were dry X-ray film and instant-developing movie film, a product that almost instantly was squashed by the advent of videotape.

His mission, he said, was to transform the "sleeping giant" into a new product-developing company.

The first major light bulb-or flashbulb-went off when DiCamillo attended a Boston Celtics basketball game with some colleagues.

They were in the clubhouse, he said, when a young woman working there inquired about the Polaroid camera they had with them.

DiCamillo said she didn't know what it was, but was awed by the concept as soon as she tried it out.

This unexpected event "told me this product was by no means a product of the past." He said the company needed to reinvent the past to reach the consumer of the 1990s.

Meanwhile, a Japanese toy company interested in marketing an instant camera for children turned to Polaroid.

DiCamillo said the idea was met with extreme reluctance, but the product eventually became a burgeoning success in Japan, something DiCamillo attributes to luck.

The company's most successful new product in 25 years, the Polaroid Pocket Camera produces photographs the size of a negative.

The camera, DiCamillo said, isn't just for kids.

Adults are buying it in droves, he said, using the tiny pictures on name badges at conventions and place cards at dinner parties.

The idea barely made it out of Japan, DiCamillo said. But when the camera finally hit the U.S., it sold faster than one could say "cheese."

DiCamillo said that by sharing these stories, he wanted to exemplify how thinking globally and working collaboratively can be advantageous.

"We're talking about the need to adopt an integrated point of view for your reinvention." he said. "You're not going to do it by yourself."

But DiCamillo advised that while collaboration is key, it isn't realistic for the more depressed areas in Western New York to look to a more economically robust region of the state for help.

"I assure you, they're not thinking about you down in New York City," he said. "You need, and we need, to have regional cooperation.

"If the University at Buffalo doesn't keep reinventing and Western New York doesn't keep reinventing, you'll be outmoded," DiCamillo said.

Yochelson, another native of Western New York, said in his remarks that in order to compete in a global market, companies need to create premium products, premium services and premium processes.

"Innovation has gone global-not just production," he said.

"We have tremendous entrepreneurship in our country. But we are not laying the foundation for long-term prosperity."

In order to prosper, he continued, companies must develop the assets for that foundation by concentrating on the three "Cs"-computerization, clustering and collaboration.

President William R. Greiner pointed out that UB continues to play a key role in collaborating with the region and the state.

"We're more effective than we've ever been," he stressed. "We have an overly aggressive agenda, and (we) have to push as hard as we can."

Rath pledged her support for UB, citing the state's Jobs 2000 initiative (J2K) as a means to "improve university and industry partnerships, help retrain workers for the challenges of new technologies and enhance existing job-training efforts."

Silver pointed out that the area "must do a better job of marketing Western New York" by building on its strengths.

"You have at UB some of the most brilliant people in the world," he said. "Shouldn't we be doing everything in our power to attract engineers and researchers here to Western New York?"