Thomas Hoehn's Posts
Trust Your Organization
In 1926 George Eastman, Kodak's founder, went on an extended trip to Africa. He was in his early 70's at the time. When he returned home he had a book put together chronicling his adventures to share with his fellow travelers, close friends, and associates.
Click to enlarge
The inside covers of the book had maps that indicated the route of the party. To me these look similar in style to the maps of Middle Earth drawn by J.R.R.Tolkien for his Lord of the Rings trilogy!
Click each thumbnail to see the maps.
Aside from big game hunting gear he brought along photography equipment (no surprise there) to document his travels. He used a hand-held 16mm motion picture camera to make his own movies. In the 1920's making your own home movies was not even remotely as common as it is today. The camera he used was called a Cine-Kodak Model B (pictured below). Eastman developed roll film that Thomas Edison used to invent the first motion picture camera in 1891. By 1896 Kodak was marketing specially coated film for motion picture use. Its still a strong business today!
So, now to bring it back to the the title of this post...
Eastman held a screening of his films in his home for his friends. One clip shows a massive rhinoceros charging directly at him as he was filming. One has to remember the context of the time, animal conservation wasn't in the population's conscience as much as it is today. A member of his party shot the rhino which landed two paces from him. His guests watching this film were quite taken aback. They exclaimed; "You shouldn't have taken that risk." "Bad business George." "The powder might have been wet." After their protests Eastman quietly said; "Well, you've got to trust your organization."
Boy, talk about Management 101 to the extreme! Here is a short excerpt of that rhino charge taken by George Eastman:
