Eastman Kodak once employed some 61,000 Rochester residents and invested significantly in the city’s educational and cultural institutions; three decades later, it employs fewer than 7,000 people and recently filed for bankruptcy protection.7 This is not an uncommon story, except for the fact that Rochester managed to gain a net of 90,000 jobs during the three decades of employment decline at Kodak.
How did Rochester manage this transition so successfully? The city recognized early on the need to diversify its economic base and, some 20 years ago, created a network of private and nonprofit partnerships to leverage the city’s assets, the same universities and cultural institutions Kodak had supported.