A.P.: The banner that was spread in my office read EXPAND THE BENEFITS OF FILM. 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.

K.M.: Were you hated around Rochester, New York?

A.P.: Not at all. When I started to go through all the factories around the world, I would stand in front of 3,000 people and say, “Would you please stand up if you have a digital camera in your household?” About 40 percent of the people would stand up at the beginning. By the end of the trip, it was 70 percent. And I would say, “My name is Antonio Perez, I’m your new leader, and we have a problem here. You make your living by making film, and you’re not buying it. You think anybody else is going to buy it? This cannot continue. So I’m asking for your help to do the right thing. We’re closing this plant. So help me do it with dignity.”

K.M.: Kodak got into the printer business fairly recently. That’s a market dominated by the business you built at H.P.

A.P.: 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. It has a piece of plastic that is about six 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.

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.

K.M.: What made you think Kodak had a business to save?

A.P.: They had the patents. The portfolio that we have in digital capture is second to none, in my opinion. There is no company in the world that can take a digital picture without somehow having a relationship with us.

K.M.: Do you think cell-phone cameras are going to replace digital cameras?

A.P.: They will certainly take many of the low-end cameras away. For your birthday, when you have 20 people in the house, you most likely will have a full-function digital camera with you. But most of the memories in life, you don’t know when they’re going to come. So you’re going to take a lot of good pictures with your cell phone. I think they will both survive.