K.M.: What kind of company are you trying to build?

A.P.: We’re finished with the restructuring—no more layoffs. Now we’re going to grow our properties as fast as we can. I want Kodak to be, and I think Kodak will be, the leading imaging company in the world. We are right in the intersection of material science and digital imaging. That’s the space where we have more of the intellectual property and where the brand is the strongest. It’s a company that’s going to help you in your personal life and in your businesses with things that are related to imaging—whether it’s capture, manipulation, storage, printing, or all those things.

K.M.: There have been rumors that H.P. might buy Kodak.

A.P.: I don’t have any comments about that. All those rumors—there are many other rumors too. We’re buying this, we’re buying that. I wouldn’t pay much attention.

K.M.: You grew up in northwestern Spain, and your father had a fish business.

A.P.: Yes, in Vigo. As soon as I was 15, he would wake me up at 5 in the morning and take me with him to do the auctions.

K.M.: Did you learn anything from that?

A.P.: I learned only one thing: I didn’t like that business. It was cold and wet, and there were mean people.

K.M.: Any business lessons you live by?

A.P.: There is no such thing as a data-driven decision. You get real data only after the fact. I love one of the phrases from Goethe, the German philosopher-poet. He said something like the moment you make a decision, a lot of things come to help you that you could have never seen before you made the decision. So without taking that leap of faith, you can never know if you’re going to make it. The other thing—I like car racing.

K.M.: As in you racing cars?

A.P.: Well, I have a Ford GT that I love. I don’t do it in the streets. Mario Andretti said, “If everything seems under control, you’re not going fast enough.” So there is something about taking risks and the fact that you will never have the data that you want to have before you make that decision.