moonlighting in the basement of a barn, and,
wi thin s ix year s , the company had
accumulated so much know-how in the field
that Kodak made Optimax its go-to supplier
for those very prototype optics.
By 1996, Optimax was able to use its
computerized machining capabilities to
manufacture prototypes within a week, far
faster than the then-industry standard of 10
weeks. Its Kodak roots were again rewarded
when the film giant committed to funding 75
percent of Optimax training costs as the
company expanded from 20 employees to
more than100.
Kodak, itself, has downsized from a peak of
70,000 employees to less than 5,000, but the
Rochester area has nonetheless evolved into
an innovative hotbed, thanks in part to the
number of companies – including Optimax –
that spun off as the larger entity declined over
twodecades.
“Unemployment is down below 7 percent,”
Plympton said, “because there’s so much
technology that was developed at Bausch &
Lomb (whose local staff plunged from several
thousand to less than 2,000) and Kodak that
stayed within the community, and others that
182 | BusinessWorld |
May 2014
