Annual reports typically include a letter to shareholders written by Edwin H. Land, a review of the year's research efforts, manufacturing operations, new product development, advertising and marketing strategies, and year-end financial statements. The Dewey Library, MIT Libraries and the Thomas J. Watson Library of Business Economics, Columbia University provided copies of their Polaroid annual reports so that we can present a full run of digitized reports, 1937 to 1952.
Harvard Business School Publications
A leading example of innovation and entrepreneurship, Polaroid was the subject of HBS publications and case studies. Professors J. Keith Butters and John Lintner wrote a series of pamphlets on the effects of taxes which resulted in a book, with Polaroid as one of the representative companies.
Various cases on the formative years of Polaroid were written by HBS faculty and used in classes related to finance and marketing.
George E. Bates. Polaroid Corporation. Harvard Business School Case 246-006, 1948.
Milton P. Brown. Polaroid Corporation: Price a New Product. Harvard Business School Case.
J. Keith Butters. The Formation and Growth of Polaroid Corporation. Harvard Business School Case 271-221, 1971.
HBS Professor John G. McLean collaborated with George Albert Smith, Jr., Professor of Business Administration, on a consulting project for Polaroid from 1945 to 1946. In their comprehensive reports to Polaroid, McLean and Smith advised the company on the potential, design specifications, and monetary value of Edwin Land's new instant photography system that would be commercially released in 1948.
Memorandum to Polaroid Company: Submitted by George Albert Smith, Jr. and John G. McLean, 1945-1946.
