Perils of the Modern Business World

There are many different reasons why a start-up company becomes successful. The ability to make a presence in today's market place requires ingenuity, vision and effective marketing. And sometimes, a bit of luck can factor into the the equation too. But the key to maintaining a successful business can often be a little more tricky...

To stay successful, a company needs to recognize the evolution of it's business. Many companies respond to these changes. However, the most successful companies have the foresight to proactively make the changes that will keep them in a lead position of the never-ending race. No company, despite how beloved or iconic, is exempt from failure when they ignore the necessity to innovate and renew.

One the first companies that comes to mind is Blockbuster Video (For you youngsters out there, Blockbuster was a brick-and-mortar store where you could rent your favorite movie or video game. As hard as it might be to fathom, you actually had to get off of the couch and physically go to the store to obtain your rental). With the streaming business on the horizon, it was Blockbuster who chose to sit on the couch while Netflix bulldozed it's way to the top of the online video business. Ironically, in 2000, Netflix proposed an idea to Blockbuster to run their online business. Blockbuster turned it down and blindly coasted to their peak in 2004. Today, Netflix is a multi-billion dollar success story while Blockbuster is down to it's last dying breath in the form of it's lone store in Bend, Oregon.

And remember when Kodak trademarked their "moment"? Well, like most good things, it too has passed. With every increasing mega-pixel, Kodak watched the demand on their traditional film supply rapidly give way to the digital age. Perhaps the most puzzling thing about Kodak's demise is that the first digital camera was invented by Steve Sasson, (drum roll please), a Kodak engineer! Although it was right on their doorstep, the leaders of Kodak failed to see the looming revolution of digital photography. I still have one of their old Kodak Disk camera's buried in my basement somewhere. I wonder what it would fetch on Ebay?

Sears is another troubled company that personally saddens me. I have been shopping here since I was a young boy. I bought my first pair of Levis here (after I outgrew my Tough-Skins, of course). Sears also supplied me with my first retail credit card (I'm still a cardholder today). But I guess the writing was one the wall when the "Made In China" inscription began to appear on my beloved "all-American" Craftsman hand tools. Subsequently, Sears leadership failed to recognize the threat of "inferior" discount stores like Walmart. More and more Sears stores close every year. Although I see it as inevitable, I can't imagine a world without Sears.

And America Online.. Yes, I personally invested and lost my ass on this one. I am one of the few remaining people in the western hemisphere to still have an AOL email account. I'm a traditionalist, what can I say?

The US Postal Service is a hard one to figure out. Although it loses billions of dollars every year, it somehow remains afloat. It's like the Titanic with an adequate supply of life boats.  There have been several dramatic ideas over recent years of how to turn the ship around. But none have gained any traction up to this point. The USPS differs from the traditional companies as it's a quasi-government agency. And with the Post Office having the third highest civilian work force in the US, can it be one of those entities that truly is too big too fail? Stay tuned on this one...

Perhaps the closet to my heart are the countless record stores that suffered a brutal defeat at the hands of the digital download. It was a right of passage to to make the trek to your favorite record/tape/CD sore and thumb through the latest releases. Although the instant attainability of a digital copy is attractive, it also destroyed an American tradition. I'm not sure places like Sam Goody and Tower Records ever had a fair chance to compete. With the introduction of Napster and then the discounted downloads of Amazon, it would have taken a marketing version of Einstein to save their sinking ship. But, with all of this being said. I will always cherish that moment of leaving the record store with my first copy of "Cat Scratch Fever". The looks, the mumbling and at least one unexpected reference to Charles Manson. You just can't get those reactions with a digital download....

kw