Not Implementing Change Can Lead to Failure

The heart of a successful company lies in their ability to innovate, and constantly become better versions of themselves. What is successful in one decade may be obsolete the next, and being able to navigate the changing landscape in which you do business in is paramount to success. Change can be difficult, and can seem to take too much time, or too much money in the short term. But if you are truly innovating, you are riding the wave of the future, and anticipating upcoming hurdles and changes on the horizon. Companies that don’t innovate don’t succeed, and we will explore several of these historic failures.

Borders

Once the giant of booksellers, Borders was ahead of the curve in the 1970s with the software they developed to manage and track sales. For at least two decades this innovation allowed them to dominate the bookselling market, expanding their stores and their profits. Although they came out of the gate strong, Borders failed to stay ahead and opened too many stores, had too much debt, and invested in the wrong endeavors (like CDs when iPods were just debuting). They failed to see the goldmine that internet sales would turn out to be, and were outsourcing their sales on Amazon when they should have been establishing their online presence. They also didn’t capitalize on the e-book trend like Amazon and Barnes and Noble did (ever heard of the Kobo or Cruz e-readers?) and missed out on a huge change in the way people read and purchase books. Borders is a great case study in a company that was all about the next great thing at the start, but when the technological current changed, they were unable to see where the next wave would crash.

Blockbuster

Ah, Blockbuster. If you grew up in the 80s and 90s, you loved the bright blue and yellow glow of the Blockbuster sign, and knew that all the newest movies were just a rental away. Blockbuster survived the huge transition from VHS to DVD just fine, it was what happened next that left them trailing the pack. Blockbuster had a chance in 2000 to partner with Netflix, and even to buy 49 percent of the company, but they sat on top of the movie-rental industry and saw no need to diversify. Blockbuster had grown on customer’s late fees, and couldn’t foresee that changing in the future. Netflix grew their mail order DVD business into the streaming giant they are today, and now dominate the movie rental business. Blockbuster sat back and enjoyed their success rather than constantly trying to stay current and anticipate the changing ways in which people would enjoy their movies. They filed for bankruptcy in 2010.

These are just two examples of many companies that have refused to embrace innovation as a natural part of growing and expanding. CADTALK is proud to offer a truly innovative solution to integrating your ERP and CAD systems that saves time, money, and gives you an edge in the ever-changing landscape of engineering design. CADTALK is truly on the forefront of innovation—schedule your 1 on 1 demo of CADTALK today to see how you can seamlessly transfer your CAD data to your SyteLine, SYSPRO, or Acumatica system!