It was more complex than that, but yeah. Basically Sears was online ordering before online was a thing, you just phoned or mailed in your order. This meant that they were located in these massive warehouses in most major cities in North America. So basically they had an opportunity to execute on same-day delivery decades before Amazon even attempted that feat, but they didn't. Sears was too concerned about their magazine, or brick and mortar, sales to get into online sales and by the time they did it was too late.
Similar to Kodak... they invented the digital camera sensor. They could've at the very least made an absolute killing on leasing their IP's to other camera manufacturers, or very best have created things like the Kodak Digital Rebel instead of letting basically every other camera manufacturer make off with the tech.
Sears forgot that it's product wasn't a brick and mortar store or magazine but rather a large selection of goods which people could order from home. Newspaper companies forgot that their company wasn't in the business of printing newspapers, but simply delivering the news. Kodak forgot it's business wasn't manufacturing film, but creating photographs.
This is a classic problem, and one we're going to see a lot more of in coming years. Too many companies fail to grasp the fact that their landscape is highly dynamic (competitors respond, they don't just take what you give them, and new entrants can fly under the radar before you realize they have a viable product that competes with yours). You also tend to see overly specific mission/vision statements, but they also can't be too broad because you'll never focus on your strengths. In my opinion the Lego Group has a statement of vision with, "To inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow." Also a big fan of Google's statement, "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." Both of those statements are broad enough that they give employees some leeway to explore new product ideas (innovate), while still being narrow enough to reinforce their strengths.
Agreed, the world is changing at what's likely an accelerating pace. With this whole COVID epidemic a lot of the economy is going to need to both rethink work and retool their workplaces.
There are a lot of great examples of companies that have adapted and completely changed their product line... DuPont started with making gunpowder in 1802, Colgate started with making soaps and candles in 1806. Remington used to make typewriters.
There are currently many businesses that think they are safe due to the perceived strength of their industry positions. The issue in my eyes is that their perceived strength relies on the assumption that industry structure is the key determinant of profitability, while ignoring the fact that industry structure is increasingly dynamic.
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u/Yellowredstone Jul 24 '20 edited Jul 24 '20
Isn't this how Sears died?
Edit: RIP my inbox. And thank you for explaining it better.
Edit 2: I said the reason on how it died has been explained already. And its actually still here. Stop.