Consequences When Global Companies Fail to Change!

 “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” —Charles Darwin

Eastman Kodak, a leader for many years, filed for bankruptcy in 2012. Blockbuster Video became defunct in 2013. Similarly, Borders—one of the largest book retailers in the U.S. —went out of business in 2011. Why did these companies ultimately fail? It is because they failed to adapt to change. Additionally, they failed to unlearn and relearn.

Although everyone is aware that the only thing constant in the world is change, people resist change due to various reasons, including fear of failure, fear of criticism, and fear of the unknown. They settle for the status quo and end up going extinct. Or they fail to change with the changing times and technologies and suffer the same fate.

They were zestful and adventurous at one time but became complacent over time. Just think of:

·        Blockbuster, which was crushed by Netflix

·        Dell, which was overridden by mobile devices

·        Kodak, which lost track of the digital era

·        Microsoft, which fell asleep for a while when Web TV, e-books, smartphones, and tablets took over

·        Motorola, which got out-manoeuvred by smartphones

·        Sears, which lost immense market share to aggressive discount stores such as Walmart and Target

·        Polaroid Corporation filed for bankruptcy in 2001 because of digital cameras

·        Borders became irrelevant because of the online era

·        Sony, which focused on hardware in a time when software took the upper hand, leaving space for Samsung, Apple, and others to run away with its market

·        Yahoo, which fell asleep when Google was inventing and making numerous smart moves

Some realized their mistake and reinvented themselves once they experienced the drawbacks of their myopia. Others failed to regain a broad mindset to avoid falling prey to sleepwalking again. You have to be awake to maintain a broad mindset.

Former GE CEO Jack Welch once remarked, “If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near.” Thus, accept change before the change is thrust on you. If people don’t perform, they perish. If companies don’t innovate, they become obsolete. If we were not changed, we would have remained in the Stone Age.

To conclude, cultivate a flexible mindset to embrace change effectively. And remain humble to recognise the changes and innovate accordingly. Or become irrelevant and die like dinosaurs.  Benjamin Disraeli rightly said, “Change is inevitable in a progressive society. Change is constant.”

References:

1. The global companies that failed to adapt to change, Prof. M. S. Rao, Ph.D., posted Nov 1, 2018

2. Companies that went bankrupt from innovation lag, Poonkulali Thangavelu, Investopedia