Innovation is a prerequisite for advancing technology. In this article, entrepreneur and business leader Bhawna Patkar highlights several significant businesses that failed to embrace technological and cultural innovation.
No discussion about businesses that failed to adapt to changing technology is complete without mentioning Polaroid, Blockbuster, and Blackberry. For decades these three have been heralded as the quintessential examples of failing to adapt, but even these companies have not ended up as you may think.
Many people believe that Polaroid’s demise was caused by the company’s refusal to adapt to a growing market for digital cameras, but that’s not quite how it happened. It was the insistence that its movie camera named Polavision, based on the Dufaycolor process, would be more popular than emerging video tape-based systems that ended up being the swan song for Polaroid.
Polaroid was an early provider of digital cameras for the consumer market, but in the end, it was too little too late to save the original company. After complicated legal wranglings, questionable executive bonuses, and changing hands a few times, Polaroid is still around but a mere shadow of the former innovation leader.
Mail-in video services and video vending machines from companies such as Netflix and Red Box, followed by on-demand streaming services from Netflix and a host of other competitors, caused the demise of Blockbuster Video. This one-time leader in videotape rentals had over 9,000 stores and 84,000 employees before a recession and some bad business decisions that could have helped them transition to DVDs and streaming technologies combined to set its course toward bankruptcy.
Of the three oft-cited examples of business failure to adapt to new technology, Blackberry is least deserving of this moniker. In fact, Blackberry is an excellent example of a company that seemingly saved itself from a market share freefall by leveraging technology.
While Blackberry lost the battle for smartphone market share to Apple and the various Android platforms, the company pivoted to become a successful security software and services company. Even as a smartphone company, security was Blackberry’s forte, so it could easily transition to security software and services for government and large enterprises. It hasn’t been easy, but Blackberry has reclaimed at least a portion of its former status as an innovation leader.
These, and other similar examples, serve as a compelling reminder that innovation is king, and companies that hesitate too long can find themselves pushed aside by competitors that were not even on their radar a few years before. Polaroid Cameras, Blockbuster Video, Myspace, and every record store chain are all prime examples of how resting on your laurels can tee a company up for failure.
Finding the right blend of embracing innovation and consistently providing a dependable product or service is an ongoing challenge. It takes a deep understanding of the customers in your business space. Leaders must know what their customers need and constantly strive to find new and better ways to meet those needs.
About Bhawna Patkar
Bhawna Patkar is an entrepreneur and business leader with over a decade of experience launching and developing new business ventures in Silicon Valley. She is the founder, president, and CEO of Ziphawk Inc. — a technology service provider for the rideshare industry. Bhawna’s creativity, drive, and knack for problem solving allow her to solve challenges in both her professional and personal life. Her success aside, Bhawna’s mission has always remained the same: “If businesses believe that doing good can be profitable, then doing good will be sustainable.”
