A comment I heard recently made me chuckle, and then made me think. I don’t remember the entire context of the conversation, but I did write the comment down.
Someone had recently had flown on Delta. As is typical of conversations regarding the airlines, some complaints were made. My coworker said, “Delta is an older airline, so they must know what they are doing.”
Ha! What a statement!
Let’s break this down a bit.
Delta is an older airline. Ok, so what? Let’s name some “old” airlines that are no longer in existence:
Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) – 1927- 1991
Trans World Airlines (TWA) – 1925 – 2001 (declared bankruptcy and merged with American Airlines)
It is obvious from the list above that no matter how long an airline has been around (or any company for that matter), that does not guarantee that they “know what they are doing.”
Kodak has been in existence for more than a century, and just declared bankruptcy. There is a fantastic article in The Economist about the fall of Kodak.
Kodak obviously knew what they were doing for most of the 20th century. But when technology suddenly changed, impacting Kodak’s primary market, they didn’t change with it. They no longer knew what they were doing because they were stuck in their former way of doing things.
The digital photography revolution happened, and they missed the boat. Ironically, Kodak was the company that first invented the digital camera, which is what ultimately led to its demise.
The lesson of this story is, no one is too old (or too big) to fail. The marketplace is changing too rapidly anymore. We all have to stay on our toes in order to survive.
Know what you are doing. You may need to completely change what you are doing once you know. But that might prevent you from sharing the fate of the airlines and Kodak.
Source:
Know What You Are Doing