We have
seen the best-run and unanimously admired companies are more often unable to
sustain their market share on performance over an extended period. In many instances,
the very same strategies that once propelled the organizations to remain
competitive ends up leading to their decline due to a slow start to the
adoption of emerging technology, organizational inertia, and adherence to a set
of principles that are way beyond its relevance. Simply put, failure to be
different is one of the primary sources for the downfall of once-successful
organizations. To remain competitive and be successful today and tomorrow,
organizations should continually improve in the short term and develop
strategies that include increasing variation, innovation, adapting to
consumers' social behavior, and being open to embracing disruptive technologies
for the long term.
Blackberry
is a classic example that once appeared to have an unassailable market share in
smartphones (my first smartphone was a blackberry), especially among business
customers. It failed to acknowledge the launch and adoption of the
touchscreen-based technology of its competitor Apple’s iPhone. It ignored the
data as it once described iPhone as just a unique product targeted at consumers
without paying attention to the vast inroads Apple was making into its core
business customers. Blackberry was overconfident of its market share with its
enterprise customers without realizing that Apple’s touch screen and universal
internet access were becoming hugely popular with its customers and regular
consumers. It eventually got steamrolled by Apple and Google’s Android, leaving
it far behind with a market share of just over 0.2% in 2016 (Pugh, 2021). While
Apple relied on data gathered from its proprietary retail stores that consumers
were willing to pay for its iPhone due to its innovative touch screen interface
and seamless internet connectivity, Blackberry failed to leverage the consumer
data about the marketplace (Glass & Callahan, 2014). Unlike its
competitors, it could not invest in opportunities to innovate and introduce
newer, faster, and cheaper product lines and services.
The forces
that influenced the demise of Blackberry included its failure to adapt
strategies to become different by thinking differently and recognizing that new
innovative technologies offer tremendous opportunities to tackle the most
critical societal challenges characterized by a generational, cultural shift in
the marketplace. Companies that are ready to create a culture with a) an
ultimate focus on leveraging data to understand consumer behavior, b) being
flexible to adapt to emerging innovative technologies, and c) recognizing that
anything and everything they have developed today might become obsolete by
changing markets and destructive competition are the ones that will eventually
sustain and survive for the long haul. In conclusion, organizations should be
open to change and iterate on their ideas quickly before someone else
introduces a competitive product in the market.
References
Glass, R., & Callahan, S. (2014). The
Big Data-Driven Business: How to Use Big Data to Win Customers, Beat
Competitors, and Boost Profits (1st ed.). Wiley.
Pugh,
A. (2021, May 28). 10 businesses that failed to adapt. E-Careers.
https://www.e-careers.com/connected/10-businesses-that-failed-to-adapt
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