Adapting your organisation to technology.

The Internet and Digital Technology are rapidly advancing, and people are adapting their businesses to the future. Getting left behind in a world that depends on them to function is easy. Just look at Blockbuster, which, at its best, was worth $ 3 US billion and had over 9,000 stores.

Today, Blockbuster only has one store in operation, and it makes more money as an Airbnb than from video rentals. In comparison, Netflix started similarly to Blockbuster as a DVD rental company through the post.

Netflix is currently worth around 210 billion dollars and operates in 190 countries. So why the contrasting results? Why did one business succeed and the other fail? The simple answer is that Blockbuster failed to adapt.

After Blockbuster’s initial innovation of a new barcode system, which allowed it to manage thousands of movie titles, its willingness to adapt stagnated. Blockbuster had multiple opportunities to work with or buy Netflix, but they were too focused on their DVD stores.

Adapting your organisation is critical.

Netflix, on the other hand, was ready and willing to adapt. In 2007, they introduced the first version of what we know as Netflix today, yet they still believed DVDs were the future until they had been running for a year.

At one point, Blockbuster partnered with a business called Enron to develop an on-demand television service. But like their passing up of Netflix, Blockbuster invested in the brick-and-mortar stores. Any attempts Blockbuster made to regain its market share from companies like Netflix were all in vain, and it used outdated technology like the DVD kiosk.

Within a year, Netflix’s online video service became so popular that it realised on-demand television was the way forward. They decided to invest their time and resources into this innovation.

Netflix clearly illustrated the importance of looking for opportunities to adapt and integrate new digital technologies into business operations.

Key Message: Don’t let your business stagnate and fall behind like Blockbuster. Because new technology is different from what you use now.

Quotable Quotes

“Your best solutions often come after your mistakes and failures. As long as you learn from them and have good systems, tools and processes in place”. Peter Sergeant

“Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature’s inexorable imperative”. H.G. Wells