You might be following what is expected to be Blockbuster’s impending bankruptcy filing.
Once, this giant dominated movie rentals, squeezing out smaller independents and chains. Now, it’s stock has been de-listed from a major exchange, and today, you can purchase about 70 shares for the price of a single movie rental.
Blockbuster’s failure is attributable to its “Have it our way” philosophy.
Notorious for poor service, high late charges, and its perpetuation of $5 rental fees in the face of $1 kiosks, Netflix, and streaming videos, it has been excruciatingly slow to adapt to rental alternatives, many of which offer better value, selections, and convenience.
Before you chalk-up their radical downsizing to the forces of creative destruction that inexorably replace old technologies with new, Blockbuster could have done much to stave off its demise, if not to play catch-up.
I see parallels between Blockbuster and the book publishing industry. The latter has been slow to adapt to Amazon, to used-book sites, the rise of the Internet as a free source of information, and to the increasingly popular medium of ebooks.
Recently, giant book retailer Barnes and Noble put itself up for sale. Are they the Blockbuster of books?
Just this week I’ve been agenting a new and controversial title to a host of New York publishers. It has best-seller written all over it, but they are reflexively rejecting it. With wagons circled in a siege mentality, they’re too busy ducking arrows to focus on opportunities.
Either they find a business model that works, and soon, or what we have known of this industry will also be selling for pennies on the dollar.
-By: Dr. Gary S. Goodman
Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a top speaker, sales, service, and negotiation consultant, attorney, TV and radio commentator and the best-selling author of 12 books. He conducts seminars and speaks at convention programs around the world. His new audio program is Nightingale-Conant’s “Crystal Clear Communication: How to Explain Anything Clearly in Speech