Remember Blockbuster?
In the 1980s, Blockbuster video rental company introduced an innovative barcode tracking system to charge late fees for all their video rentals. The late fee tracking system was so successful that Blockbuster reported earnings of $800 million in just one year alone. Around 1998, Blockbuster pioneered an emergent on-demand video technology, and research indicated a healthy consumer appetite for this service. But while the landscape was shifting, Blockbuster was short-sighted, choosing to ignore opportunities to implement innovative change, and it did little to adapt. Instead, Blockbuster decided to cling to stability, looking for nominal gains in efficiency and productivity by building new stores, increasing video selections, and continuing to charge late fees for video rentals.
The NETFLIX disruption
Enter Netflix in 1997. Netflix waived late fees, allowing consumers to return videos by mail whenever they wanted and provided online video selections.
Sick and tired of the late fees, consumers recognized that Netflix had created a better service and started to abandon Blockbuster.
By 2000, Netflix offers to sell their company for $50M (USD) to Blockbuster. Blockbuster's CEO Mr. Antioco declines thinking Blockbuster's business model is foolproof.
The impact of Blockbuster's inability to adapt and change sounded its death knell. By 2010, Blockbuster, the once multi-billion-dollar company with over 9,000 stores worldwide, filed for bankruptcy and shuttered its doors.
Sources:
Ash, A (2020, August). The rise and fall of Blockbuster and how it's surviving with just one store left. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com
MarketPlace.org (2020, September). CEO Reed Hastings on how Netflix beat Blockbuster. Marketplace. https://www.marketplace.org
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