Leading companies that did not innovate in time |The Economist

Many companies that experience the success of innovation cling and believe that this is their secret for eternal success.This mentality puts any company or business at risk of failing, and refusing to evolve with the market can be even more devastating.

Although some of the companies were successful and others were condemned to assume their failure, the point is that the failure for not innovating passes everywhere: from the largest companies to the enterprises.Each company has its specific example of how or why it failed at a certain time.

Business history is plagued by huge failures that occurred for not getting into the car of innovation or believing that this was not the way to follow.Many companies closed and others that were a trend in the sector collapsed by giving way to other companies that did know how to understand the change.

Here I will tell you about some of the more than 50 companies that did not know how to understand technological change and did not innovate in time, which led them to fail in a loud way:

Kodak

The company led the photography market for a good part of the twentieth century, but missed the opportunity to not know how to understand the power that digital photography had.In 1975, Steve Sasson invented the first digital camera, but Kodak's owners did not know how to see it as a good market opportunity.

In other words, the company was unable to identify and lead a disruptive technology.It declared bankruptcy in 2012.

Nokia

It was the world in the world to create a mobile phone and dominated the market in the last years of the 90s and first of the 2000s.The company did not know how to understand the importance of investing in software and continued to put all its efforts to highlight in hardware.I did not believe that the future of communication was going to go through the data instead of the voice.

They refused to lead the drastic change in the experience of use of people, which led them to develop a complex operating system that did not fit into the market.

Blockbuster

The video rental company reached its maximum point in 2004, surviving the change from VHS to DVD.In 1985 they opened their first store, the idea was extremely innovative, renting movies to watch them from the comfort of the house, unfortunately, with the arrival of the internet the rental rent was increasingly less.

Blockbuster received the proposal to add efforts with Netflix, a small company that rented films via mail.The offer was to create a streaming service, however, the company rejected it by not considering it a good business.

American Online (AOL)

In the mid -90s, AOL was not only the only Internet provider with Trumpet Winsock.His instant message platform was one of the best apps.But the company feared losing its customers when Microsoft's Messenger appeared and could not find a new strategy.In addition, the rise of broadband led him to a rapid decline of users.

Already in the 2000, he tried.In 2015 it was bought by Verizon Communications.

Abercrombie & Fitch

He was once a leader in informal clothing and brand accessories, until the early 2000s.His target were the young people influenced by pop culture that shaped what they wanted to use.

Sin embargo, los altos precios de su ropa, la tendencia a consumir marcas más baratas como H&M o Forever 21 y unas declaraciones poco afortunadas de su CEO en 2006 hicieron que su marca perdiese prestigio y los adolescentes ya no se sintiesen identificados con ella.

Tower Records

A retail music chain in which you could buy CDs, cassettes, DVDs, electronic devices, video and accessory games.But despite its success, he could not deal with digital disruption, piracy and streaming services.Napster, an Internet service launched in 1999 to share digital files, spread like a virus and began the fall of the industry.

The company declared bankruptcy in 2004, due to its great debt.

Compaq

It was one of the most leading companies in computers during the 90s and got great things like producing the first computer with IBM.His big problem was the hard price fight he had with Dell before he was acquired by HP in 2002.The brand disappeared in 2013.

Large companies that do not introduce innovations risk disappearing.That is the hard truth in "The digital era".

Survival, in the field of large companies, depends largely on its ability to adapt to the constant cultural and technological transformations.The world moves quickly and the digital world is becoming more and more part of the physical world.

The most common error in companies: ignore users.

The author is an expert in innovation.

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Innovation expert

Strategist businessman, innovative and agent of change committed to his country and reinvention through his projects.It has a long career in the business world in the financial, telecommunications and technology sectors as well as in the field of social promotion, which has allowed it to develop identification, analysis and effective solution methodologies of current challenges.

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