{"id":8823,"date":"2010-08-27T15:15:57","date_gmt":"2010-08-27T19:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/?p=8823"},"modified":"2010-08-27T15:47:17","modified_gmt":"2010-08-27T19:47:17","slug":"well-there-goes-another-one-who-discounted-the-impactvalue-of-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/2010\/08\/27\/well-there-goes-another-one-who-discounted-the-impactvalue-of-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Well&#8230;there goes another one who discounted the impact\/value of technology&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/1685375\/blockbuster-plans-for-bankruptcy-a-look-at-ceo-jim-keyes-best-denials?partner=rss\" target=\"_blank\">Blockbusted:  A Netflix Knock-Out, Bad Metaphors on the Path to the Movie Monster&#8217;s  Bankruptcy<\/a><\/strong> &#8212; from Fast Company &#8211; Technology by Austin  Carr<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">The Blockbuster age is fading, and at last the company is preparing for  bankruptcy. In the past two years, the shrinking video-rental store has  struggled to stay afloat with $920 million in debt, drowning all the  while in revenue losses of $1.1 billion. The LA Times <a href=\"http:\/\/latimesblogs.latimes.com\/entertainmentnewsbuzz\/2010\/08\/blockbuster-tells-hollywood-studios-its-preparing-for-midseptember-bankruptcy.html\" target=\"_blank\">reports<\/a> that Blockbuster executives and senior debt holders have entered  discussions with major movie studios for a &#8220;pre-planned&#8221; bankruptcy  mid-September.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">But for everyone other than Blockbuster&#8217;s sunny faced spin masters,  bankruptcy was about as surprising as another Rocky comeback.  Blockbuster&#8217;s brick-and-mortar business was unviable in the digital  world, and competitors Netflix and Redbox took every advantage to pick  apart the dinosaur&#8217;s carcass. The company&#8217;s numbers have signaled  extinction, too, with value withering from $8.4 billion when Viacom  purchased it in 1994 to total market value of $24 million today.  Continuing the Mesozoic metaphor, here&#8217;s why bankruptcy hit Blockbuster  like a surprise asteroid.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong> Netflix Who?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>From DSC:<\/strong><br \/>\nAnd I would add the questions:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>&#8220;Who cares about the iPod?&#8221;<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>&#8220;What does Internet-related technology have to do with our business anyway?&#8221;<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.calvin.edu\/~dsc8\/visions.htm\" target=\"_blank\">In a presentation I created last year (see Section II)<\/a>, I used Blockbuster as an example of an organization who completely discounted the disruptive impact of technology..and now they are paying the price (along with much of the newspaper industry). <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>There <em>IS <\/em>a lesson here for those of us in higher ed.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>I&#8217;ll end this posting with the following quote\/excerpt:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&#8220;This is a pattern we see over and over,&#8221; he said, of the many parallels  he could draw to Blockbuster&#8217;s financial troubles.<strong> &#8220;If a company is not  able to keep up with the changing needs of its customer, it will become  irrelevant,&#8221; he said.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Ultimately, it was these words which may have saved the company. <strong> Blockbuster was not able to keep up with the changing needs of its  customers.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Blockbuster has become irrelevant.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2709\" title=\"StayingRelevant\" src=\"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/StayingRelevant.jpg\" alt=\"Staying Relevant\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/StayingRelevant.jpg 640w, http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/StayingRelevant-150x112.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevant addendum:<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I just ran across this posting on educationstormfront &#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/educationstormfront.wordpress.com\/2010\/08\/27\/what-blockbuster-can-teach-education\/\" target=\"_blank\">What Blockbuster Can Teach Higher\u00a0Ed<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blockbusted: A Netflix Knock-Out, Bad Metaphors on the Path to the Movie Monster&#8217;s Bankruptcy &#8212; from Fast Company &#8211; Technology by Austin Carr The Blockbuster age is fading, and at last the company is preparing for bankruptcy. In the past two years, the shrinking video-rental store has struggled to stay afloat with $920 million in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[143,32,35,180,55,74,310,20],"tags":[641,56,585,661,597,607,722,579],"class_list":["post-8823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disruption","category-education-technology","category-game-changing-environment","category-innovation","category-internet","category-leadership","category-staying-relevant","category-strategy","tag-disruption","tag-educational-technology","tag-game-changing-environment","tag-innovation","tag-internet","tag-leadership","tag-staying-relevant","tag-strategy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8823"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8843,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8823\/revisions\/8843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}