What do Virgin Megastores, Tower Records, Borders Books and video arcades have in common?
They’re either extinct, or near extinction.
Why? Because they failed to evolve, and became irrelevant.
Is the U.S. Postal Service Next?
The world has changed. Major businesses that were successful for decades are now gone.
In most cases, the writing was on the wall for years, in plain view — if you were paying attention. iTunes and Amazon.com didn’t start off as juggernauts. But they did start an evolution on how we bought music and books (as well as many other things).
Companies like Virgin, Tower Records and Borders Books were unable to implement a large enough transformation to keep themselves profitable and relevant. So they became dinosaurs.
The post office, although still extremely relevant, is no longer profitable.
According to the Washington Post, the Postal Service is billions of dollars in debt. For 2012, there are plans for 3.1 billion dollars in cuts — including the elimination of 250 processing centers, as well as the laying off 30,000 workers.
What does this have to do with your business?
Like your business, the Postal Service makes choices that either improves or deteriorates the strength of their company.
The problem with the Postal Service is that they’ve been adhering to a business model that no longer functions. No amount of downsizing or cuts will fix that. Only a reinvention of how they do business can turn them around.
Whether it’s adding to their core services, or setting a new trend — instead of reacting to one that’s destroying them — the Postal Service is in a position of opportunity to transform. The problem is, they’re not looking to transform, they’re looking to survive — which might ultimately be their demise.
Whether your company is doing well, or struggling, it’s a good idea (actually it’s vital) that you take stock of your products and services on a regular basis, and compare them to the changes that are occurring in the market. The companies that forecast what their market will look like 5-10 years from now can start making changes today that will help them continue to thrive. As you move forward, you can always make additional changes to make sure you’re headed in the right direction.
Sure, change is scary. But doing nothing and hoping that an evolving world won’t pass you by is even scarier. Plus it takes you out of the driver’s seat of your own business and life.
Change will come, whether you’re ready for it or not. You can either evolve with it, or become a dinosaur. And we all know what happened to the dinosaurs …
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