Yesterday, I opened an email from Borders Books.
"A Fond Farewell, Thank You for Shopping at Borders."
Empathetically, I felt Mike Edwards, the CEO of Borders, sincere disappointment. I felt genuine sadness for him.
The sinking of the great ship. Goodbye, farewell.
As a great lover of books myself, I thought about my own experience with Borders Books. In recent years I rarely frequented Borders for the reasons that most likely led to the demise of the company.
- I never believed I'd get the best discount from Borders
- I often found they did not have the book I wanted in stock
- I never became a customer online
I remember several years ago comparing Barnes & Noble's reward program with Borders. I didn't really understand how Borders worked. I would get coupons in my email which meant printing them and remembering to take them with me. The 10% at B&N is easier to understand and calculate my savings, so B&N ususally had me when I needed the instant gratification of getting books today.
Speaking of instant gratification, I have visited both B&N and Borders in search of a book that had to be purchased online. When I did buy online, I used B&N or Amazon. Today, I satisfy the urgency with a Kindle download. Amazon can thank Borders for the leg up on that one. B&N has probably lost my online business for good.
I believe it was Border's failure to adapt that killed the company. Not that it was incapable, but it was too busy enjoying it's success to see the warning signs. When it did, it was too late.
It makes me think of the overlooked ice warning:
" In lat 42N to 41.25N long 49W to long 50.30W saw much heavy pack ice and great number of large icebergs also field ice. Weather good, clear."
I think the CEO of a company is the "captain of the ship" in most ways. If you spend too much time enjoying your success, who is steering the ship?
Information is moving at lightning speed, we can't afford to stop listening to all of the signals and warnings of what lies ahead.
Adapt or die.
That sounds terrible and ominous, but it has to be someone's job. As the CEO, it's yours.
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