There has been much talk about how Kodak the inventor of the digital camera and responsible for much of the initial groundwork in that field could get it so friggen wrong that they are now history. The reasons as to why they buggered it up will be the subject of corporate analysts and historians for years to come and it may well become a topic of conversation in MBA courses. Much of what will be written will no doubt be simple speculation and age old homilies about the inability of monoliths to adapt.
However, if you want to see a real time example of history repeating itself look no further than Research in Motion the producers of the venerable Blackberry. Once the essential sidearm of the corporate warrior the Blackberry is now a pariah and has been displaced by the new generation of smartphones. It seems that no matter what RIM do they screw it up and the quote of the day belongs to the new CEO who said there was no need for drastic change – upon which the stock promptly dropped another 8%.
