Crisis are always moments of accelerated changes. Recently, some key icons of the Industrial Age collapsed, bankrupt: General Motors in 2009 and Kodak in 2011.
General Motors was the icon of manufacturing, producing the most coveted american symbol – the car. 
Kodak was the icon of modern broadcasting, with the film – motion and still pictures.
It is the end of the Industrial Age they represented for sure, but some of their competitors have survived the crisis and are even thriving. These two companies did not manage to change their mindset. They did not manage to let go of the milk cow before it would be aged and dry out. They did not manage to go global. They did not see all the good ideas that were created in their organizations. Here they stood arrogantly in their fortresses, misunderstanding the evolution of the world.
There have been some enlightening posts on the case of Kodak lately – read for example “What’s Wrong with This Picture: Kodak’s 30-year Slide into Bankruptcy” from Wharton school.
What can these failures teach us personally?
- Both cases are somehow a failure not to recognize sunken cost. They held to their precious traditional assets (which they had already paid for many times) and did not recognize that they needed to move on.
- They failed not because they were not able to create the new products that the people wanted or needed (Kodak people did invent digital photography!) – they failed because they were not able to try those new products, even at small scale. They were possibly scared that it might put into question their entire model. And so what?…
Thus two questions for us on the way to become successful in the Fourth Revolution:
- Aren’t you holding right now to something just because of the work and effort you’ve put in it? Isn’t it time to move on?
- When you have a project that might change dramatically the way you live and the way you receive your income, do you put the project back into the drawer or do you try it first small scale?
Let’s not become like GM and Kodak. Let’s let go of sunken effort and let’s experiment with new things. When do you start?
