Digital Marketing and Web Strategy by Bob Hazlett | One Half Amazing!

How would your job (or strategy) change if they cured cancer tomorrow? AIDS? Heart Disease?  What if everyone in the world had access to a computer and the internet? What if the government outlawed some portion of your business?  What if Google just disappeared? What if everyone had the same amount of money?  Would they still need your products?  Would they still use your services? How would you survive?

I participated in Startup Weekend Memphis last weekend and had a blast. It was an honor to be part of it and to work with such amazing talent. Big thanks to Eric Mathews and the founding members of Launch Memphis for all their hard work and support. Check out the following for a recap in case you missed it.

One idea, 54 hours: Startup Weekenders build real company – Commercial Appeal
Spynnr
Memphis Startup Weekend Blog
Launch Memphis Flickr Photostream

Do you remember when…..

• there wasn’t such a thing as an iPhone, let alone a cellphone. Remember when you actually had to plan a time to call someone?
• you had to be home at 8pm on Friday night to catch your favorite show because there was no TIVO or on-demand?
• there was no Starbucks?
• you had to visit each of your favorite sites on a regular basis to see if they were updated because RSS hadn’t been thought of yet?
• there was no mapquest or turn-by-turn GPS?
• only the rich and privleged had access to Harvard, Stanford or MIT?
• AltaVista was your search engine of choice?
• you taped your favorite song off the radio when it came on?
• there was no way you’d fill up a 20GB hard drive?
• voting in a presidential election you had the choice of one old white guy or another old white guy?
• it cost too much to quit your job and do something you loved.
• you lost track of friends because Facebook and MySpace were still figments of imagination?

My point is that things change. Business models come and go. Ideas spring from all walks of life.

A majority of the things above weren’t even around 10 years ago. What are you doing right now to prepare your business (and yourself) to be successful in the next 10 years? Do you have a plan? Your business could be gone in the blink of an eye (just ask Blockbuster). Why are you still sitting on that great idea? Get out and get moving. Take action. Talk is cheap.

Yesterday, Apple dropped a Hiroshima-like atomic bomb on Blockbuster.

The game has changed and Blockbuster just received the biggest wake-up call in their companies’ history. It’s not as if they didn’t see the writing on the wall. Apple has been begun putting distribution channels out of business over the past 5+ years. Not to mention the beating Netflix has already put on Blockbuster.

In my opionon the main advantage that Apple holds are low overhead and scalability. The costs of resources that Apple has remain fairly fixed and will continue to be so. Users downloading an additional copy of iTunes costs them next to nothing. In addition, the advantage of the web makes selling 1 copy vs 1 million copies of a single movie nearly the same.

Blockbuster on the other hand is crippled with fixed (and escalating) costs of doing business. Not to mention store upkeep and such, but also purchasing an additional copy of a movie for the local store is much more than the cost Apple incurs. Blockbuster has a limited number of physical movies that are available in each store, this isn’t the case with Apple and iTunes.

I can remember about 10 years ago when Blockbuster was opening stores almost every 24 hrs. What if they would have taken some of these resources and devoted them new technologies and initiatives? Would Blockbuster be sitting in a better position?

Lessons you can learn from Blockbuster

• It’s not the smartest of the species that survive, but the one that is most adaptable to change.
• Bigger is not always better. some may say that small is the new big. No longer can you compete on size. In the current business environment, companies that rely on being fast and nimble are much more likely to be successfull. Apple should keep this is mind as well, as I’m sure more and more companies and startups looking to take them down.
• Your business can evaporate in the blink of an eye. Now, I’m not saying that all Blockbusters will shut down overnight, but I firmly believe Apple will tighten the noose and Blockbuster’s current business will cease to exsist. Netflix has seen the erros of those that came before them. They will survive and continue to fight Apple for market share.

What would you do if you were the CEO of Blockbuster? How do you modify your business plan? What should other businesses take away from this situation?

Additional Resources:
The Internet Changes Everything
Blockbuster, Netflix shares fall following Apple’s movie rental service launch

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