Special Report: Creating an environment for innovation
Seven equipment suppliers outline ways their companies show innovation
Steve Blue, president and ceo of Miller Ingenuity and author of the forthcoming book, American Manufacturing 2.0: What Went Wrong and How to Make It Right, likes to use Blockbuster as an example of a company that became too comfortable.
Instead of preparing for the future, Blockbuster thought it could forge ahead sticking to what had been a perfectly valuable formula: renting out VHS tapes and then subsequently DVDs through thousands of retail locations scattered across the United States. Along came Netflix, and in a few short years, blew up the business model through the use of technology. Blockbuster went bankrupt in 2010 while Netflix posted $41 billion in revenue last year.