If you are not ready to adapt to the changes around you, you will certainly be left behind in life’s race. This is also true for the companies and their products, if with CHANGING TIMES the companies do not modify/change their products then it is sure that the product will lose its market share and slowly it will fade out.
Here are some cases of the past and some present and future scenarios:
1 Till 1998 Kodak was the number one company in the photography business, and they were selling 85% of the photographic paper, and at that time their employee strength was more than 170,000. But within the next few years, the company went bankrupt, why?, because with the advent of digital photography, the old photography system went for a toss, and Kodak company was very slow to react and did not change their technology to suit digital photography.
2 There is one more classic case of HMT watches, till late 1980s they were largest selling watch brand in the Indian market. But when Tata group launched Titan watches (a battery operated watch) everything changed, as HMT being a public sector company was slow to react it totally lost the market share to battery operated watches.
3 Similar was the case of Premier and Ambassador cars, till the advent of Maruti Suzuki these brands were the kings of Indian car market, but when the economy started opening up in early 1990s these two companies failed to modify their products with changing times and both the brands faded away.
4 Take the case of Nokia mobile phones (hand sets), till 2010 they were the number one mobile phone, but they were slow to react to the arrival of smart android phones and slowly the market of conventional hand sets slumped, and Nokia suffered badly. In the later years they also came back with smart phone, but by that time it was too late, and other players had captured the market of smart phones.
Like the above mentioned products, there were many more products which did not change with the changing times and went out of the market.
The way things are moving now, looks like in the coming 10-15 years it is highly probable that 70-90% of present businesses will be closed. Just look at the following scenarios:
5 Uber is only a software, they do not own any car, but still it is world’s largest cab operating company. Ola cabs is another example in this field.
6 Airbnb is world’s largest Hotel Company but they do not own a single hotel, same is the case of Oyo rooms
7 With the boom in digital payment business, apps like Paytm, Google pay and many more such apps are flourishing.
8 It has been predicted that in the coming years the lawyers in USA will have least business, because the software named IBM Watson can give better advise than most of the lawyers in least time. In the next 10 years 90% of the lawyers in USA will be job less, and the remaining 10% will be super specialists.
9 The scenario is such that a software can detect the cancer four times faster than the conventional tests. It has been predicted that by 2030 computer may become more intelligent than man.
10 In the next 10 years 90% of the present cars will vanish from the roads, and majority of cars on the road will be the electrical or hybrid type. Petrol consumption will be reduced by 90%. All oil exporting countries will be highly affected.
11 In future, you will request a car from app like Uber, and within few minutes a driverless car will reach your doorsteps, and you may be able to share your ride with someone else, and your ride might become cheaper than travelling by bike. With car becoming driverless, 99% of accidents will be avoided, and hence the business of Car insurance companies will be highly affected.
12 There will no jobs for drivers, when 90% of conventional vehicles will disappear from the roads, parking and traffic problems will be over.
13 Before the advent of mobile phones, every 100 meters you could find public call office (PCOs), when mobile came PCO went out of the business, then these PCO operators started selling mobile phone recharge. Now mobile phone recharge can be done online Have you ever notice that in a market there are may shops of doing mobile business, which could be of any nature like sale, service, recharge, maintenance, and other mobile related business.
14 First currency notes were replaced by plastic money, which is now becoming digital.
In the end world is changing very fast, you will have to keep your eyes, ears and nose open otherwise you will be left behind. You will have to change with the changing times. A person will have to change the business and attitude as per the prevailing times.
TIME TO TIME UPDATE & UPGRADE
Waiting for your feedback on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
2nd May 2024