The news this month has stories about the death throws of Sears and Kodak.  Both were iconic American companies and both were done in by changes to their environments.  Kodak was the silver halide film company and the digital revolution changed photography so much, so fast that they weren’t able to adjust.  Sears invented the pre-Walmart, pre-internet retail environment but was unable to adjust its management style to the information age.

Change is…

ugly

inevitable

and

inexorable

but without change we’ll have no improvement

Get ready it is going to happen in your environment also.

What about the post office?

In my opinion it should be allowed to go the way of Sears and Kodak.

But it will live on like Amtrak. stifling change and burdening taxpayers.

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I predict that one of the next big changes will be a massive shrinking of the retail bank branch system.  People are getting much more comfortable with banking on line and via the ATM.

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I also predict that the television model of free viewing in exchange for watching advertising is in for a big change since the viewers, using dvrs, are not keeping their part of the bargain and watching the ads.

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What company do you think will be the next Sears?