Rest on your laurels, and they are sure to wilt

I recently passed a “Store Closing” sign on a Sears department store.  The bankruptcy of Sears had me thinking about my past experience with this former powerhouse retailer.  Sears had, and wasted, the opportunity to be what Amazon has become.  Sears, a company that sold everything and was the best in the catalog shopping space, went stale and started to die.

Sears was convenience – before convenience was craved like it is today. Sears was also the nation’s top retailer from the 1950’s, through the 80’s.  It fell from the top spot but was still in the top 10 in the 90’s and 2000’s.

When I was very pregnant with my third child around Christmas in 1998, it was very hard to hold down a full-time job and shop for Christmas. I did my Christmas shopping through the Sears catalog: I made a list of everything I needed, placed a call, and about a week before Christmas, three very large boxes arrived on my doorstep. I was all set.  The Sears catalog was one of few pieces of advertising that people didn’t throw away. For me, that nearly 2 inch catalog sat on the top shelf of my coat closet along with the phonebook.

Sears already had all of the ingredients needed to adapt to ecommerce.  But they did not adapt effectively to the evolution of how people shop.  Sears filed for bankruptcy in October 2018 and is now restructuring in an attempt to survive.

In the meanwhile, Amazon, an internet bookseller, became the world’s internet superstore and it’s a company that sells everything.

Today’s world, both in business and in personal development, requires a constant evolution of strategy and tactics, and a keen awareness of the world around us. The moment you stop evolving, you fall behind.

What are some examples that you have seen of success (and failure) where you felt like in retrospect, we all should’ve seen it coming?