Don't Be Blackberry or Best Buy

Right now you are doing what you do. Has that changed at all in the last 2 or 3 years?

How often have you talked to your customers - especially the big ones - about what they need, want, will need in technology support?

Blackberry was the market leader in smartphones. (So was the Palm Treo.) When you don't pay attention to the marketplace - and don't talk to your customers - you lose. Apple re-defined the smartphone market. Blackberry never caught up. Palm gave up.

Best Buy is the largest electronics retailer in the US - about 20% of all consumer electronics are bought at BBY, but they have $1.7B in debt, Revenue Growth of 1.76%, and Profit Margin of 1.27%. The main reason they are in trouble is poor customer service and untrained sales people. (You can read about the disruption here from Shango.)

You can try to continue as a dumb pipe, but you need scale to make that work - or be a monopoly provider in your region.

Or you can talk to your customers about what they need - and see if you can provide it.

Another interesting article.