Ivory changed things up for manufacturers by selling floating soap and naming it something other than ‘SOAP.’
Sears changed things up for retailers by selling everything and anything through their amazing catalog.
The Trimotor, Boeing 247 and Douglas DC-3 threw the railroad industry for a tremendous loop-de-loop.
TV messed up newspapers, radio and the silver screen all of which are being thourougly flumoxed by the internet and smart phones today.
And of course there is our old friend the post office.
The lesson? Change happens. And it is always hard. Big change tends to blow away the established players. As Seth Godin writes — the establishment always says to new things, ‘But that’s a special case.’
No established company wants to see their investment in people, places and things go up in smoke simply because somebody came up with a new widget. Specially with something like the internet which seems to focus on FREE rather than BUY.
But that’s what happens. That’s why capitalism works out so well.
So you don’t like the way things are being run at your company. Start your own. Shake things up. Destroy some established capital. If you don’t, somebody else will.