Skip to contentI have a keen interest in the business history of decision-making… particularly those decisions relating to change and digital disruption. This story is about Smith Corona and its business strategy decisions in the age of the birth of the personal computer.
We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing.
Smith Corona was the best typewriter company for … well, a long time leading to the late 1980s and the development of the personal computer. From then to the mid-1990s, they became a leader in technologies related to typewriters, such as:
Grammar checkers
Built-in dictionaries
Laptop word processor
PDA’s
So they had a strong foothold in personal computer word processing just as personal computers and word processing were in their infancy.
Interesting, no?
They were in a perfect position to transition from the typewriter market (which was soon to be digitally disrupted) to the word processing market.
But they didn’t pull the trigger. Why you may be thinking?
My view and takeaways:
They viewed the personal computer market as a rival technology and market.
They believed they could win the competition by continued improvements in typewriter technology.
They found it too difficult to give up their ‘cash cow’ market position for a new market (Even if you suspect the long-term forecast is pointing to your competition).
They were locked into one frame of reference and refused to consider alternative situational views.
It is all about the timing of decisions, the culture of change, and the ability to take risks. If you want to have any chance of avoiding digital disruption … you need to be able to make changes and do so before you have to.
It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.
