50 Examples of Corporations That Failed To Innovate

50 EXAMPLES OF
CORPORATIONS
THAT FAILED TO INNOVATE
Change is
inevitable
and
innovation is
no different”
WELCOME
A lot of companies that experience innovation
success, grab onto it and believe that it’s their
secret to an everlasting success. This mindset
puts any company at risk of failure but refusing
to evolve with the market can be even more
devastating.
“Without a robust and resilient innovation strategy,

no company can survive,” says Phil McKinney, CEO
of CableLabs.
This E-book will cover 50 examples of corporations

that failed to innovate.
Table of
Contents
1 | Kodak 07
2 | Nokia 09
3 | Xerox 11
4 | Blockbuster 13
5 | Yahoo 15
6 | Segway 17
7 | IBM 19
8 | JCPenney 21
9 | Tie Rack 23
10 | Blackberry 25
11 | MySpace 27
12 | Sears 29
13 | Macy’s 31
14 | Hitachi 33
15 | Polaroid 35
16 | Commodore Corp 37
17 | Toshiba 39
18 | RadioShack 41
19 | Borders 43
20 | Motorola 45
21 | Palm 47
22 | Sony 49
23 | Pal Am 51
24 | National Geographic 53
25 | Nike 55
26 | Circus City 57
27 | Google 59
28 | Hummer 61
29 | Netscape 63
30 | Abercrombie & Fitch 65
31 | Atari 67
32 | MapQuest 69
33 | Toys R Us 71
34 | Pets.com 73
35 | HMV 75
36 | Tower Records 77
37 | Compaq 79
38 | Clinton Cards 81
39 | Enron 83
40 | Hostess 85
41 | General Motors 87
42 | American Online 89
43 | The Sharper Image 91
44 | TiVo 93
45 | Pebble 95
46 | XFL 97
47 | DeLorean Motor 99
48 | The Concorde 101
49 | The Daily 103
50 | Nortel 105
50 Examples of Corporations
Kodak
“We developed the world’s first
consumer digital camera but we
could not get approval to launch or
sell it because of fear of the effects
on the film market.”
- Don Strickland
Former vice-president of Kodak -
That Failed to Innovate
VALUER + 7
Kodak, a technology
company that dominated
the photographic film
market during most of the
20th century.
The company blew its chance

to lead the digital photography
revolution as they were in denial
for too long. Steve Sasson, the The management was so focused
Kodak engineer, actually invented on the film success that they
the first digital camera back in missed the digital revolution
1975. after starting it. Kodak filed for
bankruptcy in 2012.
“But it was filmless photography,
so management’s reaction was, Listen more: NPR’s fascinating
‘that’s cute—but don’t tell anyone dive into the downward spiral of
about it,” says Sasson. Kodak, “The End of Loyalty, The
Rise and Fall of Good Jobs in
The leaders of Kodak failed to see America” by Terry Gross.
digital photography as a disruptive
technology. A former vice-
president of Kodak Don Strickland
says:
“We developed the world’s first

consumer digital camera but we
could not get approval to launch
or sell it because of fear of the
effects on the film market.”
VALUER + 8
Nokia
“It wasn’t just that Nokia failed to
recognize the increasing importance
of software, though. It also
underestimated how important the
transition to smartphones would be.
And this was, in retrospect, a classic
case of a company being enthralled
(and, in a way, imprisoned) by its
past success.”
- James Surowiecki
The New Yorker’s Contributor -
Nokia, a company founded The company overestimated the

in Finland was the first to strength of its brand and believed
create a cellular network in they could arrive late in the
the world. In the late 1990s smartphone game and succeed.
and early 2000s, Nokia In 2007 Steve Jobs launched
was the global leader in the iPhone, a phone without a
mobile phones. keyboard, which was revolutionary
at the time. Really, watch the video
With the arrival of the Internet, and listen to people losing their
other mobile companies started minds the first time the watch
understanding how data, someone using a touchscreen.
not voice, was the future of In 2008 Nokia finally made the
communication. Nokia didn’t decision to compete with Android,
grasp the concept of software but it was too late. Their products
and kept focusing on hardware weren’t competitive enough.
because the management feared
to alienate current users if they The New Yorker article
changed too much. deconstructs “Where Nokia Went
Wrong” by James Surowiecki.
Nokia’s mistake was the fact that
they didn’t want to lead the drastic
change in user experience. This
caused Nokia to develop a mess
of an operating system with a bad
user experience that just wasn’t a
fit on the market.
VALUER + 10
Xerox
“Xerox’s failure to conquer the
personal computing market — this
despite developing revolutionary
technology — demonstrates the
importance of aligning all segments
of your organization in the pursuit of
innovation.”
- Maxwell Wessel
General Manager of SAP.iO -
Xerox was actually first to

invent the PC and their
product was way ahead of
its time.
Unfortunately, the management

thought going digital would be too
expensive and they never bothered
to exploit the opportunities they
had.
The CEO David Kearns was

convinced that the future of Xerox
was in copy machines. The digital
Douglas K. Smith and Robert C.
communication products invented
Alexander even wrote a book
weren’t seen as something that
about Xerox called: “Fumbling
could replace black marks on
the Future: How Xerox Invented,
white paper. Xerox failed to
then Ignored, the First Personal
understand that you can’t keep
Computer.”
perpetually making money on the
same technology.
VALUER + 12
Blockbuster
“The internet didn’t kill Blockbuster,
the company did it to itself.”
- Jonathan Salem Baskin

Forbes’s Contributor -
The video-rental company Netflix wanted Blockbuster to

was at its peak in 2004. advertise their brand in the
They survived the change stores while Netflix would run
from VHS to DVD but failed Blockbuster online. The idea got
to innovate into a market turned down by Antioco because
that allowed for delivery he thought it was ridiculous and
(much less streaming). that Netflix’s business model was
“niche business”.
While Netflix was shipping out
DVD’s to their consumer’s homes, Little did he know that Hasting’s
Blockbuster figured their physical idea would have saved
stores were enough to please their Blockbuster. In 2010 Blockbuster
customers. Because they had been filed for bankruptcy and Netflix is
the leader of the movie rental now a $28 billion dollar company.
market for years, management
didn’t see why they should change The Forbes article that aptly
their strategy. describes what exactly happened
to Blockbuster, “The internet didn’t
Back in 2000, the founder of kill Blockbuster, the company did it
Netflix Reed Hastings proposed a to itself.”
partnership to the former CEO of
Blockbuster John Antioco.
VALUER + 14
Yahoo
“What went wrong with Yahoo? It
was once worth almost $125 billion,
but today sold to Verizon for $5
billion.”
- Vindu Goel and Michael J. Merced

The New York Times’s Contributors -
In 2005 Yahoo was one For example, in 2002 they

of the main players in the almost had a deal to buy
online advertising market. Google, but the CEO of Yahoo
refused to go through with it.
But because Yahoo undervalued And in 2006 Yahoo had a deal
the importance of search, the to buy Facebook, but when
company decided to focus more Yahoo lowered their offer, Mark
on becoming a media giant. Zuckerberg backed out. If the
company had taken a few
The decision to focus more on additional risks, maybe we would
media meant they neglected all be yahooing right now instead
consumer trends and a need to of googling.
improve the user experience.
Yahoo managed to gain a massive Walter Frick of Harvard Business
number of viewers to view content Review breaks down what
but failed to make enough of a happened to Yahoo, “The decline
profit in order to scale. of Yahoo in its own words.”
Yahoo also missed out on a lot

of opportunities that could have
saved them.
VALUER + 16
Segway
“The Segway PT is a two-wheeled,
self-balancing battery electric vehicle
invented by Dean Kamen. It was
launched in 2001 in a blizzard of
publicity. Yet it has failed to gain
significant market acceptance and is
now something of a curiosity.”
- Paul Sloane -
The Segway was a personal

motorized scooter invented
and brought to the market
in 2001 was designed with
the intention of being a
revolutionary transportation
option.
An easier to use invention perfect

There were questions as to
for short journeys and more
whether it was safe for street
fuel efficient. Yet, Segway didn’t
handling. Many critics were
appeal to the masses and the
asking why would anyone invest
price matched that of a newer
in something that expensive which
motorcycle.
you were not allowed to use?
Even though the product was
Peter Shankman, one of the
revolutionary, the few that could
first five people in NYC to buy a
afford the $5,000 price tag were
segway said:
having difficulty finding practical
uses for it.
“The police didn’t know what to
do with it. I didn’t know where to
ride it. Plus every time I used it, I
got called lazy more times that I
could count. Not a good recipe for
success.”
These days the two-wheeler is now

mostly used by mall cops and tour
groups.
Jordan Golson of wired explains

why the market and pricing
was never meant for a segway
revolution.
VALUER + 18
IBM
“The key to success is massive
failure.”
- Thomas Watson
President IBM -
International Business
Machines (IBM), nicknamed
“Big Blue”, is an American
multinational technology
company that had its
breakthrough in the 1960s
with the IBM System/360 –
a family of computers Today, after going through several
designed to cover the transitions, IBM is one of the most
complete range of powerful names in enterprise
applications. software. They turned their luck
around with new management. An
In the early 1990s, IBM failed to ending that most companies don’t
adjust to the personal computer see.
revolution and thus began their
downfall. The company adjusted Jack Schofield breaks down what
their focus back on hardware went wrong at IBM and why their
instead of software solutions. master plan failed to deliver.
VALUER + 20
JCPenney
“JCPenney is in serious trouble.
There’s no sugarcoating it. The
department store chain, famous
for its Christmas catalogs, is losing
money — and customers. It has a lot
of debt. And not much cash.”
- Paul R. La Monica
CNN’s Contributor -
An American department
store, JCPenney, has
maintained as one of
the largest catalog retail
business in the US.
Their stores used to be the place

where you went to buy clothes for
work, church, and children. But By the time Mike Ullman took over
when the market around them was it was too late to fix the damages
changing, JCPenney couldn’t find that had been done. Today, their
its new niche and faced an identity online and catalog business is
crisis. what keeps them alive. And in
mid-2017 JCPenney stated they
Revenue started to dry up had lost about $62 million in
drastically when Ron Johnson took its second quarter, which lead
over as CEO in 2012. During his to another 127 stores getting
time at JCPenny, the company permanently closed.
lost about $985 million, 19,00
employees, and 138 stores were Panos Mourdoukoutas explains a
closed. This lead to the mass strategic mistake that still haunts
exodus of its loyal customers. JCPenney.
VALUER + 22
Tie Rack
“Tie Rack is simply a victim of
changing circumstances. You just
don’t need a standalone tie shop
any more, as fewer people are
wearing ties and there are plenty of
other outlets where people can buy
shirts and ties.”
- Neil Saunders
Retail Analyst Conlumino -
This British tie retailer,

founded in 1981, failed to
do its research about men’s
shopping behavior.
Their stores only sold scarves, ties,

and cufflinks, but it turned out
men were mostly buying their ties
when they bought shirts.
Even though Tie Rack offered

quality ties, it wasn’t enough to
wow its target. In 1999 the chain
store was bought by Frandi SpA
Group and has since benefited
from being able to sell its products
under their brand.
Rob Davies and Kieran Corcoran

from Mail Online write where Tie
Rack went wrong.
VALUER + 24
Blackberry
“BlackBerry thought it had more time
and room for error than it actually
did”
“Focusing on the tens of millions of

customers it already had, BlackBerry
missed out on the billions that were
to come.”
- Vlad Svov
The Verge’s Contributor -
BlackBerry, a line of
smartphones and tablets,
was a smashing success in
1998.
They changed the game in the

mobile industry by offering a
device with an arched keyboard.
Their encryption even into the
early 2000s was second to none
but they weren’t thinking of user “Under this strategy, we are
experience. focusing on software development,
including security and
Just a few years later the entire applications.”
mobile industry started focusing on
bigger touchscreen displays, while The company plans to end all
BlackBerry was more concerned internal hardware development
about protecting what it already and will outsource that function to
had. Failing to adapt to changes, partners.
in 2017 the CEO John Chen
announced that BlackBerry was “This allows us to reduce capital
out the smartphone manufacturing requirements and enhance return
business and that the company on invested capital,” adds John
has built a new strategy. Chen.
Vlad Savov of The Verge explains

why “Blackberry’s success led to its
failure.” That Failed to Innovate
VALUER + 26
MySpace
“MySpace, though clearly the
dominant player, got complacent
and never innovated.”
- Chunka Mui
MySpace, a website that

was once the dominating
social networking until
Facebook came onto the
scene.
Funny enough, in 2005 Myspace

CEO Chris DeWolfe actually met In 2011 the company changed
up with Facebook founder Mark its focus from social networking
Zuckerberg to discuss business to entertainment and music only.
together. Mark offered to sell But later that year MySpace fired
Facebook to Myspace for $75 nearly 500 employees after a
million, which Chris ended up sustained loss of users.
saying no to.
Amy Lee describes how the social
Because of the growth of network fell apart.
Facebook, MySpace started
seeing a decline of their users
and decided to change its niche.
The flexibility and free expression
allowed on the myspace platform
was once its biggest differentiator
had become the most common
reason for users leaving.
VALUER + 28
Sears
“Sears was once the king of retailers.
Now it’s a cash-starved shell of itself
whose very survival is in doubt.”
- Chris Isidore
CNN’s Contributor -
The competitors shifted away from

the general store model, while
Sears found it difficult to adapt to
the changing consumer tastes. The
management of Sears was certain
that a discount store such Walmart
wasn’t competition for Sears.
Sears, a department store The company to this day continues

company, had one the to experience declining in-store
tallest towers in the world foot traffic and sales because
in 1973 and was in general they have a tough time shifting
a success. to digital. Sears continues to lose
money and is cutting the hours,
But when a new generation of pay and headcount of retail staff
large retailers like Walmart and to save cash. This all causing the
Kmart came around, Sears lost stores and customer experience to
sight of what they were good at. worsen. Recently Sears announced
that they are closing about 166
Sears used to be a place that stores nationwide.
helped conjure dreams of a better
American life, offering anything Mark Milke breaks down why
from dresses to sewing machines. Sears failed.
VALUER + 30
Macy’s
“Macy’s recently announced its tenth
consecutive quarter of declining
comparable store sales. Ten negative
quarters is not a blip. It’s not an
anomaly. It’s more than just a trend.
It is, in fact, signaling the potential
of a catastrophic failure of the
business.”
- Mark Cohen
Macy’s, an American Because Macy’s said no to the

department store chain idea, a company called QVC was
that still to this day is started shortly after and is now
known as America’s largest one of the biggest competitors
department store. to Macy’s. Instead of forcing
customers to go to an actual store,
Built more than 100 years ago, the store came to them via the
the store had it all and was a huge QVC channel. It worked because
success. People loved Macy’s so it was more convenient to the
much that two couples even got customers.
married at the department store.
Today, Macy’s CEO Terry
In 1980 Macy’s was presented Lundgren is under the impression
with a bold idea: Why not start a that shoppers prefer to shop in
cable television channel selling the bricks and mortar stores. But
their merchandise? But Macy’s the numbers say otherwise, as
thought they knew their customers revenue continues to fall.
well and wanted to keep their
concept of a traditional store.
VALUER + 32
Hitachi
“The electronics industry isn’t what it
used to be. Time was when gadget
makers could inspire lust in certain
segments of consumerdom, charge
high prices and come away with
healthy profits.
These days, the electronics industry
finds itself dealing with a different
kind of Japanese consumer, one who
cares about price and only price. As
a result, the industry has fallen into a
fragile situation.”
- Hiroaki Nakanishi
Hitachi Chairman -
Japanese brand Hitachi

used to be an electronic
giant together with Sony,
Panasonic, and Sharp.
It was one of those brands

that you’d spot in almost every
household. Now the company is
losing billions of dollars a year.
The reason? The digital revolution.
The electronics industry has

changed, where consumers don’t Gerhard Fasolt, an economist,
have as high of a desire for their thinks:
high price products. The digital
revolution not only changed the “Look at Apple, they make iPods
way electronic gadgets work, and iPhones. Apple makes at
they changed the way they are least 50% profit margins on
manufactured. those. People say iPhones are
made in China, but maybe only
3% of the value of an iPhone
stays in China. So it’s hard to
become rich today on the scale
of just by manufacturing – you
have to do a lot more”.In 2012
Hitachi announced that they will
stop manufacturing TVs, but the
factory used for it will instead start
producing projectors and chips.
Hitachi’s chairman Hiroaki

Nakanishi gives his opinion on
the brand’s opportunities now and
what went wrong.
VALUER + 34
Polaroid
“There’s a nostalgia to instant
photography for generations of
consumers who grew up with it, and
there’s a novelty to it for generations
of consumers who grew up in the
digital age and have never held
an actual photo in their hands until
recently.”
- Scott W. Hardy
Polaroid’s President and CEO -
Founded in 1937, Polaroid “People were betting on hard

was one of America’s early copy and media that was going to
high-tech success stories. be pick-up-able, visible, seeable,
touchable, as a photograph would
The company became a hit 1972 be. It’s amazing, but kids today
when they introduced the SX-70, don’t want hard copy anymore.
the camera that superseded the This was the major mistake we
old peel-back Polaroids with a all made: Mac Booth, Gary
picture that developed as you DiCamillo, people after me….
watched. In the late 90’s Polaroid That was a major hypothesis that
was at its peak. I believed in my marrow that was
wrong.”
In 2001, due to the boom of
digital photography, the company There might still be hope for the
filed for bankruptcy. The leaders of type of photos and nostalgia
the company continued to believe that only comes with a Polaroid
paper print was what customers camera. In recent years the
wanted. Gary DiCamillo, CEO of demand for instant cameras has
Polaroid from 1995-2001, said in grown significantly. Polaroid’s
an interview: President and CEO Scott W.Hardy
states:
“There’s a nostalgia to instant

photography for generations of
consumers who grew up with
it, and there’s a novelty to it for
generations of consumers who
grew up in the digital age and
have never held an actual photo in
their hands until recently.”
VALUER + 36
Commodore
Corp
“Computers for the masses, not the
classes”
- Commodore’s Slogan -
In the 1970s and 1980s,

Commodore’s desktop computers
were a success.
Due to their lower resources and

economy of scale, Commodore
couldn’t keep up with the PC
advancements. Their customers
started to complain about the
custom ECS chipsets, which failed
to match the features of the PC
and Mac display hardware at
the time. Commodore failed to
innovate and filed for bankruptcy
in 1994.
Listen to an interview with

Commodore’s former director
David John Pleasance and Trevor
Dickinson on why the company
failed.
VALUER + 38
Toshiba
“There were a few laptops out
before then but they all had
compromises. That’s why Toshiba got
off to a fast start. We had a laptop
that performed like a desktop.”
- John Rehfeld
Toshiba’s Former Employee -
Another Japanese company The Internet killed Toshiba’s

that used to be a tech giant growth, people were buying their
is now struggling to stay competitors computers for lower
alive. prices online. In 2016 Toshiba
announced that they would
Back in the mid-1980s, Toshiba stop making PCs for European
was one of the world’s most consumers, but will continue to sell
innovative companies. During that computers to businesses in Europe
time they launched the T1100, and the US.
its first mass-market laptop. John
Rehfeld, a former employee of In 2017 Toshiba announced that
Toshiba who helped sell the laptop they are considering selling its
overseas said: prized memory chip business to
pay down debt. Later that year the
“There were a few laptops out world’s second-largest producer
before then but they all had of NAND memory chips Bain-Led
compromises. That’s why Toshiba Group stated that they bought the
got off to a fast start. We had chip business for $18 billion.
a laptop that performed like a
desktop.” Josh Horwitz explains “How it took
Toshiba 70 years to reach its peak
and just a decade to fall into an
abyss.”
VALUER + 40
RadioShack
“I wouldn’t even call this a failure.
I’d call it an assisted suicide.”
- Scott Galloway
New York University’s Professor -
RadioShack, an American The campaign didn’t go so well,

retailer founded in 1921 because, for the public, it just
operated a chain of sounded ridiculous. The critics
electronics stores for more found that this strategy just
than 50 years. showed the company had more
problems than just its name.
The company was at its peak
in 1999 when it was known for The company completely
supplying the best and latest missed the “maker movement.”
electronics. A movement where DIYers
applied their work onto tech-
Competition with Amazon and and engineering pursuits. By
Walmart and RadioShack’s failed the time RadioShack caught on,
attempts to spice up their game and engineering pursuits. By
with new marketing strategies, the time RadioShack caught on,
lead them further into the red. customers were already sourcing
Smartphones also lead to a their materials elsewhere. On top
decline in Radioshack’s sales as of this, RadioShack lacked the
the modern smartphone could do inventory that many of the DIYers
nearly everything that radioshack were looking for.
sold, see an old ad for radioshack
sales on reddit. In 2015 RadioShack filed for
bankruptcy and since 2017,
In 2009 RadioShack had a craving RadioShack has only 28 remaining
to sound more hip so they started corporate locations, which are
calling itself as “The Shack”. currently owned by General
Wireless Operations.
VALUER + 42
Borders
“All good stories must to come to
an end, and Borders bookstore is no
exception to this rule. The 40-year-
old book seller announced earlier
this week that it will be closing all
remaining stores and laying off
10,700 employees after a failed
attempt to sell the company at
auction. Even though it’s a very un-
fairy tale ending for the nation’s
second-largest bookstore chain, we
know it had a good, long run.”
- Business Insurance -
Borders Group opened its

first bookstore in 1971 and
they were a success for
years.
But in the mid- 2000s Borders

failed to adapt to new
technologies and never embraced
the Internet like Amazon and
Barnes & Noble. As more people
began to order their books online,
the fading of a giant like Borders Borders opened too many
was inevitable. stores making it harder to shed
unprofitable locations and there
Amazon Kindle came out on in were many. In 2011 Borders filed
2007, Barnes & Noble debuted for bankruptcy, closing 399 stores
Nook in 2009 and Apple’s iPad and laying off 10,700 employees.
launched in 2010. Border’s Kobo
(which is still alive) came out a Listen here: Why Borders Failed
little too late in 2011. It wasn’t just While Barnes & Noble Survived, by
the Internet and competition that Yuki Noguchi.
killed the company, it was their
overall strategy.
VALUER + 44
Motorola
“Battery lifetime was 20 minutes,
but that wasn’t really a big problem
because you couldn’t hold that
phone up for that long.”
- Marty Cooper
Motorola’s Vice President -
Motorola demonstrated
the first handheld phone in
1973.
The brands vice-president Marty

Cooper said:
“Battery lifetime was 20 minutes,

but that wasn’t really a big
problem because you couldn’t hold
that phone up for that long.”
Even though Motorola kept

producing various versions of its
cellphone, they failed to see that Essentially, Motorola didn’t
customers wanted innovation in implement 21st-century
software rather than hardware. communication to its products,
making it hard to compete with
Clearly lacking market knowledge, smartphones on the market.
Motorola’s new products in the On August 2011 Motorola was
early 2000s weren’t enough to acquired by Google.
grow the business. The products
weren’t user-friendly and Motorola Motorola CEO Greg Brown states
completely missed the movement in an interview that “Failure was
to 3G. our fault, not economy.”
VALUER + 46
Palm
“Palm just couldn’t find the formula
for over-the-air synchronization with
Microsoft Outlook, which business
users demand and RIM nailed with
its BlackBerry device.”
- ZDNet -
According to ZDNet,
“Palm just couldn’t find the formula

for over-the-air synchronization
with Microsoft Outlook, which
business users demand and RIM
nailed with its BlackBerry device.”
David Meyer of Fortune thinks

Palm might be overdue for a
Palm, one of the top three comeback in 2018.
companies that dominated
the market for Personal
Digital Assistants (PDAs).
These were the predecessors of

the first smartphones in 2005.
Because of the launch of Apple’s
iPhone and BlackBerry, Palm was
unable to respond to its success.
The company was too slow to
realize that smartphone customers
wanted wireless voice and data
from the device.
VALUER + 48
Sony
“The bottom line is: if you want to
be perceived as a creator of cool
tech, you have to create cool tech.
The challenge for Sony is that those
examples have not been there, and
they haven’t been there now for a
number of years.”
- Steve Beck
Founder of CG42-
Sony, a manufacturer
of electronic products,
changed the way we listen
to music with the invention
of the Walkman in 1979.
By the 90s Walkman was a must

have gadget for every teen. It was
the iPhone of its day. But when
MP3 players were introduced
to the market, the sales of the The company was too afraid to
Walkman started to drop. The test out something new, thinking it
iconic Walkman was killed by the would threaten their compatibilities
MP3 players, which were later on the market. John Kay explains
killed by smartphones. in an article “Why Sony did not
invent the iPod.”
Sony didn’t adapt to technological
innovations such as digitalization, Hipsters still love the Sony
the shift towards software, and the Walkman. There’s always room
growth of illegally downloadable for nostalgia.
music online. Sony actually had
the technology to launch a product
even better than the iPod, but it
never happened.
VALUER + 50
Pan Am
“it’s no wonder that, coupled with
bad press, fear, a lack of travel
agents and of public confidence,
Pan Am’s fate was sealed -- crushing
at the same time the lives, hopes
and dreams of thousands of hard-
working Americans and many
overseas employees of the Pan Am
family.”
- The Washington Post -

Pan American World

Airways, an airline that was
once known as a brand
ahead of its time.
The airline became a major

company credited with many
innovations, such as jet aircraft
and jumbo jets, that shaped
the airline industry today. The
company was a cultural icon of Trust was lost from its customers
the 20th century. and Pan Am was associated with
being the “unsafe” choice of
Their slogan “World’s Most airlines.
Experienced Airline” was accurate.
Because of tragic accidents and Their innovative ideas couldn’t
terrorist attacks, Pan Am suffered save the company so in 1991 Pan
a reputational set back that they Am went bankrupt and shut down.
couldn’t recover from.
VALUER + 52
National
Geographic
“For the same reason I read the
National Geographic, I like to see
places I will never visit.”
- Edward Bernays -
The company was presented with

an idea to start a new NG cable
channel in the 1980s. The idea
was refused and the group of
producers who pitched the idea
decided to do their own thing
and launched Discovery Channel
along with the History Channel
and others.
One of the most respected
brands in history, National Seeing their success, National
Geographic started as Geographic decided to launch
the official magazine of their own cable and satellite
the National Geographic channel a little too late in 1997.
Society published
continuously since 1888.
A magazine that mastered the art

of visual storytelling and inspired
photographers and filmmakers all
over the world. The magazine was
able to capture images never seen
before and spread them to every
corner of the globe.
These were the first pioneers of

amazing content.
VALUER + 54
Nike
“Considering Nike did such a good
job setting the pace, it’s a shame
the firm is dropping out now the real
race is underway. It seems like such
a missed opportunity.”
- Chris Smith
Wareable’s Contributor -
An anonymous post on a platform

called Secret revealed:
“The douchebag execs at Nike

are going to lay off a bunch of
the eng team who developed
The FuelBand, and other Nike+
stuff. Mostly because the execs
A bracelet for fitness- committed gross negligence,
tracking, Nike FuelBand, wasted tons of money, and didn’t
was launched in 2012 know what they were doing.”
by Nike.
Even though people loved the idea
There was a lot of hype around it of having a cool wearable, the
because it represented the future product wasn’t really a necessity
of wearable computing. that needed to exist. Nike is now
continuing to improve the product
It didn’t go all that well for Nike. but plans on exiting the wearable
Some time after the launch, device business and sticking to
almost 50 people were fired from software.
the Nike FuelBand team due to
the failure on the marketplace. Chris Smith explains the rise
The gadget didn’t take off on the and fall of Nike Fuel Band “The
market as Nike expected. wearable that started it all.”
VALUER + 56
Circuit City
“Circuit City got its start as Wards
TV, which had a bustling showroom
in Richmond, Va., in 1960. The
Rise and Fall of Circuit City The
Richmond-based retailer became
wildly successful — and then
disappeared.”
- Jessue Romero -
Circuit City was an

American multinational
consumer electronics
retail company founded
in 1949 and was one of
the pioneers in 1970s
in marketing televisions,
stereos, and boomboxes. To save money Circuit City fired
3,400 of its most experienced
In the 1990s, Circuit City tried salespeople. Best Buy had better
out a concept of mass retailing products and customer service.
automobiles called “CarMax,” People started complaining about
where the company built big lot the lack of knowledge of its
inventories for used vehicles. salespeople and that the stores
Consumers were able to pick out were too big and impersonal.
and customize the vehicles they
wanted. The concept was a hit, but In 2008 Circuit City announced
during that time the company let that it will close 155 stores and
a lot of talented management go filed for bankruptcy.
and thus began the downfall.
Jessie Romero gives an in-depth
Their competitor, Best Buy, started look at what happened to Circuit
taking off and Circuit City didn’t City in his article: “The Rise and
know how to compete. Fall of Circuit City.”
VALUER + 58
Google
“Two and a half years after S ergey
Brin unveiled Google Glass with a
group of skydivers jumping from a
zeppelin above San Francisco, the
computer you wear on your face
is falling to its death. It’s still not
a finished consumer product. It’s
not even close to being something
people yearn for, at least not
beyond the Glass Explorers who
each paid $1,500 for early access.”
- Rachel Metz
MIT Technology Review -
An American multinational
technology company
specialized in Internet-
related services and
products are known for
being one of the most
innovative companies in the
world.
The Daily Show’s Jason Jones, put
Remember the days when the out a scathing report about some
Internet was hyping up the Google of the fanatics of Google Glass
Glass? The product was one of as the technology’s popularity
the first large-scale attempts at spiraled downward.
capitalizing on artificial reality. The
buzz around the product was crazy Google is now looking into ways
and it had so much potential. But to better integrate the tech within
when the product launched in the glasses for a more usual look.
2015, its high price and privacy But they are nothing compared to
concerns never made the product the Vaunt’s new AR glasses.
to go mainstream.
Google Glass had a vocal and

passionate fanbase but it wasn’t
catching on with the masses.
VALUER + 60
Hummer
“It is a great, great vehicle that
really does anything you want it to
do,” Mr. Hill said. “It had a great
concept to it. It’s a real shame that
it’s going away, because the people
who own Hummers, they just love
them.”
- Nick Bunkley
The New York Times’s Contributor -
Hummer, a vehicle that

was first created for the
military, was made famous
by Arnold Schwarzenegger
who purchased the first
civilian Hummer.
It was a big, expensive and tough

vehicle that fit the action hero’s A gas guzzler; the H1 was
reported to get a whopping 8-12
image.The car was nothing more
mpg (Miles Per Gallon). During the
than a status symbol. It showed
peak of the 2000s energy crises,
power and wealth, but now it just
sales of this vehicle plummeted for
raises eyebrows and concerns,
“gas-sippers” instead. Sales went
as consumers have become
down and the brand shut down in
increasingly environmentally
2009.
conscious with their purchases.
Give a closer read to how the

There was an element of shame
military truck took off in Martin
in many popular television
Padgett’s book “Hummer: How
shows that quickly cast broad
the Little Truck Company Hit the
generalizations onto its owners in
Big Time, Thanks to Saddam,
a negative light. Nobody wants
Schwarzenegger, and GM.”
to look and feel awful driving an
expensive new car in this day and
age.
VALUER + 62
Netscape
“Netscape’s story reads like a
proper fairy tale: takeovers, fierce
and hostile competition, split-ups,
a giant payout and even a dragon!
While Netscape may now only be a
sweet, sweet memory to those who
used it to first discover the web, the
browser’s monstrous impact has
cemented it as one of the first and
most important startups to shape the
internet. ”
- Sean Cooper
Engadget -
Netscape was one of the

most popular internet
browsers in the late 90s
and was a favorite for
academia in early days of
the internet when dial-up
was the most common way Sean Cooper explains the
to access the internet. companies downfall in his
article “Whatever happened to
Once an independent Internet Netscape?”
browsing service, Netscape is now
owned by Oath. The company
was built with an outstanding
technological innovation mixed
with a great leadership. But the
company lost its battle to Internet
Explorer and other competitors.
VALUER + 64
Abercrombie
& Fitch
“Sex sells. That’s why we hire
good-looking people in our stores.
Because good-looking people attract
other good-looking people, and we
want to market to cool, good-looking
people. We don’t market to anyone
other than that.”
- Mike Jeffries
A&F’s CEO -
American fashion brand “Sex sells. That’s why we hire

Abercrombie & Fitch was good-looking people in our stores.
once one of the trendiest Because good-looking people
casual wear and accessory attract other good-looking people,
brands in the early 2000’s. and we want to market to cool,
good-looking people. We don’t
Their main target was teenagers market to anyone other than that.”
who in the 2000’s were influenced
by the pop culture that shaped On top of that statement, one of
the way teens wanted to look and A&E district managers added:
dress.
“We would rather burn clothes
Times have changed and the than give them to poor people.”
large logos, high prices, and This all causing a scandal that
brand affiliation don’t appeal to a the brand couldn’t recover from.
younger audience. “Fast Fashion” The store is now completely out of
brands like H&M, Forever 21, and touch with its target audience.
Charlotte Russe, offer a constantly
revolving selection of cheap Even though the brand is
clothing at a fraction of the price. desperately trying to rebrand, it
still remains as one of the most
Abercrombie now just comes off hated brands in the U.S. Here’s
as outdated and offensive now to a deeper look at Fast Fashion
teens. In 2006 the CEO of A&E and why teens are ditching older
Mike Jeffries stated: brands for cheaper alternatives.
VALUER + 66
Atari
“Although the PlayStation and Xbox
generation might find it difficult to
believe, Atari is one of the most
important names in video game
history and the news of its recent
bankruptcy marked a sad day for the
industry.”
- Mark Langshaw
Digital Spy -
Atari was a pioneer in

arcade games, home video
game consoles and home
computers.
Their innovative products such

as Pong and Atari 2600 were
the games that helped define the
electronic entertainment industry
in the 1970s. Once you had that property tie-in,
that’s all there was to a game,” he
Their views towards gaming as an said-
industry were flawed. They viewed
gaming as an individual process “All you needed was something
rather than a shared experience to stick in a box and sell.
which was the complete opposite Development got shorted.”
of their original design.
Former Atari developer Howard Mark Langshaw gives his
Scott Warshaw said in an interview perspective about Atari in his
that: article “The rise and fall of a
gaming giant.”
“Under the leadership of CEO
Ray Kassar, Atari underwent a
transformation from being a
technically innovative company to
one focused on licensed games.
VALUER + 68
MapQuest
“Mapquest arguably “owns” the
mapping brand online. It has been
the dominant mapping site for
years by a wide margin. But that
dominance may now be slipping
under pressure from Google. ”
- Greg Sterling
Search Engine Land -
MapQuest used to be one

of the best options for a
web mapping service.
Before satellite navigation

hardware or Google Maps and
Apple Maps took over, people
were getting driving directions
from MapQuest.
The company failed to adapt to

changes, their service isn’t as
popular as it used to be. When Somewhere along the way
Google Maps launched in 2008 Mapquest lost is way, in terms
the traffic to Mapquest remained of their primary mission, which
flat year after year and went down was all about simple, informative
20% in the first 6 months, while directions. If you compare Google
Google Maps site traffic soared Maps and Mapquest now, the
135%.from MapQuest. Mapquest interface is a mess,
where it’s hard to even understand
where to look at.
VALUER + 70
Toys R Us
“Barring a last-minute buyer, Toys
‘R’ Us will soon disappear from U.S.
shopping centers, but the name
and its iconic Geoffrey the Giraffe
mascot are likely to survive for
another generation of Toys ‘R’ Us
kids.”
- Del Wilmington
Reuters’s Contributor -
In 2017 the company filed for

bankruptcy, because of its huge
debt and retail competition. But
the physical stores continue to be
open.
A kids toy retailer, Toys R
Us, was once one of the Gary Vaynerchuk shares his
largest toy store chains. passionate description of what
went wrong with the toy giant.fro
The brand signed its own death
when signing a 10-year contract
to be an exclusive vendor of toys
on Amazon.
Despite the deal, Amazon allowed

other toy vendors to sell on its
site too. Toys R Us sued, but as
a result, missed the opportunity
to develop its own e-commerce
presence. m MapQuest.
VALUER + 72
Pets.com
“You should be so lucky to create
a brand icon and a company that
achieved over $45M in revenue in
nine months --leaving its competition
in the dust and have a management
team around you that makes hard
decisions.”
- Julie Wainwright
Former Pets.com CEO -
Pets.com, launched in
1998, used to be an
online business selling pet
accessories and supplies.
At first, it was a success, but

because there was no plug and
play solutions for e-commerce
management and customer
service that could scale.
Due to the brand’s weak

fundamentals and poor timing,
their 300 million dollar investment
capital vanished along with the
company in 2000 during the dot.
com bubble. Now Pets.com is the
main example of the flop from the Former Pets.com CEO Julie
dot.com bubble. Wainwright gave an interview
where she explains the real reason
Their famous marketing the business bloomed and failed.
campaign, which was a sock
puppet running around the streets
interviewing people is a remnant
of an era that promised so much
delivered very little.
VALUER + 74
HMV
“HMV could have put together a
strong online offering when the
going was good in the late 90s, but
instead it took a wrong turn.”
- The Guardian -
CD, VHS and video game

retailer HMV is a brand that
was popular in the 1990s.
It was known as the place
to browse.
But the company began

to struggle with the digital
disruptions. At first, HMV refused
to believe the bloom of online
retailers or that people will start
downloading music. The leaders In 2013, Hilco Capital purchased
of the company felt confident HMV, taking the company out of
about their brand and loyal administration and saving 141 of
customers who in their heads its stores.
loved coming to the shop for the
floor experience. Philip Beeching gives his opinion
on why he thinks HMV failed.
VALUER + 76
Tower
Records
“Tuesday mornings, I would be at
Tower Records,” John says in the
film. “And it was a ritual, and it
was a ritual I loved. I mean, Tower
Records had everything. Those
people knew their stuff. They were
really on their ball. I mean, they just
weren’t employees that happened
to work at a music store. They were
devotees of music.”
- Elton John -
A retail music chain that

was first to create the
concept of the retail music
store. In the stores, you
could get CDs, cassette
tapes, DVDs, electronic
gadgets, video games, and
accessories.
Despite the success at first, Tower It was fast and easy to get music
Records couldn’t keep up with for free. Solomon that shows
digital disruptions such as music the journey of the brand and its
piracy and streaming services. legacy. Tower Records filed for
Napster, a peer-to-peer file bankruptcy in 2004 due to its
sharing Internet service, spread large debts. Total revenue from
like a virus when it launched in U.S music sales plunged to $6.3
1999. And so began the downfall billion in 2008.
of the record industry.
“All Things Must Pass: The Rise
and Fall of Tower Records” is a
Even after the death of Napster,
documentary by its founder Russ
people were able to download
Solomon that shows the journey of
music from the Internet through
the brand and its legacy.
illegal services such as Limewire,
Kazaa, BitTorrent.
VALUER + 78
Compaq
“Compaq had a storied life that
included 15 years at the top of the
PC industry, but its fall came swiftly
in 2001. Why did Compaq fail?
Because it got distracted.”
- Dave Farquhar -
Compaq was a company

founded in 1982 that sold,
developed, and supported
computers. It used to be
one of the largest sellers of
PCs in the 1990s.
They produced some of the first

IBM PC compatible computers,
being the first company to legally
reverse engineer the IBM Personal
Computer. The company struggled
to keep up with the price wars
against Dell and was acquired for
25 billion dollars by HP in 2002.
The brand remained in use by HP
until 2013.
David L. Farquhar gives his

opinion about Compaq in his
article “Why did Compaq fail?”
VALUER + 80
Clinton Cards
“Clinton Cards was once a mainstay
of nearly every shopping centre in
Britain. As the Lewin family that
founded the chain always said:
“Birthdays and anniversaries never
go out of fashion.” But today it
looks as if it will collapse into
administration, putting more than
8,000 jobs at risk.”
- Harry Wallop
The Telegraph’s Contributor -
Known for their greeting

cards, Clinton Cards used
to hold a 25% share of the
greeting card market.
Their appeal to their customers

were their physical stores on
the high streets of UK. When
everything started to shift online,
their stores started losing the
appeal and Clinton Cards became
a dying business. The brand was bought by
American Greetings in 2012 and
Clinton Card’s philosophy, renamed to Clintons.
“birthdays and anniversaries never
go out of fashion” wasn’t exactly Harry Wallop gives his opinion on
accurate. The way we gifted for what happened to Clinton Cards
these occasions changed, not the in his article “Clinton Cards: what
popularity of the occasion. went wrong.”
VALUER + 82
Enron
“The story of Enron Corp. is the story
of a company that reached dramatic
heights, only to face a dizzying fall.
Its collapse affected thousands of
employees and shook Wall Street to
its core. At Enron’s peak, its shares
were worth $90.75; when it declared
bankruptcy on December 2, 2001,
they were trading at $0.26.”
- Investopedia -
Enron Corporation was The CEO of that time Jeffrey

an American energy, Skilling had been hiding the losses
commodities, and services from the company.
company, which was
named as America’s most When Ken Lay took over as CEO
innovative company by in 2001 Enron’s broadband
Fortune from 1996 to division reported a massive
2001. $137 million loss. In December,
Enron filed for bankruptcy and
At the end of the 1990s, the in 2002 the Justice Department
Dotcom Bubble was on the rise launched a criminal investigation,
and Enron decided to participate where Enron’s accounting firm,
by creating Enron Online in 1999, Arthur Andersen was convicted of
an electronic trading website. By obstructing justice.
mid-2000 EOL was executing
nearly $350 billion in trades. Troy Segel deconstructs and
analyses the “Enron Scandal”:
That same year the dotcom bubble “The Fall of a Wall Street Darling.”
burst and Enron quickly began
building high-speed broadband
telecom networks. This project
ended up costing a fortune for the
company with no return in profit.
VALUER + 84
Hostess
“The Hostess story is a microcosm of
larger economic and political issues
on the national stage, including
the perils of debt and the inertia of
unions on workplace reform.”
- Susan Adams
Later on, fueled by the huge

demand of nostalgic fans, the
brand was rescued by a billionaire
Dean
Metropoulos and re-opened

as Hostess Brands. In 2015 the
company gained a $2 billion win.
Susan Adams gives her opinion on

“Why Hostess had to die.”
Long gone are the days

when almost every kid in
America had a Twinkie in
their lunchbox.
Due in part to a “healthier” snack

craze that has more consumers
watching their nutrition, the
purchasing of twinkies dwindled.
Yet Hostess continued to churn out
highly processed foods.
Their failure to keep up with taste

trends and rebrand themselves
caused them to file for bankruptcy
in 2012 laying off its 18,500
workers and putting its snack
brands up for sale. Metropoulos
and re-opened as Hostess Brands.
VALUER + 86
General
Motors
“GM makes cars people don’t want.
GM is too slow to innovate because
of its size. GM is too bureaucratic
and unable to adjust to changing
markets. GM’s dealer network is
too large. GM sold off its formerly
profitable financing business
GMAC.”
- Harvard Business Review -

General Motors (GM),

was a corporation that
used to design, market,
manufacture, and distribute
vehicles and vehicle parts.
Founded in 1908, the company

was the largest automobile
manufacturer from 1932 through
2007.
By failing to innovate and ignoring

General Motors Company
the competition, GM found
(GMC) was founded in 2009 and
themselves at the doorstep of the
purchased the majority of the
largest bankruptcy in American
assets of the old company.
history. The company leaders only
cared about making a profit and
A relatively unknown joint venture
they chose not to invest parts or
between Toyota and GM in
products that were reliable.
California during the summer of
1984, was the result of an unlikely
They avoided investing in new
pairing of two competitors. The
technologies that could have
partnership was named NUMMI
improved the quality of its product
(New United Motor Manufacturing
to meet the changing needs of
Inc). Both Toyota and GM agreed
customers. The current company,
to come together and processes
and “secrets” in order to build
more innovative cars for the
American public. Ultimately
NUMMI was a failure, but the
lessons learned allowed GM to
continue to innovate and learn
from its mistakes years into the
future.
Must Listen: NPR tells the story of

what was learned by two large

corporations with NUMMI.
VALUER + 88
American
Online
“AOL, the one-time king of media,
is a shadow of its former self. Its
deal for Time Warner is regarded as
the high-water mark of the dot-com
bubble.”
- The New York Times -

In the mid-1990s America Later in 2000, AOL attempted to

Online (AOL) was one of the merge with Time Warner, a large
only providers of the Internet media company. A deal that was
together with Trumpet Winsock. worth an estimated $350 billion,
Their Instant Messenger platform fell flat for a slew of reasons
was one of the best messaging resulting in the biggest failed
apps when it first came out. But merger of the 21st century. AOL’s
because of Microsoft’s Messenger attempts to rebrand failed and
AOL feared losing its customers in 2015 AOL was acquired by
and failed to come up with a new Verizon Communications.
strategy. Additionally, the decline
of dial-up and rise of broadband The New York Times released an
led to a rapid decline in monthly in-depth article on “AOL’s History
customers. of Growth and Decline”.
VALUER + 90
The Sharper
Image
“The chain’s downfall came because
it remained the same—stainless steel
tools that streamlined “your life by
.002 percent”—while the rest of the
world changed.”
- Jason Chen -
The Sharper Image, a

consumer electronics and
lifestyle product company,
was founded in 1977 and
got massively popular
due to its Ionic Breeze
air purifier. The business
grew into a $760 million
company with 196 stores.
Things started to shift for The Because the air purifiers criticism,
Sharper Image In 2005. While the masses of people started returning
rest of the world was changing the faulty item. The company was
The Sharper Image remained the losing so much money that in
same while also making a lot of 2008 The Sharper Image declared
strategic missteps. The company bankruptcy and closed down 90
depended too much on the air out of its 196 stores.
purifiers success and Consumers
Reports started questioning the Jason Chen explains exactly what
safety of the product. went wrong with Sharper Image.
VALUER + 92
TiVo
“Business model innovations sound
great as a strategy and if successful
you can create a new market and
escape the traditional competitors
in your ex-industry. But the most
important point in any innovation
is not to have an idea, is not great
execution, but the adoption of the
innovation by customers. And
that is the crux of business model
innovation: The diffusion of the
innovation. The TiVo is a perfect
example.”
- Business Model Innovation -

After VCR’s began fading into

obscurity, there was a gap in the
market for people that wanted
to record their favorite show and
avoid commercials. Tivo was one
of the first digital video recording
(DVR) products to come on the
market and fill a need. People
were easily able to record shows
that they weren’t home to watch
in real-time without the hassle of
programming clunky VCR or awful
DVD recorder. It was an instant
success.
The reason TiVo is on this list

is that the brand decided to
play nice on the market. They
attempted to sue cable companies The streaming media era began
too late; who came out with their in 2008 but it would leave Tivo
own DVRs. By the time they court behind. By mid-2011, Netflix had
documents were filed, DVRs were about 25 million paid subscribers
everywhere. At its peak in 2007, and TiVo’s customer base had
Tivo had 4.4 million users. dropped to 2 million.
Jeannie Chan goes into depth

about TiVo’s rise and fall.
VALUER + 94
Pebble
“Pebble got out to a great start
in a new category, and indeed
helped define it. However, they
didn’t get the lead they needed to
be one of the market leaders. As
the smart watch and activity tracker
subcategories converged, they got
squeezed out. ”
- Forbes -
The predictions of wearables

booming on the market were
falsely tied to the success of
smartphones. The market was still
very small and not mature enough
to sustain the type of predicted
growth. In 2016 the company
called it quits and sold their
technology to Fitbit.
The founder of Pebble Eric

Migicovsky tells his side of the
story behind Pebble’s demise.
Pebble corporation
developed a line of
smartwatches.
Their campaign on Kickstarter

became one of the most-funded
product of all time. Based on
the fast evolution of the wrist-
worn wearable market, most
major consumer electronics
manufacturers jumped in on the
fun and made their own.
VALUER + 96
XFL
“The underpinnings of the XFL
business model wasn’t a failure
at all. The XFL created all of these
technologies that we see in the NFL
today–the Skycam, interviewing
players during the game, mic’ing
players . . . None of that existed
before the XFL.”
- Charlie Ebersol
Film Producer -
Originally the XFL was

operated between NBC
and the World Wrestling
Federation and it was made
as an outdoor football
league.
Early ratings of XFL were

promising, as they planned on
combining drama and “showbiz.”
Their competitor NFL was already

showing football and the XFL
football league didn’t present
anything new and the teams
played their only season in 2001.
The XFL had approximately 14
million viewers in its debut, but “This Was The XFL” Director
the following week the ratings Charlie Ebersol on why the XFL
dropped to 4.6 and at the end of failed–but might work now.
the season to 1.5.
VALUER + 98
DeLorean
Motor
“The DeLorean DMC-12 became
and remained famous as the time-
traveling car in the Back to the
Future movies—but the actual
automobile was infamous for years
before Marty McFly stepped inside
one in 1985. And, though the fiction
is better remembered today, the
real story of the DeLorean is just as
dramatic.”
- Lily Rothman
Time’s Contributor -
from the Back to the Future film

trilogy.
“Car Crash– The DeLorean Story”

is a documentary that explores the
brand’s story and the man behind
it John DeLorean.
The DeLorean Motor

Company was an American
automobile manufacturer
founded in 1975 in
Northern Ireland.
In 1981 production began for

DeLorean DMC-12. A car that was
supposed to be safe, long lasting
and sustainable.
It’s iconic look with gull-wing

doors hyped up the car to masses.
Because of the cars shoddy
performance, DeLorean produced
fewer than 9000 cars and filed
for bankruptcy. Although the car
was a failure, it left a mark with its
innovative design and is known
VALUER + 100
The Concorde
“Where else in tech do you have
a capability and then you go
backward? It’s kind of crazy on the
face of it”
- Blake Scholl
Founder of Boom Technology -
“Where else in tech do you have

a capability and then you go
backward? It’s kind of crazy on the
face of it”
Due to all the technical flaws and

financial challenges The Concorde
flew its last plane in 2003.
The Concorde was a British- Every few years, there’s talk of

French turbojet-powered bringing back the Concorde,
airline that closed its doors but nobody has taken up the
in 2003. An airline founded challenge as of yet. Vox put out
in 1976 used to have one an incredibly interesting miniature
of the fastest and greatest documentary, What happened
designed aircraft. to the plane that could cross the
Atlantic in 3.6 hours? Why did it
Even though the total flight fail?
time to cross Atlantic was less
than four hours, its high energy Interesting Engineering breaks
consumption forced airline down in an article “The Real
companies to look for better Reason Why the Supersonic
options. It didn’t help that the Passenger Jet Failed.”
Concorde was also incredibly
noisy. Blake Scholl, the founder of
Boom Technology says:
VALUER + 102
The Daily
“The Daily was a bold experiment
in digital publishing,” News Corp.
Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch said
in a statement. “Unfortunately, our
experience was that we could not
find a large enough audience quickly
enough to convince us the business
model was sustainable in the long
term.”
- Dawn C. Chmielewski
Los Angeles Times’s Contributor -
The first digital iPad-only

newspaper launched in
2011.
It featured flashy graphics,

video and new ways for readers
to interact with the content.
Readers were only able to access
the newspaper through a paid
subscription through the iTunes
store. The revenue The Daily
gained was split between Apple
Dawn C. Chmielewski explains
but that model was unsustainable “Why the Daily failed: A
and after less than two years, The Postmortem.”
Daily shut down.
Rupert Murdoch, a media mogul,

said in a statement:
“From its launch, The Daily was

a bold experiment in digital
publishing and an amazing vehicle
for innovation. Unfortunately, our
experience was that we could not
find a large enough audience
quickly enough to convince us the
business model was sustainable in
the long-term.” That Failed to Innovate
VALUER + 104
Nortel
“Canadian telecom giant Nortel
collapsed because of losing the
confidence of its clients amid a
culture of “arrogance and hubris.”
- CBC News -
Their research and development

team had fallen behind and the
business began to decline because
of broadband and VoIP.
Plus around the year 2000 Nortel

had misstated their financials,
which wasn’t discovered for a
number of years, bringing them to
a downfall. In 2009 the company
Nortel was a multinational
filed for bankruptcy.
telecom and data
networking equipment
Jamie Sturgeon’s take on where
manufacturer.
Nortel went wrong.
The company had a vision that
voice, data, and images would
extend to every person and device
in the world. The Leaders were
blamed for fraud and fired in
2004 and by the time a new CEO
took over it was already too late.
VALUER + 106
About Us
Welcome to Valuer.ai – the direct path to bright
startups.
Valuer is all about the perfect match between the agile

startup and the resource strong corporate. We took the best
from accelerators, startup competitions and pitch events
and made it into a digital platform and a simple tool. A tool
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50 Examples of Corporations That Failed To Innovate

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50 EXAMPLES OF

“Without a robust and resilient innovation strategy,

This E-book will cover 50 examples of corporations

The company blew its chance

“We developed the world’s first

Nokia, a company founded The company overestimated the

That Failed to Innovate

Xerox was actually first to

Unfortunately, the management

The CEO David Kearns was

That Failed to Innovate

- Jonathan Salem Baskin

The video-rental company Netflix wanted Blockbuster to

That Failed to Innovate

- Vindu Goel and Michael J. Merced

In 2005 Yahoo was one For example, in 2002 they

Yahoo also missed out on a lot

That Failed to Innovate

The Segway was a personal

An easier to use invention perfect

These days the two-wheeler is now

Jordan Golson of wired explains

That Failed to Innovate

Their stores used to be the place

That Failed to Innovate

This British tie retailer,

Their stores only sold scarves, ties,

Even though Tie Rack offered

Rob Davies and Kieran Corcoran

That Failed to Innovate

“Focusing on the tens of millions of

They changed the game in the

Vlad Savov of The Verge explains

MySpace, a website that

Funny enough, in 2005 Myspace

That Failed to Innovate

The competitors shifted away from

Sears, a department store The company to this day continues

That Failed to Innovate

Macy’s, an American Because Macy’s said no to the

That Failed to Innovate

Japanese brand Hitachi

It was one of those brands

The electronics industry has

Hitachi’s chairman Hiroaki

Founded in 1937, Polaroid “People were betting on hard

“There’s a nostalgia to instant

In the 1970s and 1980s,

Due to their lower resources and

Listen to an interview with

That Failed to Innovate

Another Japanese company The Internet killed Toshiba’s

That Failed to Innovate

RadioShack, an American The campaign didn’t go so well,

Borders Group opened its

But in the mid- 2000s Borders

That Failed to Innovate

The brands vice-president Marty