For Want Of An e-Reader, Borders Goes Away
Borders president Mike Edwards today blamed the e-reader for the demise of his 399-store chain.
This is the first time in my recollection that an entire chain has been wiped out by the introduction and quick adoption of a single product — or at least the first time the company leader was willing to admit to the fact.
Too bad Edward’s hindsight is so much sharper than his foresight or else Borders might still be flourishing.
Border’s officially announced its plan to liquidate on July 19. The Great Recession certainly did not help Borders, but others managed to do quite well in this area despite the implosion of the global economy.
Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple led the e-reader revolution by developing in-house an e-reader platform, or in Apple’s case building in the ability to buy and read e-books on the iPad and iPhone. Borders, however, was content to fill its e-reader gap by making a few alliances with third-party e-book vendors, such as Sony and Kobo.
While I cannot claim to be a visionary, I find it hard to explain that a major bookseller did not have someone on the payroll who thought that e-readers would really take off.
If nothing else as a retailer, when Apple and Amazon decide something is important enough to invest in, then I am going to give the idea one heck of a hard look.
Michael Mortimer commented:
I am not in the industry, just a lawyer who has many times tried to not look back, learn from my mistakes, and always “litigate 20 steps ahead” of the opposition.
Over the years I also have observed bad decisions being made and businesses suffering the consequences.
You allude to why this happened. Without being privy to what went on in Borders’ offices, surely moving to e-readers and tablets was considered. But the people at the top rejected the idea and no doubt by the time it decided “going digital” was a good idea, it was too late.
Fact is, the e-reader did not do in Borders, it was managements’ decision NOT to adopt the technology that sunk the company. For Borders to now imply it was the latter, as if the Company did not see all this coming, is simply Company executives looking to excuse the bad decisions they made.
It really all comes down to money. Borders, like traditional print houses currently, refused moving to digital because that would affect its bottom line. To be sure, even the Borders mail room clerk knew that there’s far less money to be made selling digital tomes over hardcover books that allow, for example, author book signings and other hoopla.
A lot of the publishing houses are suffering or going out of business because they refuse to embrace digital books, e-readers, and tablets. For some, maybe the Borders closing will wake them up and they can “switch to the digital side” before it’s too late.
Dan Martinez commented:
Retailing is not science it is an art form when those in charge forget that point the results are never positive.
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