Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

Re:Sears has another chance to avoid closing down by icelancer on Tuesday January 08, 2019 @12:23PM (#18857331)

> I think this is especially relevant here on HN because it shows how startups are required to solve problems. For many problems, a behemoth company has no reason to improve, and a lean startup can rush to a solution faster in many cases.

Pretty much. Jurvetson calls it the luxury of being a new entrant. It's very hard to steer the Titanic away from an iceberg.

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Re:Sears has another chance to avoid closing down by amyjess on Tuesday January 08, 2019 @01:37PM (#18858107)

Yes, first movers in general have a disadvantage. For example, this is part of the reason why Sega's hardware business died.

Admittedly, that was only part of it: there was some mismanagement behind Sega's decline too. Actually, you could say the same thing about Sears: the final nail in their coffin wasn't Amazon learning from Sears's lessons but rather Eddie Lampert's deliberately and systematically looting the company over a period of several years. If not for Lampert, Sears would just be another Macy's.

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Re:Sears has another chance to avoid closing down by icelancer on Tuesday January 08, 2019 @02:30PM (#18858736)

No question that they operated poorly on top of just being in an eventually bad position for the future. Sears could have innovated or had a separate department like Xerox PARC and others did that kept them alive a long time, but unfortunately fast movers and disruptors will always have that advantage no matter what you do. Hence why FB and others just buy out all the small companies.

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