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Disappearing Supply Chains: Movie Rental Stores

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About a decade ago, you could ride through many cities and towns in the U.S. and see numerous competing local and chain movie rental stores.  Now, we are down to a handful, thanks to netflix, Redbox and digital downloads. How fast one type of supply chain can disappear and be replaced by another.

And today we may see the beginning of the final chapter in the movie rental store story. Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) ended the speculation today, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy nearly 25 years after the video rental chain opened its first store. The company said more than 80 percent of its secured creditors have approved a plan to reduce its almost $1 billion in debt to roughly $100 million. The bankruptcy filing shouldn’t affect daily business and doesn’t include Blockbuster’s franchises or non-U.S.operations. They did announce that they would move to digital downloads and less expensive physical delivery options (like the U.S. Mail) to compete with the new kids on the block.

With 23,000 locations within the last five years and growing, Redbox is clearly one of the giant killers in this space, with significantly lower supply chain costs that Blockbuster.  Digital downloads or movies-on-demand, of course, have even lower supply chain costs. Like the local book store, a few movie rental stores may survive, perhaps even make a comeback, like the vinyl record stores. But I would not want to be a Blockbuster franchisee this morning. 

 

Want to be a successful entrepreneur? Try being hypomanic, according to the NY Times today http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/business/19entre.html?scp=1&sq=perfect%20entrepreneur&st=cse

Supply Chain Innovators: RoadWyze

From Xconomy Seattle, "CEO Dale Keep of RoadWyze (Walla Walla, WA) regaled the audience with stories from his 36 years of working with government agencies dealing with snow, ice, and other weather conditions on roads and highways. His company, founded in 2004, places wireless sensors in roads to communicate things like air temperature, surface temperature, humidity, and pavement conditions (ice or no ice) to computers in road-management vehicles. “The solution is data,” he said.

The idea is that all this data—the sensors could be placed every mile or so—will let authorities spend less money on salt and road chemicals by pinpointing where they’re really needed. It will also make roads safer for drivers. A case study in Maine suggests the technology could reduce the $32 million spent on salt in the winter of 2008-09 by about one-third.

RoadWyze currently has four employees and a number of patents pending. Its latest prototype sensor systems will be complete in July, Keep said."

Real time information, such as road traffic density, surface condition and current/projected weather data are crucial planning inputs to motor carrier operations seeking to reduce delays, accidents and overtime. The emergence of additional real time information sources, in conjunction with crowd-sourcing traffic data from companies like Waze-see earlier Blog on them--are building the basis for a whole new traffic management space as our nation's highways become more crowded and innovative delivery scheduling solutions become the norm.

Communicate with Logic or with the Heart?

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My friend, Roger Jones, has taught me a lot about how to best manage a business.  Here are his thoughts on communicating in business.  They are very valuable insights:

"If you think about it, the majority of business is based on communicating using logic, the language of the 'mind'.  That's delivering information, facts and intellectual interpretation.  There is typically little emotion displayed when we communicate using logic and we tend to talk like TV news-readers (fairly flat and not that engaging).  Those who use this type of communication hope you will understand and accept their message in terms of the data, statistics and case studies they use to support their argument.

Not surprisingly, those who use 'mind' or logic based communication rarely have their messages accepted by their audience, whether in a meeting with their boss or team, or when delivering a conference presentation.  And as leaders they tend to have little personal presence and impact.

However, the story is quite different for those who communicate with the 'heart'.  Their messages are more easily accepted.  Those who use 'heart' communication are those who inspire people, have greater gravitas and effortlessly persuade.

These people deliberately communicate on an emotional level.  They dress their messages in the narrative, and bring light, colour and rhythm to their spoken word. 

They are the storytellers.

Storytellers have been known for centuries for their imagination and wisdom.

Storytelling brings knowledge to life.

Great storytellers are invariably great leaders.  Inspiring and motivating people with their narrative.

They win hearts and minds.

Importantly storytelling as a tool for change will enable you to capture your audience so they are clear about your intention.  Effective storytelling wins the trust of people you need to involve in making the changes that matter.

So a suggestion - you might want to think how you can start to move away from logic and use storytelling more in your day-to-day business interactions to win hearts and minds, and so inspire performance and enable change."  

Marketing & Sales Innovators: Port Clyde Fresh Catch

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I wrote recently about Linda Bean's Perfect Maine lobster co-operative, designed to help Maine lobster men (and women) develop a better marketing, sales and business model for their business. There are similar co-ops springing up, like Port Clyde Fresh Catch, which is focusing on a broader range of catch, including fish, shrimp, scallops and crab, in addition to lobster. Like Linda, they are working on branding Maine seafood and a sustainable and "organic" catch. They are also aggressively marketing their products at leading restaurants such as the Stone Barn Center for Food & Agriculture. These co-op may be the future of how smaller producers will compete in the future.