Change is inevitable and innovation is on its peak. Companies that are going through the process of innovation wish to grab onto it for their everlasting success.

The world of business today is filled with examples of companies that failed to grow due to the lack of innovation in its part. The unwillingness to innovate and to adapt with the changing world put’s a risk of failure on the company.

Here are 5 famous examples of companies that failed to innovate and suffered tremendous loss to their lack of business evolution.

1. Kodak

Our first example is of Kodak, a technology company that was on the top of the photographic film market during most of the 20^th Century. However, due to lack of realization of the importance of the revolution of digital photography, the company blew any chances to further dominate this industry.

The management of Kodak was strictly focused on their success of film they missed out on the biggest opportunity for the success of their company, the digital revolution. Steve Sasson, the engineer at Kodak actually invented the first ever digital camera in 1975 which was dismissed by the management saying that there is no point to it. Thus, Kodak missed the digital revolution in the photography market after starting it themselves.

As a result of this, Kodak filed for bankruptcy in 2012.

2. Nokia

One of the most successful companies that failed because of the increasing innovation is Nokia. Nokia was found in Finland and was the first company to create cellular network in the world. By the end of the 90’s and early 2000’s, Nokia had become the global leader in the world of mobile phones.

Soon, with the arrival of the Internet, various mobile companies started to introducer and understand how data was going to become the future of communication. Nokia didn’t hold onto the concept of software and focused more on their hardware in hope of keeping their current users satisfied.

This is where the company started to lead itself to its downfall, by not changing into the drastic change of user experience. When in 2008 Nokia did finally decide to compete with Android and get into the smartphone trend, it was too late. Their product was not competitive enough to stay in the market.

3. Yahoo

In 2005, Yahoo was one of the major players present in the market of online advertising. They kept their main focus on becoming the media giant so much so that they neglected a major chunk of their company by not focusing on the consumer trends.

Thus, since Yahoo didn’t focus on improving the user experience, it managed to gain a massive number of people viewing their product but failed to make enough profit to scale. It also missed out on greater opportunities to enhance their company’s success with having the option to buy Google and Facebook but refusing to do so.

4. Blackberry Motion

In the year 1998, Blackberry was the smashing success. It was the product that every individual wanted and the product that every individual was inclined towards purchasing. Blackberry was the company that changed the game in the mobile industry by posing a device that had an arched keyboard.

Their keyboard was like no other and was the talk of every business savvy of the time. Meaning, every successful individual was likely to have that device in their possession.

However, soon after other companies started focusing on other aspects of the device like a bigger touchscreen while Blackberry remained concerned protecting the integrity of their beloved product therefor failing to adapt to the change. At this point in time, Blackberry is officially out of the smartphone business.

5. MySpace

Just like Facebook, MySpace was the social networking hub of its time. It was the platform that every young individual went to interact with their friends and showcase their personality. This was before Facebook came into existence and completely changed the game.

In 2005, the CEO of MySpace met up with the founder of Facebook where he was offered to by Facebook for $75 million which was rejected.

Soon after, Facebook started to grow immensely leading MySpace to its decline. In 2011 the company tried changing its strategy from social networking to music and entertainment only but was not met with any success.

In a world where technology is rapidly changing and there are new innovations every single day, every company needs to make sure to adapt with the change and formulate strategies and products that can do so.

Magna Carta College offers various Executive courses including Innovation to guide working professionals on how to lead their company and their brand to success.