Borders Goes Broke: Are YOU Next?

Just a couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the resurgence in reading due to the explosive growth of e-readers like the Kindle, iPad and Android tablets – and the new, easy ways for consumers to get their hands on e-books. And just last week, the large book store chain consisting of Borders, Angus & Robertson and Whitcoulls (in New Zealand) went broke! Coincidence? I think not.

Err, well, OK, it was a coincidence!

And, to be fair, although it’s easy to pin the demise of these book shops on the trend towards on-line shopping, e-book downloads and the strong Aussie dollar, the research I’ve done suggests it was more due to bad financial management (and probably not due to protectionist policies that disadvantaged local booksellers – as Bob Carr, who sits on the Dymocks board, claims).

Despite that, there’s no doubt these other factors – directly or indirectly due to the Internet – contributed, and clearly this sort of event was inevitable, even if we couldn’t have predicted the timing. As much as I hate to see businesses going broke and people losing jobs, I can’t help but think the writing has been on the wall for a long time.

For some time now, I’ve been talking about how the world has become “Fast, Flat and Free”, and how that’s affecting all businesses. This is a perfect example:

• Fast: We can download e-books instantly, rather than waiting for delivery or driving to a shopping centre to visit a book store.
• Flat: We can order books from anywhere in the world, and often at much lower prices than we’d get them here (Amazon.com is one example, of course, but have you ever checked out the amazing prices available at The Book Depository?)
• Free: Most books still aren’t free, but there are strong downward pressures on prices. For example, a typical Kindle e-book is $9.99, and it might be $25-30 in a book shop!

This should send shock waves through the speaking industry as well!

If you deliver your message primarily in one way, you’re vulnerable as well – for example:

• If you’re a conference speaker, what happens when people switch to virtual meetings (happening all over the world right now) or holographic projections of the keynote speakers (not too far away)?
• If you’re a trainer, what happens when your competitors start offering the same stuff by webinar and video conference?
• If you’re a coach, what happens when international coaches come into your market (After all, a lot of coaching is already done by the plain old telephone system!)?

What are you doing to prepare yourself? Are you going to stick with what’s worked in the past – and hope for the best? Or will you become a thought leader, so you can adapt and shift as required in the future?