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The Pros And Cons Of The Western Union

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Why has Western Union been able to adapt to severe disruptions and survive over so many years?
It never confused the business it was in with the way it conducted its business. At its core, Western Union was about facilitating person-to-person communications and money transfers -- whether via telegraph, wireless networks, phone, or the Internet. "We always saw ourselves as a communications company," says President Christina Gold. Contrast that with Kodak. By defining itself too narrowly as a product company all those years, it was headed for a fall.
Kodak teetered on the precipice and with it stands some of the other once-great businesses of the 20th century, from autos to newspapers. They were immensely successful and proud, but their very success made it difficult to adjust. "The more successfully you use a way of working, the stronger your culture is, which is a great strength right up to the time when you need to change," says Clayton Christensen, a professor at Harvard Business School.
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Here's a company that was trapped in an ever-dwindling niche of the PC business. Then came the iPod, a must-have device for music fans, and iTunes, an online music shop that turned music downloading into a profit-making business. By making iPod and iTunes work with Windows PCs, Apple broke out of selling only to its niche of loyal fans. But its transformation is even more profound than that: In essence, it switched from being a great designer of computer products into a great designer of consumer experiences delivered via devices and services. Now music represents 44% of Apple's revenues, and an even larger share of profits. If Kodak focused on the consumer experience they provided rather than the actual product the story might have been so

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