The Retail Buzz

Our latest retail industry article by retail expert Scott Kreisberg talks about an "inflection point", which occurs when an industry or segment faces lasting changes so large and significant that it calls for companies to adapt with a new strategy or ability to compete, or face what becomes an irreversible decline and failure.

Almost every company faces ongoing changes of one type or another in its
industry, and retail is no exception. However, various news and events of the
past year or two make me think that there are fundamental permanent changes
going on that will leave some retail chains behind if they are not on top of it.

I am not referencing the banking crisis or recession itself, which we will
eventually pull through after some period of time. Nor am I referring only to
some of the long-term trends we outlined in our report “Six Biggest Challenges
Facing Retailers Today”, which is available on our website.

Issues such as dealing with national chains and big box retailers have been
on the table for a while, and most smaller and mid-sized chains have figured out
how to successfully deal with that type of competition.

What I am referring to is the type of change called an ‘inflection point’
as defined by Andy Grove, the long-time CEO of Intel, in his book “Only The
Paranoid Survive.” This occurs when an industry or segment faces lasting changes
so large and significant that it calls for companies to adapt with a new
strategy or ability to compete, or face what becomes an irreversible decline and
failure.

Such an inflection point may bring even greater opportunity than before
for organizations who do figure out how to take advantage of it.