Original 2021 statement: Most car dealers don’t yet accept the inevitability of the demise of their business model
What Jim has written about this
From “Daily Inspiration: “Centuries-old relationships are changing. Are you?”” (May 2023)
This talk took a look at the key disruptive trends sweeping the world of property and casualty, as well as life insurance. The theme tied into the same type of theme for the Purina dealers – when your business model is disrupted and some consumers are choosing to go ahead without you, you only survive by focusing on your role and the value of the unique services you provide to ensure that others don’t.
For as long as there has been business model disruption, there has been the idea of ‘disintermediation.’ We wrote that into our book 22 years ago: Businesses Will Compete With Their Channel Partners
Yet they also know that undertaking this type of activity is going to cause some rather extreme disruption with the auto dealers who represent them. Hence, they are moving carefully to assess how to best go about doing it.
From “Daily Inspiration: “It’s time to move from triage to tomorrow!”” (January 2023)
Machines are starting to think on their own a bit more. We don’t yet know what this means.
Right now, someone has the perfect idea in mind to put your business model into a death spiral - and you might not notice till it is too late
Your business model won’t last the next 10 years
From “Daily Inspiration: “Many companies fail at the future because they haven’t been listening to what the future has been telling them.”” (December 2021)
In many industries, we know exactly how the future is going to unfold. And yet many simply don’t listen or refuse to acknowledge the reality and inevitability of the trends which are underway. The result is that over time, many market leaders become market losers, eventually becoming fading into the era of irrelevance.
Will legacy companies successfully make the transition? In my mind, the jury is still out - because their denial of inevitability has cost them dearly. As I noted in a series of tweets yesterday, Ford CEO Jim Farley seems most willing to accept the reality of their future, even going so far as to invite Elon Musk to address his leadership team, acknowledging the company as the pacesetter. And yet, he has a massive ship to steer and a dramatic direction to realign to. He needs to readjust his skills and manufacturing base; line up massive quantities of unattainable technology (i.e. batteries), accelerate his R&D capabilities to the world of technology, and bring his dealer network onside, among many other challenges.
Read the full pieces on jimcarroll.com:
Daily Inspiration: “Centuries-old relationships are changing. Are you?”
Daily Inspiration: “It’s time to move from triage to tomorrow!”
Daily Inspiration: “Many companies fail at the future because they haven’t been listening to what the future has been telling them.”