“I’d rather Apple cannibalize Apple than somebody else cannibalize Apple.” Tim Cook, CEO Apple. This is a great CEO lesson to learn.
Quotes are great because they are simple to understand but there is usually lots of detail behind them. There are many companies that should have listened more to this quote, and there are current companies that need listen or go out of business. One of the more famous bankruptcies due to the fear of cannibalization is Blockbuster. Blockbuster could have purchased Netflix for approximately $50 million in the early 2000’s. Blockbuster did not want to cannibalize their brick and mortar stores. In the early 2000s what many people looked forward on the weekends was going to Blockbuster and picking out the latest movies. Yes, it was a simpler time. Blockbuster did not buy Netflix and the rest as they say is history.
There are companies who have not invested in their online presence because they want customers coming into the store. This mode of thinking may have been acceptable at one time but in no longer is. If your company isn’t focused on online sales it needs to be. Look what Amazon has done to so many brick and mortar stores. This is a great quote to help people understand that cannibalizing your own company may be painful in the short term but the long term consequences are catastrophic. Tim Cook’s quote is very similar to what Steve Jobs thought about Apple cannibalization: “If You Don’t Cannibalize Yourself, Someone Else Will.”
