Buggy Whip Businesses

I just can't resist this wonderful quote:

"This is a business that is in inexorable secular decline...companies [in that industry] are doing their best to find synergies to preserve the economics of their business." 

- Craig Moffett of Bernstein Research to The New York Times (4/23/2010 p.B3)

I call them buggy whip businesses. 

At one time buggy whips and all the appurtenances of horse drawn transportation were big business. Really big. Then came the car.

Washboards were a significant business. Then came the washing machine.

Steam locomotives, streetcars, telegraph, vacuum tubes, punch cards, and of course Mr. Moffett's subject: telephone companies. And, one could expand this list considerably, not even including industries that "move" to outsource regions.

None of these are "fashion" or "fad" industries. No hula hoops or pet rocks or whale bone corset stays. They are real, significant industries. Some simply disappear entirely, others evolve, some decline to a tiny size, serving the remaining customers in that industry until they too close down or adopt different methods.

Look around and observe, if you can, which industries, companies and organizations are out-of-step or obsolete. 

Can you see a "buggy whip" business? 

Are you part of one?

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