The disease resides in the office of the CEO.
The CEO and his team failed to stay abreast of the changing marketplace.
As King Solomon said almost 3,000 years ago, "without vision, my people perish."
Same for companies.
most CEOs have a business degree but clueless about business.
For them a widget is a widget. They can’t tell the difference between a gm car, screwdriver, or pair of socks.
I disagree, I think they did exactly like Tandy Leather and Radioshack did; they 'anticipated' 'market demands' and changed 'retail store stock' to match those 'anticipated demands.'
So in the case of Tandy Leather, at huge expense, they re-dedicated 1/4 of each store to picture framing. RadioShack turned 1/4 of each store into a mall cell phone kiosk. And Sears converted half their clothing section to 'follow fashion trends and sizing.'
In each case, their 'staying abreast of the changing marketplace' caused them to stop selling products their customers wanted and instead offered products that people could get anywhere else for much cheaper and would never have considered these stores the first place to get them.
I tie the deaths of these brands in exactly with the college degrees required to be involved in marketing and sales. All were told in college what the 'new trends' were, showed up and were hired, implemented these academic assumptions and were rewarded with bonuses for killing their companies.
They had the greatest mail order operation in history yet couldn’t cash in on the internet.