Businesses come and go. If one were to place their faith in a group simply because of the age of a name, even if historically they were considered strong, dominant, or indestructible, we wouldn't ever experience innovative, evolutionary progress in any industry. Microsoft dominated the software arena for well over a decade. They were looking like an indestructible force of nature, and had to actually help keep Apple alive to avoid monopoly suits. What happaned?!!? One day they woke up and realized too late the the world around them caught up and passed them by... Not only are they struggling to gain any traction in the mobile device world, but their stranglehold on commerce was weakening by the day. Mobile devices are no longer restricted to cell phones, as we now have tablets, and everything has wifi. Google. Apple... are crushing the once-formidable giants of the software world. Blockbuster Video was THE place to get your movie fill after the theaters. What happened to them? How about Suncoast music, the once giant of brick and mortar record sales? Where is Hostess?
Why wouldn't Blockbuster, with all of their resources, existing clients, and networks for distribution, EVOLVE their business model to account for a changing landscape when Netflix came along and took that first bite out of their client-base? Why did Suncoast and Tower Records refuse to even consider digital download sales?
In my past life I remember hearing speakers from the Senate talk about the lifespans of businesses, ranging from small mom and pop shops to corporate giants (my company worked with small to medium sized businesses ranging from a couple million in revenue to a billion). One of the most shocking facts came about with the larger companies, and how technology is accelerating everything around us, including corporations' shelf-lives. "Research shows that by the year 2027, 75% of the companies on the S&P 500 will be replaced." - http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobmorgan/2013/11/14/why-big-company-doesnt-mean-job-security/
"A full one-third of the companies listed in the 1970 Fortune 500, for instance, had vanished by 1983-acquired, merged, or broken to pieces." - http://www.businessweek.com/chapter/degeus.htm
So, the question is... what is the giant Waste Management DOING about e-waste? Are they seeing it as a minor problem or trending fad like Microsoft when they brushed off mobile software? Are they trickling it into their existing business-model? Why aren't they in Ghana?
I worked for a couple of giant corporations in my day. One is completely is out of business, but the industry still does quite well. So, I certainly wouldn't bank on old dogs to learn the new tricks of an evolving industry like e-waste or anything for that matter. Look how Apple is now struggling against Google when just a few years ago they too were looking like the last stop for mobile devices. Ask yourself, why is there SO MUCH PAIN when it comes to e-waste, when WM has been here all along??? Why haven't they jumped on this already, and why are there documentaries like E-Waste Hell, illustrating a massive global ignorance on the subject? Is it that WM sees trash as a problem they have to solve, and EWSI sees trash as an opportunity to find gold? something to think about, no?
Ask those questions, and you will start to see the future unfold, just as it has for countless companies in the past. EWSI is another corporate life-force in its infancy, consuming resources, taking up space (market-share), and as the new grow and become strong, the older companies shift into auto-pilot, let the revenues and industry declines dictate their future, and eventually, they become dismantled and turned to fertilizer for feeding new, younger generations of commerce. It's the circle of life, and EWSI is just getting started.
-LD
These are my opinions. Older businesses, just like older people, tend to get stuck in their ways, but nature promotes evolution, and eventually the old die off, making room for newer, stronger, and smarter generations... people, businesses, whatever. That's just how life seems to work.
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