The “Business Planning” issue has been an end-of-the-year tradition for Optometric Management (OM). Its purpose: to inspire readers to get their ducks in a row (to borrow from last year’s cover) and become inspired to reinvigorate their practices with a new specialty, marketing ideas (this year’s cover), and more to maintain practice success. For those private-practice optometrists reading this column and thinking, “My practice is doing great; I don’t need to do anything different or new,” I urge you to stand up from your laurels and check out this issue of OM. Business history shows that sitting on them can have dire consequences.
Businesses That Went Belly Up
The battlefield of business is littered with the corpses of once-successful companies that became complacent. Proven examples:
• Blockbuster. In October 1985, the first Blockbuster movie rental store opened to excited cinephiles in Dallas. In September 2011, the once go-to chain for new releases filed for bankruptcy protection due to competition from Netflix (originally an online movie rental service) and Amazon.com, the latter of which started selling movies. In 2014, all the company-owned stores went out of business.1 (One privately owned store remains in Bend, Oregon. The documentary, “The Last Blockbuster” is available on Netflix.)
• Borders. Founded in 1971 by brothers Tom and Louis Borders, the international bookstore chain officially closed its pages in 2011, due to falling behind the evolution of digital entertainment: while Barnes & Noble shifted to online sales and creating its own e-reader, Borders focused on renovating its stores, expanding its manufacturing plant, and outsourcing its online sales to Amazon.2
• Radioshack. Launched in 1921 as a radio supply company for ship radio officers, Radioshack grew into the destination for consumer electronics, including Citizen Band (“CB”) radios, remote-controlled cars, TVs, personal computers, and cell phones. By 2015, Radioshack was over and out, as the result of creating a rudimentary e-commerce site after its competitors, such as Best Buy, made slick sites, a misadventure with a marketing campaign to call the company “The Shack,” and a failure to catch on to the Maker movement (homemade robot makers seeking parts).3
The Survivors and Thrivers
On the other hand, those businesses that have survived and thrived have consistently innovated. For example, DuPont, founded in 1801 as a gun powder producer and supplier, is still in operation, as it has consistently branched out into other areas of ma-terials, including Lycra and Teflon. Would the 225-year-old company still be around if it only made gunpowder?4 Enjoy this issue. OM
References
1. The History Channel. 1985. First Blockbuster Store Opens. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/october-19/first-blockbuster-store-opens (Accessed October 22, 2025)
2. NPR. Why Borders Failed While Barnes & Noble Survived. https://www.npr.org/2011/07/19/138514209/why-borders-failed-while-barnes-and-noble-survived (Accessed October 22, 2025)
3. CBS News. 5 mistakes that doomed RadioShack. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/5-mistakes-that-doomed-radioshack/#:~:text=But%20that%20program%2C%20which%20allows,a%20rapidly%20changing%20retail%20environment (Accessed October 22, 2025)
4. Brittanica Money. DuPont Company. https://www.britannica.com/money/DuPont-Company (Accessed October 22, 2025)