Globalizing technology has certainly changed many of the ways traditional businesses have done business. The brick-and-mortar business approach has been forced to give way to the click-and-mortar business model in which businesses maintain physical markets essentially and foray into online markets substantially. The book publishing industry has not been spared, especially with the entry of Amazon-dot-com. Amazon has been very successful in launching in the readership market the Kindle and along with it pushing the frontiers of demand for online books. Barnes & Noble has risen to this challenge in non-traditional markets by developing and launching the Nook.
My own fearless forecast is that with technology getting better and better and more accessible to a wide and wider audience (tablets and androids are freely made available even in schools and supporting applications are within anyone’s reach), the brick-and-mortar business model that Barnes & Noble typifies is doomed to take a second spot in the market for book publishing. Therefore, Barnes & Noble needs to reassess its strategy to respond appropriately to the changing times. For a while, the Nook created a lot of sensation, posing as a good alternative to the Kindle. Barnes & Noble needs to proceed and exploit that advantage and fix the loopholes. If it fails to read the readership market right, Barnes & Noble will be relegated from its powerhouse position in book publishing to perhaps a niche player in a book industry that has embraced the wonders of accessible technology. In general, a bad outlook for a world market leader given the prospect of losing out on online book readers. The only good side from all this is that market dominance does not always translate to profitability. With or without technology, the challenge of any business of any model is always to keep its operations afloat. It may very well be that Barnes & Noble will remain profitable as a business even if it faces a shrinking readership market. But that would be a tough call to make.
References
Greenfield, Jeremy. “Barnes & Noble's Big Problem -- and What to Do About It.” Forbes, 6 Feb. 2013. Web. 9 February 2013. < http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremygreenfield/ >.
“Barnes & Noble, the Last Big Bookseller Standing: But for How Long?” Knowledge@Wharton, 16 Jan. 2013. Web. 9 Feb. 2013. < http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/ article.cfm?articleid=3167 >.
McArdle, Megan. “Why Is Barnes and Noble Getting Out of the Bookstore Business?” The Daily Beast, 6 Fe.b. 2013. Web. 9 Feb. 2013. < http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/ > .
