Biologists are quick to point out that, in nature, it isn’t necessarily the biggest, strongest, most intelligent or fastest of the species that survive – the ones that survive will be those that adapt most quickly to the changes in their environments. This undeniable principle of nature helps to ensure the continuity of our planet’s species as the environment changes due to natural disasters, human intervention, variances in climate and other factors.

The same principle is true in business. The organizations most likely to survive health crises, financial downturns, destructive acts of nature and other crises may not necessarily be the biggest, the most well-funded or the ones with the highest stock prices. The organizations that are most likely to survive crisis scenarios will be the ones that adapt most quickly to the changes in the market and to the changing needs of their employees and customers.

If you’re an entrepreneur, business owner or business decision-maker, and you are trying to defend and grow your brand during and following the COVID-19 pandemic, you’ll need to adapt quickly to the changes being ushered in by what is undoubtedly the biggest health crisis that this generation has seen – even if “adapting quickly” means destroying your existing business model. Here’s why.

In the 1990s, Blockbuster was the behemoth in the video rental business. At the pinnacle of its dominance, Blockbuster operated nearly 9,000 stores and, at one point in time, was worth over $5 billion. In 2000, the company made $800 million in late fees alone, which, by the way, its customers hated. As the urban legend goes, Reed Hastings, one of Blockbuster’s customers, was so unhappy with a $40 late fee that he received from the company, that he decided to start his own firm and disrupt the industry. That company, of course, was Netflix, which was launched in 1997. The concept behind Netflix was simple: allow customers to rent DVDs online and simply mail them back to the company once they’d finished watching their movie. Oh, and with no late fees!

In the early 2000s, Netflix co-founder, Reed Hastings reportedly offered to sell his upstart company to Blockbuster for US$50 million, but Blockbuster turned down the offer. As the story goes, Blockbuster executives pretty much laughed Hastings out of the room! So, Netflix kept plugging on. As digital technology improved, Netflix ditched the DVD model in favor of streaming via the Internet and the rest, as they say, is history. Netflix is now worth billions while, Blockbuster, as you probably know, filed for bankruptcy in 2010 and has now shuttered all but one of its stores.

Here’s another example. Kodak was once the undisputed leader in the film industry. By some estimates, in 1976, 90% of all film and 85% of all film cameras sold in the US were produced by Kodak. But, as often happens in the world of business, the market changed over time. The advent of digital technology ushered in a new era in photography – an era that allowed photographers to bypass the traditional film-based approach to taking pictures and go completely digital. As a result, Kodak lost its stronghold in the camera market because it held on to outdated film processing practices. But here’s the kicker. Kodak actually invented the digital camera! A young Kodak engineer by the name of Steven Sasson developed the world’s first digital camera and predicted that digital photography would eventually disrupt the film-based industry. But the company’s executives refused to embrace it for the exact same reason – because it would eventually disrupt the company’s highly profitable film-based products. According to a New York Times article, the company never let Sasson’s camera see the light of day. Kodak suffered the same fate as Blockbuster and filed for bankruptcy in 2012.

Both Blockbuster and Kodak failed, even during relatively strong economies, because they refused to embrace innovations that would have required them to destroy their existing business models. If Kodak had been willing to destroy its film-based business model and embrace digital technology, perhaps the company’s financial snapshot would have been much better. And, if Blockbuster had been willing to destroy its brick-and-mortar model and embrace Internet technology, perhaps the company wouldn’t have ended up on the chopping block.

By now, you may be seeing why you may need to destroy your business model in order to survive. But just to drive the point home, here’s one final example. If you owned a smartphone in the early 2000s, you’re probably familiar with the rise and fall of the Blackberry – once the undisputed leader in the smartphone industry. Culturally, owning a BlackBerry became the ultimate status symbol. Blackberries became so popular and so addictive that it earned the nickname “Crackberry”. It seemed as if once you got your hands on the device, you just couldn’t put it down. BlackBerries were especially valued in the business community for their reliability and for their high-security protocols and standards.

But, trouble was on the horizon. Apple introduced its first iPhone in 2007, the first device that could give BlackBerry a run for its money. The iPhone featured several features that consumers clamored for, including a full QWERTY keyboard on a touchscreen display, a feature-rich mobile browser and a 2-megapixel camera. While BlackBerry still maintained a solid foothold among corporate smartphone users, the iPhone started to become the device of choice for the consumer market. The assault on BlackBerry’s dominance didn’t end there. Google got into the smartphone market in 2008 with the release of the first Android operating system which included a slew of Google apps such as Gmail, Maps, Calendar, and YouTube. Soon, more phones using the Android platform flooded the market, further posing a threat to BlackBerry’s dominance.

We could go into more detail about the combined impact that Apple and Android phones had on BlackBerry’s hold on the smartphone market, but you probably already know the story and its outcome. As iPhone and Android phones continued to outshine BlackBerry in terms of the features and apps that consumers wanted most, BlackBerry continued to lose market share. The company was eventually saved from bankruptcy in 2014 in a $4.7 billion acquisition from a private group of investors led by Fairfax Financial Holdings.

But, fortunately for BlackBerry, that isn’t where the story ends. In 2016, BlackBerry officially got out of the smartphone market and concentrated its efforts in reinventing itself to perform in a market where it could be more competitive. Through a series of strategic moves and acquisitions, the company transformed itself from being a maker of smartphones to being a leader in the cybersecurity industry. The company moved from being 2 billion dollars in debt in 2013 to turning a profit of US$95 million in 2019. BlackBerry was able to transform itself into a successful cybersecurity company by focusing on one of the core reasons that it had been previously successful in the smartphone market – security. But, instead of trying to get back into the smartphone market, it decided to look elsewhere and provide its digital security services to corporate clients all over the globe.

Blackberry’s comeback was a direct result of the company being willing to destroy its old business model of competing in the smartphone market (where it had become uncompetitive against the likes of Apple and Android) and develop a new business model where it could be a market leader.

History is full of examples of companies who, like Blackberry, survived changes in their business environments by destroying their old business models and developing new, more competitive models. Nintendo, today known as a leading provider of gaming consoles, started out as a trading card company. Western Union started off as a telegraph company, but today, consumers use the company for its wire transfer services. In the 1850s, American Express was a package delivery company, but is now one of the world’s leading credit card providers.

Nintendo survived because it traded in (sorry, couldn’t help it) its stake in the trading card business. Western Union would have gone south if it didn’t get out of the dying telegraph industry. And Blackberry would have eventually died if it didn’t disconnect from the smartphone market.

But, here’s the thing for entrepreneurs, business owners and business decision-makers operating in a COVID-19 business environment. The changes that caused Blockbuster and Kodak to fail occurred gradually over a period of several years. So did the changes that made trading cards outdated and the telegraph industry obsolete! But companies determined to survive extinction-level crises (like the current coronavirus pandemic) simply don’t have the luxury of adapting to their environments over a period of years – because the changes caused by these crises are generally flung at businesses over a period of weeks, if not days! If you want your business to survive the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, you may need to be willing to destroy your existing business model.

Here’s a handy bit of advice from John Spence, one of my favorite authors. John notes that, to be successful, a company’s rate of internal innovation must exceed the external (or industry) rate of innovation. If your business’ rate of innovation does not at least match the rate of innovation of its industry or of its competitors, you will automatically fall behind. This is exactly what happened to companies like Kodak, Blockbuster and Blackberry (before it destroyed its old business model). Kodak and Blockbuster purposely stifled their rates of internal innovation because they didn’t want to rock the boat and destroy their existing business models. And Blackberry had focused so much of its efforts on the corporate market that it didn’t even bother to keep up with innovations that the consumer market wanted. Ouch!

If you take a hard look at your business and realize that you aren’t keeping up with the changes that are happening in your industry, particularly as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, you have two choices to remain competitive. Firstly, you can invest in resources that can dramatically increase your rate of internal innovation. These investments can be investments in people, technology, training and other resources that can help you to keep up with, or even surpass, the innovations happening in your industry.

Alternatively, you can make the bold decision, like the post-smartphone Blackberry to destroy your business model and come up with a new model in which you can be more competitive and more profitable. For entrepreneurs, business owners and business decision-makers who are emotionally tied to their current business model, this may be a tough decision, but it may also be one that needs to be made in order for your business to survive.

Hey! I’ve gotta run. I’ve got a business model to destroy! Why you may need to destroy your company