Don’t become a travel agent.

A few weeks ago I tweeted a link to a New York Times article and wrote this, “Why didn’t Leica, Nikon, Canon, Pentax and Olympus build Instagram? A critical question every business has to answer.”

The article raised a challenging idea that keeping up with innovation can become “a cyclical problem all successful companies eventually face as the technology around them changes, but they cannot change.” The success of the past essentially makes it hard to recognize the necessary innovations of the future. (Read the article here.)

In response to my question about why didn’t Nikon build Instagram, someone tweeted, “Maybe because they’re imaging hardware companies, not social media companies?”

I think that’s a good push back, but there’s a problem, Kodak and Polaroid could have said that same thing. Can’t see Polaroid saying,

“We’re an imaging hardware company, not a digital photo company.”

Can’t you imagine Kodak saying:

“We’re an imaging hardware company, not a digital photo company.”

And in some ways, they both did. Entrenched in decades of film-based success, it was nearly impossible for them to successfully navigate the transition to digital.

Polaroid is out of business. Eastman Kodak recently filed for bankruptcy. Meanwhile, Instagram was purchased for 1 billion dollars.

What does this mean for your business or idea?

It means you better make sure you’re not a travel agent.

When I was a kid, if you wanted to go on vacation, you had to go see a travel agent. You had to sit in a small office, look at an out of date brochure and then pay someone to give you access to vacations. There was a gatekeeper. Now?

The travel agency in my town is out of business. Why? Because the Internet made us all travel agents. I can go on Kayak and Travelocity and Expedia and a million other sites to put together my own vacation. Specialized travel agents still exist in some capacity, but for the most part, that industry has disappeared.

The Internet is not done changing the rules. It’s still the wild, wild west out there. Whole industries are going to become obsolete. New ones are going to spring up. The days of shift are not over. If anything they’re only beginning.

Make sure you don’t get left holding a Polaroid in your hand wondering where the rest of the world went.