#ToyCrisis Isn't a Crisis. It's a Wake Up Call

As an entrepreneur, your work is never done. No matter how much growth your business has achieved—no matter how many rounds of funding you’ve secured—the job of a business owner is to find ways for the growth to continue. Because if you’re not growing, you’re dying.

That truth became crystal clear this week, when Toys “R” Us filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The internet fell into a tailspin of nostalgia and regret, placing the blame squarely on Amazon. And as much as Amazon has stolen a portion of the toy market share, Toys “R” Us can’t blame its demise on another business’s success. (After all, according to a report by Goldman Sachs, only 16 percent of toys are purchased online anyway.) Toys “R” Us isn’t a victim of Amazon.com. It’s a victim of it’s own refusal to evolve.

Of course, this isn’t just an issue in the toy industry. In all, 90 of the top 100 Consumer Packaged Goods brands lost market share in 2015, according to Catalina. Over the weekend, I devoured a New York Times article about a similar decline in the magazine industry. After decades of leadership, legacy editors at Vanity Fair, Time, Elle and Glamour are all stepping down. The famed media giant Jan S. Wenner is selling his controlling stake in Rolling Stone, too. As the article put it: “Sentimentality is probably the biggest enemy for the magazine business.” 

I’d take it further. Sentimentality is the biggest enemy for every business.

But there are ways to overcome death-by-past-success. Check out the rest of this article over at Forbes to see how.