Ask HN: What companies have successfully disrupted themselves?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11998984
by skewart • 10 years ago
2 3 10 years ago

What companies have radically changed profitable products or business lines to better position themselves for the future? I'm curious about companies that, despite current success, have seen the writing on the wall and made major changes in order to adapt to emerging technological trends.

Apple and Intel are two that come to mind (though Intel didn't really disrupt themselves in the classic sense). Apple developed the iPhone when the iPod was already successful. Intel saw memory being commodities and switched to making CPUs. Are there any smaller companies that have made similar changes?

I'm especially interested in non-tech companies that changed their culture and product to embrace technology. Are there any that have successfully pulled this off?

Also, just to be clear, not looking for early stage companies that were struggling to find product-market fit and then pivoted. I'm looking for companies that were massively successful and then changed while riding high in order to better position themselves for the future.

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