Why companies fail : Business Leaders in a Golden cage

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I was researching the reasons on why companies fail and not understanding the changes to a companies VBE model is a direct reason on why companies fail, however the why do companies not understand the changes in its VBE model requires some deeper thinking. And we have seen it with Kodak, Nokia, and many other companies who ruled the market when these companies were at their peak. However when the VBE model for the company changed because of technology or the business model or the ecosystem, the leaders are not in a position to understand the dynamics of these changes and subsequently this is reflected on their companies performance. While it is easy to say a company failed in hindsight like Kodak or Nokia, it is quite important to understand the changing VBE model and analyze why companies fail. And in this process I saw a common trend of the management of failed companies and that was when their business leaders were in a golden cage clinging to their own mental map of how their business ran. One of the most clear examples that happened before our eyes was Nokia and the subsequent business of Microsoft mobiles. And of Kodak. In both these companies they had enough invested in the companies business models. Kodak had a dominance over the photographic film business model and Nokia had a very clear picture and control of the logistics of keeping the mobile phone costs down. Also the subsequent owner Microsoft had dominated the Computer software market because of a VBE model their company had stumbled upon. However they lived in their own golden cages of understanding their VBE model and did not connect the dots. They did not look beyond their golden cages. And in recent times, I found the Microsoft's Satya Nadella and Bill Gates and meta Mark Zuckerberg talking about the Metaverse and how it would change the world kind of talk and after a few tall claims they stopped talking about it. The other incident which was interesting was Microsoft's 10BUSD investment into chat GPT with the objective to compete with Google and Apple. However it seems a classic case of leaders speaking from their golden cages with no effort made to tie the different VBE changes happening in the ecosystem. One of the pointers is that Bill Gates connects with a lot of people through gates notes who are using technology to change the way people farm or raise crops. He also speaks of how AI will transform the world. However it is a one way dialog. But what I find missing is an engagement to understand the connecting dots. Understanding the VBE model of the future society connected around data. And this is a pattern for failed companies. The companies whose leadership connects the dots of the changing VBE model for their companies usually stumble on new VBE models which have a chance of flourishing. And Apples Steve Jobs was an excellent example of the leader who moved out of his golden cage and connected the dots of Piracy and music companies loosing revenue to Small hard disk drives that could store 20000 songs in MP3 format and be carried in your pockets. This same issue will be felt by companies in the communication space like the Ericsson, Nokia , Huawei and alternatives like Mavenir, Amdocs, Cisco systems, Avaya, Star link etc. Companies focused around Data, identity and search like google and Facebook will also see their advertisement revenue model change and rules around privacy and access to a users data will be stricter around the world. I am willing to bet that a few companies that do not focus around their VBE model will find their business gone like Kodak or Nokia and Microsoft Mobile phones. VBE models have worked for the last 200 years and of the 11 companies mentioned above (Ericsson, Nokia , Huawei and alternatives like Mavenir, Amdocs, Cisco systems, Avaya, Star link, Microsoft , google and Facebook) which of the companies will cease to exist in the next 20 years? To understand what VBE models are and why they have kept companies as market leaders and in business, see the two videos below. The first video explains VBE models in work and the second video explains how Apple used a VBE model to bankrupt, Nokia, Motorola, Blackberry and subsequently Microsoft's Mobile business acquired from Nokia. I am taking a wild guess and my view is that six of the above 11 companies will be dead by 2045. Which ones do you think will be surviving? The companies that will be surviving will be the ones that understand how their VBE models are changing and connect the dots around data, monetization and technology.

1. Explanation of what VBE models are and how companies have dominated with their VBE models https://youtu.be/2f5FXiRkAuc?si=zq5I1N9w_40Eh8_d

2. Explanation of how a company like Apple connected the dots and muscled its way into the telecom mobile market and bankrupted leaders in that market like Nokia, Motorola and Blackberry. https://youtu.be/sXiKeSmpLlQ?si=6G9mBFl1U0mM5hBR

Bottom line is that when leaders latch on to a model of their own like technology dominance but fail to connect the dots of their value model with the Business model and the ecosystem, it is a indicator that the company will be irrelevant in the future. Many of the companies above have leaders living in the golden cage.