Monster.com has matured. And with it has come a slew of problems. Can they overcome their mid-life crisis. More importantly, can your ebusiness?
It’s an interesting dilemma. You pioneer a space – i.e. are the “first mover” – and then go on to own it. Till something happens and you are no longer in charge of the space or your own destiny. What do you do?
If you are the CEO of www.Monster.com, then you are spending every waking hour trying to answer this question and having nightmares on what if you can’t when you sleep!
Monster started and owned the online job search business till everybody and their brother jumped into the business.
- Companies started their own job boards. The big brands can really hurt a Monster if they go this route – why would a job candidate apply for a job at Proctor and Gamble through Monster.com when they can send their resume directly through the company’s own website? Smaller brands might hurt but not to that extent.
- Then they went a step further and took away the advantage of Monster by creating a job aggregator site themselves! www.DirectEmployers.com was in response to Monsters arrogance and shortcomings. The site offered employers the ability to post unlimited jobs and have a prayer getting their posting in front of candidates instead of getting lost in the pile
- The head hunters survived the initial onslaught of Monster. It turns out that hiring people involves more than just reading their resumes. Who would’ve thunk it?
- The head hunters also went ahead and took away the aggregation advantage from Monster. www.BlueStep.com and other sites cropped up and chipped away at Monster
- Niche/Specialty sites – www.Execunet.com; www.Netshare.com; etc.- cropped up to cater to a specific audience. From sites focused on senior executives to those catering to chefs took bites at Monster’s pie! It also turns out that jobs classification/topology/description is neither “cookie cutter” ready nor universal. Every organization has its own description of “manager” and “director”; “marketing” is not marketing and operations is not operations at every company; “legal” is bigger and more complex than a simple word.
Well, the bad news continues. CEOs have come and gone – some directly to jail. Just about every calamity – including a much publicized security breach – has apparently befallen the Monster. Now, Monster.com has some thinking to do.
I couldn’t care less about Monster.com but there are lessons in this story for every eBusiness.
- Business models are increasingly short lived. Protect yours.
- There is only one way to protect your business model – relentless innovation. If you are not turning you business model every so often then someone will turn you upside down.
- Creative Destruction is a necessity – you must destroy and rebuild. Carefully!
- Get your head out of the “eBusiness = website; if only I had more features” mindset and focus on your customer. Where are they headed? Are you headed in the same direction? (No amount of features are going to help Monster; they have to fundamentally rethink their business model)
eBusiness cannot be sustained if one does not heed these simple lessons.
