Over the past ten years, the corporate world has witnessed both moments of strategic brilliance that redefined industries and costly missteps that sank companies or eroded once-formidable market leading positions. The difference between these two extremes often comes down to timing, adaptability and the willingness to confront hard truths. This article explores five celebrated strategic moves and five infamous disasters.
Five Brilliant Business Moves
When Satya Nadella became CEO of Microsoft in 2014, the tech giant was struggling to shake off the perception that it had missed the mobile revolution. Its market cap was approximately US$315B. Nadella orchestrated a cultural and strategic overhaul, shifting Microsoft’s focus toward cloud computing, artificial intelligence and open-source collaboration. The acquisitions of GitHub and LinkedIn, as well as a bold US$13B investment in OpenAI, reinforced Microsoft’s new identity as a platform company rather than a pure software vendor. The results were spectacular. Under Nadella’s leadership, Microsoft’s market value has soared to around US$3.8T, firmly re-establishing its position as one of the most valuable companies in the world.
Lisa Su’s appointment as CEO of AMD in 2014 came at a time when the chipmaker’s future looked bleak. Its market cap was approximately US$2B. Facing an uncertain future, Su spearheaded a complete product and market repositioning, focusing on high-performance computing and cutting-edge semiconductor design. The company’s Zen architecture revitalised AMD’s product line, allowing it to challenge and often outpace Intel in key market segments. AMD’s share price, once languishing at around US$2.50, climbed to over US$140 within a decade and has a current market cap of approximately US$260B, a turnaround widely regarded as one of the most successful in tech history.
Netflix’s transformation from a DVD rental service into a global streaming leader is perhaps the textbook example of pre-emptive disruption. While others hesitated, Netflix committed early to streaming, expanded internationally and invested heavily in original content. This not only rewrote the rules of television and film distribution but also cemented Netflix’s position as the reference point for on-demand entertainment. Its model has since inspired countless imitators, but few have matched its global reach and brand dominance. Since 2015 its market cap has increased from US$25B to approximately US$515B.
Amazon’s evolution over the last decade demonstrates the power of diversification. While retail remains its public face, the company’s most profitable division is Amazon Web Services (AWS), which has become the backbone of much of the internet. AWS’s high-margin cloud infrastructure revenues have offset the thin margins of e-commerce, while strategic expansions into artificial intelligence, data analytics and edge computing have deepened its dominance. At the same time, Amazon’s ventures into healthcare through Amazon Pharmacy, content through Prime Video and logistics innovation have ensured it is as much a technology and infrastructure giant as it is a retailer. This breadth has insulated Amazon from sector-specific volatility and positioned it as a central player in both the digital and physical economy. Since 2015 its market cap has increased from US$435B to approximately US$2.4T.
In the Australian context, Bain Capital’s acquisition and revival of Virgin Australia stands out. Acquired in 2020 after entering administration during the COVID-19 pandemic, Virgin was restructured with ruthless efficiency. Bain streamlined the fleet, cut unprofitable routes and retired the Tigerair brand, restoring financial discipline and brand focus. By 2025, Virgin relisted publicly with a valuation of approximately A$2.3B, a clear testament to the power of strategic capital, decisive leadership, and a disciplined operational reset.
Five Disastrous Business Moves
Few corporate collapses are as frequently cited as Blockbuster’s refusal to embrace streaming. In the early 2000s, Blockbuster could have acquired Netflix for a fraction of its current worth. Instead, it clung to its brick-and-mortar rental model and dismissed streaming as a niche trend. By the time Blockbuster attempted its own streaming service, Netflix had already captured the market and the once-ubiquitous video rental chain entered bankruptcy.
Kodak’s fate followed a similar arc, but with an even more ironic twist. The company actually invented the digital camera in 1975, yet shelved the innovation for fear it would cannibalise its lucrative film business. Competitors embraced the new technology, leaving Kodak scrambling to catch up. The delay proved fatal and Kodak declared bankruptcy in 2012, offering a cautionary tale about the dangers of protecting legacy products at the expense of future growth.
Quibi’s short-lived existence underscores the perils of overestimating a market without truly understanding it. Backed by US$1.75B in funding and led by entertainment veterans, Quibi promised to revolutionise mobile viewing with short-form premium content. Yet it launched into a streaming market already saturated with free alternatives like YouTube and TikTok and failed to resonate with viewers. Within six months, the platform shut down, burning through vast sums of capital without gaining meaningful traction.
BlackBerry, once the undisputed leader in mobile communications, offers a lesson in what happens when a company clings too tightly to its existing model. Dominating the corporate smartphone market in the mid-2000s, BlackBerry underestimated the appeal and functionality of touchscreen devices pioneered by Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android ecosystem. Blackberry was slow to adapt its operating system, failed to build a competitive app store and lost its stranglehold on security differentiation. By the time it pivoted toward software and services, its market share had evaporated, leaving it a shadow of its former self and a case study in missed technological shifts.
Nokia, once the undisputed leader in global mobile phones, provides another striking example of decline. At its peak in the mid-2000s, Nokia controlled over 40 percent of the global handset market. Yet it catastrophically underestimated the shift toward smartphones and touchscreens initiated by Apple and accelerated by Android. Nokia persisted with its Symbian operating system long after it had been eclipsed in usability and app support. Its late partnership with Microsoft, though bold, failed to gain traction against the dominant ecosystems. By the time Nokia exited the handset business in 2014, its market share had evaporated, marking one of the most dramatic collapses of a once-dominant global brand.
Analysis & Takeaways
The decade’s most brilliant and most disastrous business moves reveal recurring patterns, regardless of geography or sector. At the core, success was driven by vision, adaptability and disciplined execution, while failure often stemmed from complacency, misjudgement, or an inability to pivot quickly enough.
Vision and adaptability separated the winners from the losers. The global success stories—Microsoft, AMD, Netflix, Amazon and the turnaround of Virgin Australia all share a common thread: leaders recognised seismic shifts in their industries early and acted decisively to adapt. They paired bold strategy with operational precision, aligning resources to exploit emerging trends. In contrast, the global failures—Blockbuster, Kodak, Quibi, Nokia and BlackBerry demonstrate the cost of resisting change or misreading consumer trends. For BlackBerry and Nokia, the reluctance to embrace touchscreens and app-centric ecosystems was as damaging as Kodak’s reluctance to embrace digital photography.
Culture, execution and integrity were equally decisive. Transformational successes were anchored in a culture that embraced change and learning. Nadella’s Microsoft fostered a “learn-it-all” mindset; Lisa Su rebuilt AMD on trust and product excellence; Bain Capital’s Virgin Australia revival focused on efficiency, brand clarity and customer value. Conversely, failures often reflected cultural or ethical breakdowns, Kodak’s inward-looking resistance to its own innovation and BlackBerry’s insular approach to product design and customer feedback.
Timing and flexibility also played pivotal roles. Microsoft’s AI investments and Netflix’s early streaming push aligned perfectly with demand curves. Virgin Australia’s reset came at a moment when competitors were also recalibrating post-pandemic, enabling a more even playing field. In contrast, Quibi launched into an already saturated mobile content market and Blockbuster’s streaming pivot came far too late. Nokia and BlackBerry’s decline illustrates that even a market leader can rapidly become irrelevant if it fails to meet consumer expectations in real time.
The broader implication is clear: survival and success rarely hinge on avoiding all risk. The most resilient organisations take calculated risks supported by adaptive culture, strong execution and long-term strategic vision. Conversely, failure often arrives when businesses are caught between external disruption and internal inertia. Nokia and BlackBerry’s global fall serves as a warning that dominance in one era is no guarantee of relevance in the next.
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