There are always coming and going trends. Some companies rely on these trends. How can such company react to a shrinking market because the product just isn’t in high demand anymore and isn’t expected to in the foreseeable future.
Is there any way for a company to shrink in a healthy way just like it once grew?
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It is possible to grow in a shrinking market. I read an article about the Floppy disk king the other day, a line caught my eye:
> Over time, the total number of floppy users has gone down. However, the number of people who provided the product went down even faster.
https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/we-spoke-with-the-last-person-standing-in-the-floppy-disk-business
The other option is diversify. Compare the stories of Fujifilm and Kodak. Both made film for cameras, obviously a dying market. Fuji considered itself a chemical company, and saw what else it could do with its technology and expanded into medical imaging, cosmetics, pharmaceutical drugs, biologics manufacturing, optical films for flat-panel displays, etc. Kodak considered itself a camera company and tried to get into digital cameras, but it was a short lived market, quickly replaced by smart phones. Film cameras had continuing costs that just weren’t there for digital cameras, there was no equivalent market.
Another option is to not grow, if you know your product is a fad, use contract manufacturers. Never build your own factories.
If you are shrinking slow enough, you can just hope people quit / retire faster than you are shrinking.
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