It’s a cliched saying “adapt or die”, but I honestly think clichés hold the most truth.

 This week, an icon from my childhood was given a terminal prognosis and only weeks to live. Toy’s “R” Us told its employees that it would be closing all its U.S. stores.  Both Toys “R” Us and I went public in 1978. Growing up as a kid, it was looked at as a place of hallowed ground, a place where all the plastic crown jewels of my childhood existed. Whether it was the perfectly hinged body of Optimus Prime waiting to be “transformed” or G.I. Joe’s iron clad Kungfu grip, it could all be found within this supermarket-like Taj Mahal of toys.

The downfall of such a pantheon of plastic has to be complex……or does it? Maybe if we just step back and look at the macro-environment we can see how, like so many retailers before it (those “too big to fail” types), they just didn’t pay attention to what was going on around them.

Is the most likely story that my old buddy Geoffrey the giraffe didn’t see Jeff Bezos and his e-commerce monster Amazon.com coming until it was too late? He wouldn’t be the first or the last to fall to this retail Godzilla.

I honestly don’t think that’s it though. I think it comes down to comfort. Toys “R” Us was huge. They were the first name that came to mind when you think toy retailer. When you get that big it gets hard to self-reflect as a company. Sh*t, it’s hard to do on an individual level sometimes. The work must be done though. Could the empire have been saved if it were the first to start an E-sports league, promoting video games, the online stars who play them and their toy pushing brand all at once? Could they have bought more time by delving into the growing world of children’s sports and fitness, joining forces with larger brands like the NFL, MLB and NBA? It worked for Gatorade. What if they just invested in updating their customer experience? Have you been to a Toy’s “R” Us lately? The last one I was in had the lighting of a discount liquor warehouse and the cleanliness of a large metropolitan thrift store.

Unfortunately, on a lot of levels you do have to grow up, you can’t stay a Toys “R” Us kid, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop using your imagination or lose that level of excitement we all had upon entering one of the great halls of our childhood.

Tapping into your childhood curiosity and turning that curious eye towards what you can change and how you are showing up in your life or industry can be the difference between you building a bigger toy box or having to sell all your toys on E-bay at rock-bottom prices.

So, I ask, what is it that you’re overlooking, not tending to or have gotten just plain comfortable with? Have you lost sight of who you serve or how you could strengthen that relationship? Could a collaborative partnership be formed that could help grow your brand or strengthen your market share?

Please treat these questions like that childhood trip to our favorite toy store and get excited about all the possibilities. Maybe doing the hard work of self-reflection will allow for the growth that will get you that magical thing you’ve always wanted.

-Russ