The decisions that made it
The Fall · Decision Forks
RadioShack Didn't Die From the Smartphone. It Sold Smartphones for Carriers Who Didn't Need It.
The legend says smartphones killed RadioShack. The truth is worse: it spent fifteen years erasing its own identity, until mobile was 51% of sales by 2011 - and the carriers it depended on could open their own stores anytime.
8 min
The Counterfactual · Decision Forks
RadioShack Didn't Die From Amazon. It Sold Its 50% Margins for a Phone Kiosk.
RadioShack peaked at $4.84B in sales and a 50.3% gross margin in 2004. Then it bet the company on reselling postpaid phones - a business it didn't control - and two bankruptcies in 26 months finished it. The move it skipped wasn't e-commerce. It was staying a margin business.
8 min
The Counterfactual · Decision Forks
RadioShack Caught Every Wave. The Same Playbook Drowned It Each Time.
RadioShack is taught as a company that missed the future. It didn't. It shipped a home computer that took half the market in 1978, then watched the same private-label playbook that built it kill the machine that ran three times faster than IBM's.
7 min