The unexpected move was the start of a tremendous turnaround.
Radically redesigned iMac systems emerged the next summer, followed by the first iPod music players in 2001. Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone in 2007, and the rest is history.
Apple is now one of the largest and richest companies in the world. That's a textbook example of a great turnaround, changing everything in a failing business to come out stronger on the other side. The business titan you see today has very little in common with the struggling computer builder of the early 1990s.
But turnaround stories don't always have happy endings. Blockbuster was the unchallenged market leader in video rentals for a long time, but the company wasn't ready to try new ideas when Netflix (NFLX -1.70%) began disrupting the industry in the early 2000s.
Netflix's red DVD mailer envelopes forced Blockbuster to try the same idea in 2004, with a couple of twists. The Blockbuster Total Access service shipped mail-order discs from local video stores rather than building a separate network of warehouses for remote DVD rentals.
But the service often left local store shelves without copies of new releases or classic hits, and the company's success relied heavily on late fees. Disappointed customers abandoned the brick-and-mortar stores, amplifying the lack of lucrative late fees.
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