Hey Playboy! Really?

Hidden in the business news recently was the decision by Playboy Enterprises to stop purveying naked photos of women in their magazine. I am really not sure what to make of all of this. While I don't want to raise the ire of those who make a good point on exploitation, I do wonder as a businessman if this is a good move.

The print magazines' circulation rates have dropped significantly over the years which helped to prompt the decision. In some of the reading I did it appears that Playboy can't compete with all the free porn on the internet.

A few key strokes and 2 clicks gets you to whatever tickles your fancy here in 2015. 

An iconic brand, Playboy makes its money nowadays by licensing its logo and brand which are recognized worldwide. That's awesome, but the very thing that made the logo and brand are going away. Doesn't look good going forward.

The business part of this is that Playboy executives made the decision to abandon the core business vs. defending it. I have always been taught, and worked to, defend the core business. Where I have done this was frankly to save ourselves from ourselves. If you have a good product and or service it is way tempting to venture off into other businesses or to develop products outside your core to do something new and sexy.

Bright shiny objects are expensive distractions that can destroy your focus, brand and ultimately your business.  

Think of Michael Jordan playing baseball or the big banks becoming financial supermarkets by acquiring insurance companies and brokerages. How about the DeLorean. If John DeLorean had focused on making cars instead of being a drug lord perhaps the car would still be around today. 

Taking risks in business to grow is necessary but must be tempered. People often legitimately credit Steve Jobs for the greatest turnaround in corporate history but this was more due to his insistence on elegance and simplicity vs. rampant risk taking. Playboy just didn't see the internet coming which is a failure, worse they didn't figure out a way to use it to their advantage. 

Gone are the generations of kids wading through the deep dark secrets under Mom and Dad's bed, or lurking wearily through the stuff in their closet. In the future, our garages will be freed of boxes chronicling decades of a magazines life. Gone forever will be the stories they tell about our times in the form of pictures. 

Now we really have to read the interviews.

Hey Playboy, we already have Maxim!

My Best,