At one point Monster.com was truly a monster. This giant of a job source once served as the resource for every job seeker in America. Point blank, its days as a useful resource are behind it. Just as Facebook forced the death of MySpace and companies like Yelp forced the death of the phonebooks, LinkedIn is currently cutting the throat of Monster.com with a saber. Similarly to the time I mentioned the death of the phonebook during the heats of summer, critics will likely come out again today. My response will be forward, so you have no need to read further. Old technology is dead, your internet experience has and will continue to reshape the way you interact with your daily life. As much as you may hate new tech, the building blocks for the revolution were set decades ago and the companies that are not keeping up with the Joneses (new techs) will die.
Sometime ago the topic of discussion was the death of TheStreet.com. The conversation captured my attention not because I desired to buy the faltering stock, but because I always find the death of a once premium company quite entertaining. Obviously TheStreet.com was taken to the woodshed by many other companies that better serve investors needs on a daily basis. When it comes to Monster.com, they have similarly failed to serve job searchers. Though if you look back at the story of this faltering internet brand, you see a tale of many mistakes and their inability to innovate as the future came crashing in the front door. The similar can be said and continues to play out with Monster.com.
Initially, when one takes a look at Monster, they are struck with the thought, “well this company pioneered the jobs industry of course they will continue to play a vital role.” This fallacy can be attributed to comparing the internet industry to that of other industries over the last century. When IBM lost their edge in the personal computer they were able to diversify and serve a purpose in other aspects of the tech industry. If G.E.’s nuclear division goes under, they have many other legs to stand on, or will create other legs to stand on. When it comes to Monster Worldwide, they have failed to innovate. They have failed to diversify. I was looking at what the company has done recently, what the news was buzzing about, and besides not impressing investors, it was the creation of an iPad app.
Those over there at Monster are such jesters.
If you don’t realize how contradictory that is, I cannot help you with anything. Let me try to elaborate on my thoughts, though if you have half a brain you can skip ahead. Monster has been part of the application world for barely 8 months. There are companies that make their bread and butter off of applications! Monster has just joined those ranks? What is wrong with that picture? Monster prides itself on being an internet company though it sits way behind the times. What kind of internet company doesn’t utilize the overwhelming force that is the tablet scene. As I have said over and over again, change or die. It looks like Monster Worldwide has taken the latter path.
I think the past and future of their company can be best summarized from a statement I came across in their 10k: “Some of our competitors or potential competitors may have greater financial, management, technological, development, sales, marketing and other resources than we do.” If that doesn’t scream we have given up and are unable to keep up, I don’t know what would.
My solution for fixing Monster.com? Well that is easy, because obviously they don’t have the resources or technology they should sell themselves to LinkedIn, before they become completely irrelevant and cease to exist.
Photo by Herlitz-Monster-Deal
