Ice vs. Refrigeration

During the late 1800s in Canada and the northern US, we kept our food cold in iceboxes. There were numerous companies that went out to the lakes and rivers in the winter. Using saws, teams of men cut large blocks out of the ice, leveraged them up onto horse-drawn sleighs and dragged them to barns where they were insulated in hay. During the summer, small blocks of ice were chipped off and delivered door-to-door using horse-drawn carriages.
Think about the core competencies or skill sets required for the ice company: working with saws, working with horses, first aid would probably be helpful, there would be a barn acquisition department, a door-to-door sales force and an accounting department. And how would the company spend its research and development (R&D) budget? Most likely on trying to find better ways of cutting ice, insulating materials and breeding horses that work better in cold weather.
But when refrigeration came along, none of the ice block companies made it in the refrigeration paradigm. Why? Well, look at the core competencies required in the new paradigm: handling Freon gas, manufacturing and servicing compression motors, mass manufacturing, and wholesale distribution. The only competency that would remain would be accounting.
Why is it so difficult for organizations to change? In the ice company, if you were a good saw handler you became head of the saw department. The employee who handled horses best became head of horses and the best barn buyer became head of barn acquisition. However, none of these skills were required in the new paradigm. People most vested in the old way of doing business were running the organization. The strengths of the old organization, its people and its R&D, were the weaknesses in the new paradigm.