A helpful summary of Hertz& #39;s financial gymnastics. That aside, like Blockbuster before them, they seem to uniquely believe that the worst part of their customer experience is a feature, not a bug. I& #39;ll explain. https://twitter.com/danprimack/status/1265298481767473153">https://twitter.com/danprimac...

What could Blockbuster & Hertz possibly have in common, you ask? Blockbuster used to think that late fees were a great feature: it certainly looked good on the balance sheet, a nice reliable revenue stream, much to shareholder excitement. What about the customer?

On the customer side, this & #39;feature& #39; was so loathed that the mere promise of no late fees was enough to make Netflix& #39;s & #39;rental by mail& #39; value prop attractive. Netflix didn& #39;t have to work too hard to prove that as a differentiator.

Similarly with Hertz around refueling charges: someone of their size could easily pass on fuel recharge savings on to their customers as a benefit. But no -- they preferred to nickel & dime & generally make the rental experience one wrought with stress & the opposite of delight.

It didn& #39;t have to be this way, but both these cases serve as a perfect illustration for why Innovators Dilemma challenges are so hard on incumbents: they think that their most loathed functionality is actually a feature.