Based on his experiences as VP of finance and operations at the Internet Shopping Network, Cook saw problems with nearly every aspect of the proposed video rental operation: the labor costs for filling orders were too high and the costs of replacing broken and lost DVDs were unpredictable. DVD players were still too expensive and titles too few to interest mainstream consumers. The technology was iffy—even duplication houses were having trouble standardizing copies so that all DVDs worked in all players. Randolph and Kish went away from their first meetings with Cook and worked out reasonable
...more
