What are some of the biggest corporate blunders that you know about?
I just read some article about how New Coke almost destroyed one of the biggest companies in the world. I found it quite fascinating at how poorly everything was thought out. Article is linked below.
http://www.businessinsider.com/new-coke-the-3...iversary-of-coca-colas-biggest-mistake-2015-4
What are some other corporate disasters that you know of that collapsed or nearly collapsed a big company?
8 years ago by geoleo
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I'm gonna state the obvious, Digg. From a valuation of 180 million to 0 in like a year or two. What a shit show that was.
I don't think reddit has been paying attention.
On that same note - MySpace
My space was a little different, they simple faded into obscurity with the introduction with facebook and other social networks. Digg literally put a shotgun in their mouth and pulled the trigger!
MySpace was originally purchased for $580 million, followed by a 3 year advertising deal with Google for $900 million. As soon as this happened, MySpace began focusing it's efforts much more on revenue and much less on user-based advancements. By 2011, less than 6 years later, the owners of MySpace were having a difficult time selling it for $100 million. In fact, they failed to sell it at that price and ended up selling for $35 million 6 months later. That's a massive loss in such a short amount of time.
It's true that the demise of Digg happened much more quickly, and the similarity lies in the fact that both companies/websites began to prioritize ad revenue over user-base. In short, they got greedy. The fall of both these companies proved how incredibly volatile the economics of online investments can be, and as a web developer, how much power your user-base really does hold over you.
Sources: http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/magazine/content/11_27/b4235053917570.htm http://fortune.com/2011/06/28/myspaces-doom-was-in-its-dna/ http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/jun/30/myspace-sold-35-million-news http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/30/how-myspace-fell-apart_n_887853.html
I heard Blockbuster laughed Netflix out of their boardroom. Look at them now.
Speaking about Netflix, remember that Qwikster fiasco? For those who don't know, Netflix thought it was a good idea to keep it's name as the main movie streaming company, while giving the mail DVD business another name and separate price. People were furious and they made a public apology and didn't go thru with it.
Yea that was a few years ago.
I miss the days of going in to blockbuster and walking around the new releases shelves and picking out a movie or two. Damn you Netflix.
Other than New Coke:
1. The Union Carbide disaster
2. The Ford Pinto
3. Heaven's Gate (film)
4. The Sony DRM rootkit
5. Atari's ET video game
6. Apple Maps
7. Kodak dropping the ball on digital cameras
7. Nintendo canceling its SNES-CD partnership with Sony
9. SEGA 32X, along with the disastrous development of the cancelled Sonic Saturn game
10. NBC picking Leno over Letterman
How much damage with the Leno over Letterman selection do?
Does Enron count?
Enron was a swindle from the beginning, but I think it might count if you look at the sheer size of that disaster.
Read this article here. Great examples.
These Employees Goofed Up & Cost Their Companies Big Time http://www.officechai.com/stories/employee-blunders/
Among the biggest that comes to mind is Decca Records's decision not to sign The Beatles in 1961. They decided to sign another band because guitar groups were so out or something like that. Well.. The Beatles would go on to be the best-selling band in the entire world and who’s ever heard of Decca Records?
Motorola staying confident that smart phones wouldn't catch on.
The razr was dope but that was a while before the first smartphones.
Medhi Ali as head of Commodore and Bill Sydnes as head of C= engineering. That worked out well.
On an entirely unrelated note, Dave Whelan sold JJB Sports for £ 200 Million in 2007. It was sold to Sports Direct in 2012 for £23 million with £20 million worth of stock in the warehouse.
Excite not buying Google for $750,000 was a costly mistake
Yellow Pages joining the online game like 10 years too late. Another case of a company that refused to adapt...
Funny a thread about the Amazon Fire phone just came up.