The “DUH-OH!” Lists of 2007
As a follow-on to my post, Would You Rather Be Small & Smart or Big & Stupid? - check out The 101 Dumbest Moments in Business for 2007. If nothing else, you’ll laugh. (However, I find #13 just downright sad.)
Here are some of my favs:
#16 Microsoft’s PR Firm “Gee, what’s this new email thingie???”
#42 Pfizer product development “Whaddaya mean we should test it?”
#58 Taco Bell in Mexico. Maybe if they sold real food. This one deserves a post of its own, coming soon.
#60 Start-up CEOs It’s 10:00, do you know where yours is?
#65 Verizon Wireless PR“You mean, people still like free speech? What? What?”
#51 Apple Has All The Ideas and Customers They Need “Go away, little girl!”
#70 Circuit City Cuts Costs! “People, who needs people? Oh, hey, wait a minute..we do.”
#74 Google Versus Ebay “Whaddaya mean they’re a customer?”
So, let’s seque to…
(Just Six Of) The Dumbest Start-Up Mistakes (that I’ve seen)
1. Sending out software to the biggest customer without quality assurance testing…and doing it more than once. (The customer got a trifle upset when they had to shut down their production line again.)
2. Two founders filing lawsuits against each other over product development credit - when the company had no money and two customers. (Both ended up back in their old jobs…and having to give back seed money…that they’d already spent.)
3. Refusing to reduce prices even when nothing is selling. There’s value and then there’s ego….sometimes your baby is just fugly.
4. The CEO (who hadn’t participated in the contract negotiation) instantly agreeing to a major concession when he got a phone call from the other company. “Hey! I’m the CEO.” (Yep, and he’s now the CEO of nothing.)
5. The CEO abruptly firing one of the founders of the company just before that crucial, be-all, end-all funding meeting with the VC. “Hey! I’m the CEO.” (See #4.)
6. “Firing” a customer…when the company had - um - two. Yes, there are times this would, in fact, make sense. This wasn’t one of them.
What do you think some of the dumbest mistakes of 2007 (or any other year) were?
Related Posts:
Start-Up Suicide: Mine Is Bigger Than Yours.
Start-Up Success: People Before Plan
Start-Up Success: A Smart, Effective CEO
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