31-03-2003 07:45									#1
	Stupid Corporate Decisions Remove this text

(Note, this isn't an anger thread nor a political one. I just want us to laugh at other peoples expense.)

Have you been to McDonalds lately? They actually lost money for the first time in over 30 years last quarter... do you know why? Here's a hint:

Hamburger - 89 cents
Cheeseburger - 95 cents
Big 'n Tasty - $1 (now supplanted by the Double Cheeseburger)

So, for a mere .11 cents over their basic burger you got twice as much meat, plus lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, and a sesame seed bun.

I bet they lost $.50 for every one they sold - and they sold a LOT.

Idiots. Ray Croc must be rolling in his grave. I think they should start teaching finance at Hamburger U.

What other stupid decision have you seen corporations make?

	31-03-2003 07:48									#2
	Get a bigger avatar today!

New Coke.

	31-03-2003 07:50									#3
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

Releasing certain strategy games without properly testing it for player desirability....

	31-03-2003 07:51									#4
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

Airlines which are already on the verge of Bankruptcy getting involved in price wars.

	31-03-2003 07:52									#5
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

The all new 1958 Edsel Ranger!

	31-03-2003 07:54									#6
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

A really stupid decision was for the Big three to abandon the economy car segment to the Japanese in the late 1960s & early 1970s. Henry Ford II was quoted as saying "Small cars equal small profits and who's going to want a Japanese car any way?"!

	31-03-2003 07:56									#7
	Inflate your Upload Space

Xerox giving up the patent for the Graphical User Interface (GUI) because they thought it would be far toi complicated to make it work. Microsoft then took up the idea and created the Windows opporating system.

	31-03-2003 08:00									#8
	Tired of ads?

IBM liscensing DOS instead of buying exclusive rights...

	31-03-2003 08:00									#9
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

GE and RCA both way ahead of the Japanese in developing transitor technology in the 1950s but they had previously invested heavily in vacuum tubes so they choice to ignore the emerging technology of transitor radios and instead licienced the technology to a little know Japanese company named SONY.

	31-03-2003 08:06									#10
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

In 1945 the West German government found its industry in shambbles and sought foreign investors to help rebuild Germany. The German government offered to sell the Ford Motor Company the Wolfsburg factory where Hitlers "People's Car" was built for just $100,000. Henry Ford II's son Edsel Ford toured the factory and wrote his father saying "this factory and the car made here are worthless; there is no market for such a little car".

That little car went on to be the best selling car in history and built Volkswagen AG into the largest European auto maker.

	31-03-2003 08:49									#11
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

According to my good freind who works for McDonald's IT, McDonald's had a lot of one-time costs last year, which is why they didn't make a profit. We'll have to see whether they make a profit this year to see if they were snowing him and the rest of their corporate division. Anyway, they don't lose money on the $1 Big and Tasty, just don't make as much. Plus, they drive up volume on fries, drinks, and other items which are the high profit items.

	31-03-2003 08:55									#12
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

Many of the one time charges where for buying back unprofitable franchises from the franchisees. The new CEO feels (rightly) that there are to many McDonalds in the US and that profits will rise if they stop competing with each other as well as with the other fast food joints.

Personally, I think they will only get so far with this strategy and they will have to revamp their menus and add better tasting food like Charle's Junior, Jack in the Box, and several other's have done. That will help but they'll still going to be stuck with the imagine of a crap food place which is bad for your health.

	31-03-2003 08:58									#13
	Suffering from ads?

Sale of QDOS to Microsoft for approximately $25,000.

	31-03-2003 09:01									#14
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

Turning down Madonna for a record contract.

	31-03-2003 09:01									#15
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

In the 1850's the pony express was approached by the Union Pacific Railroad who was looking for a partner to invest in a transcontential telegraph line. The Board of Directors for the Pony express declined to buy a 50% share in the telegraph line because they thought people would always care more about a hand written letter from a loved one then a quickly sent message via telegraph.

The same year the new telegraph line became opporational the Pony Express went bankrupt because everyone switched to telegraph.

	31-03-2003 09:08									#16
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

Well, the Pony Express went backrupt because it was an extremely inefficient system that was losing money like crazy. They were only around for something like two or three years anyway. Though I'm sure the telegraph wires did not help.

	31-03-2003 09:09									#17
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

In the 1950s British Aerospace introduced the world's first jet powered passenger plane, the BA Comet. BA only got one air line to pre-order the plane and the Board of Directors were worried that there wouldn't be a mass market for such a fast but expensive airplane. Once the press heard about a few high profile (but very fixable) problems BA was having with the plane's engines the CEO of BA decided not to invest the money to mass produce the Comet. Instead they just filled the existing orders and then let the plane die.

The following year Boeing introduced the very similiar 707 Jet liner which quickly became the world's best selling passenger plane surpasing all sales of tradition prop powered aircraft.

	31-03-2003 09:10									#18
	Support Apolyton

Bill Gates helped write the code for Apple's OS, and then told Steve Jobs that he should patent protect it. Jobs declined, Gates turned around, tweaked it for IBMs, and Windows was born.

	31-03-2003 09:12									#19
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

Apple took it from Xerox who invented the GUI.

	31-03-2003 09:18									#20
	Got spare money?

quote: Turning down Madonna for a record contract.

Well if you are going to bring in music companies that turned down future stars, this thread will hit 500 in no time . EMI was like the 20th record company the Beatles went to (and if they didn't get it, they probably would have broken up).

	31-03-2003 09:20									#21
	Re: Stupid Corporate Decisions Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

quote: Originally posted by JohnT (Note, this isn't an anger thread nor a political one. I just want us to laugh at other peoples expense.) Have you been to McDonalds lately? They actually lost money for the first time in over 30 years last quarter... do you know why? Here's a hint: Hamburger - 89 cents Cheeseburger - 95 cents Big 'n Tasty - $1 (now supplanted by the Double Cheeseburger) So, for a mere .11 cents over their basic burger you got twice as much meat, plus lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, and a sesame seed bun. I bet they lost $.50 for every one they sold - and they sold a LOT. Idiots. Ray Croc must be rolling in his grave. I think they should start teaching finance at Hamburger U. What other stupid decision have you seen corporations make?

I've been at a McDonalds where a cheeseburger cost more than a double cheeseburger.

	31-03-2003 09:43									#22
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

Nortel's entire business plan for the late '90s/2000 ranks right up there. "Hey, we can keep buying every nothing telco parts manufacturers for massive premiums because there's never going to be a slowdown in the demand for our products and services. Hell, our stock is probably going to hit $200 soon..."

You especially have to like their $8 billion acquisition of Alteon Websystems in 2000, which was written down to ZERO by the second quarter of 2001.

	31-03-2003 10:18									#23
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

quote: Originally posted by Kirnwaffen Sale of QDOS to Microsoft for approximately $25,000.

This is the one that tops them all, IMO.

Gates built his company on the stupidity of others. That's such an incredible foundation that it made the company virtually unstoppable.

	31-03-2003 10:24									#24
	Increase Your PM Length

I find most success is built on the stupidity of others.

	31-03-2003 17:30									#25
	Tired of ads?

quote: Originally posted by Kirnwaffen Sale of QDOS to Microsoft for approximately $25,000.

Actually, it was $50k, plus a position in the company, plus tons of stock in the 1984 IPO (or was it 86?). The idea that Tim Paterson got screwed by Microsoft is not held by the man himself:

"Seattle Computer licensed MS as a sales agent fo QDOS, which we had then renamed SC 86-DOS. Meanwhile, SCP decided to quit trying to sell through retail stores and focus on mail order instead. I didn't agree with the strategy, so I called Paul Allen at MS and asked for a job. He said 'sure.' "

also, from the same source:

"In 1991 the Seattle Times ran a book review... of things invented locally (the Pacific NW) and it includes MS DOS. The book review attributed the invention to me and then added: "One imagines [Tim Paterson] in Pioneer Square with a tin cup, his rights long sold, being trampled by MS employees on their way to the annual meeting in the Kingdome.

I wrote a letter to the editor but got no response. Adam Woog (the author of the book) turned out to be a friend of a friend, and the piece in his book is actually quite accurate. But the book reviewer didn't seem to understand that the company gets the rights in exchange for paying its employees for their work. If that work is outstanding, the company comes up with incentives for people to stay and keep it up. Fortunately for me, my tin cup had a few stock options in it - enough for me to retire in 1998."

Source: Microsoft: Inside/Out, page 20.

	31-03-2003 18:28									#26
	Get a bigger avatar today!

"Once the press heard about a few high profile (but very fixable) problems BA was having with the plane's engines the CEO of BA decided not to invest the money to mass produce the Comet. "

Not quite. They were right to ditch the Comet as it stood, since more than a simple change to the engine was required. The whole skin and skeleton needed reworking, since it was the thiness of the skin and the structure of the skeleton that caused all the fatigue problems that led to the crashes. BOAC (precursor to BA) did buy a large number of the later Comet 4s.

The Comet debacle was pure and simple de Havilland's problem, and not BOACs (who had nothing to do with selling the aircraft)...

	31-03-2003 18:33									#27
	Increase the size of your Attachments

Of course the comet still flies in the form of the nimrod maritime and reccon aircraft.

the whow comet debacle was symptomatic of the problem affecting britsh industry in the 50's 60's 70's and 80's.

	31-03-2003 18:42									#28
	Got spare money?

quote: Originally posted by Kirnwaffen Sale of QDOS to Microsoft for approximately $25,000.

50K.

But it was just a copy of DR's CP/M...

	31-03-2003 18:49									#29
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

quote: Originally posted by Urban Ranger But it was just a copy of DR's CP/M...

It wasn't even as good as CP/M. Speaking of which, how about Digital Research's Gary Kildall's decision to play tennis instead of meeting with IBM about putting his OS on the PC.

	31-03-2003 18:49									#30
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

quote: Originally posted by Asher This is the one that tops them all, IMO.

No, the bigger one was IBM decided to use the 8088 instead of the 8086 to cut like 50 bucks from the cost.

quote: Originally posted by Asher Gates built his company on the stupidity of others. That's such an incredible foundation that it made the company virtually unstoppable.

The problem is not MS didn't make mistakes, in fact, they made loads of them - Bob, Multiplan come to mind. But after they got MS-DOS as a cash cow, they could afford to make mistakes and mediocre products.