31-03-2003 19:05									#31
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The fact that it had been jokingly said that Xerox invented the concepts which were further developped by Apple for MS making profit with them, shows that some errors are long lasting. But they had an excuse : they were breaking new ground.

The steel industry discovering that it was enable to pay the pensions of tens of thousand employees is a much worse mistake which deserve no excuse.

	31-03-2003 19:08									#32
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quote: Originally posted by Kontiki 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.

So far, this one is my favorite. Wow!

New Coke wasn't as big a mistake as originally thought, but I don't have time to get into it now. Perhaps tonight.

	31-03-2003 19:20									#33
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Ford, GM, and Chrysler building monstrous SUVs which chug gas, are ugly, and have turned the roadways into Survival of the Biggest.

Overall quality has gone down the tubes. The small and mid car segment have been conceded to the foreign carmakers. It's a mess, and it's starting to bite them in the as$ hard.

	31-03-2003 19:42									#34
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quote: Originally posted by gunkulator 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.

There are lots of versions of what happened there. IIRC, supposedly Kidall did meet with the IBM team, but he didn't have an OS for the 8088, just the 8086. He eventually agreed to a port, but he couldn't precisely fixed a time. Then the IBM guys went to MS for BASIC. During the meeting they asked Gates if they had an OS. They didn't, but Tim Paterson of Seattle Engineering did, which was a total ripoff of CP/M.

	31-03-2003 20:13									#35
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"Water World"

	31-03-2003 20:15									#36
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HP's merger with Compaq

	31-03-2003 20:38									#37
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quote: Ford, GM, and Chrysler building monstrous SUVs which chug gas, are ugly, and have turned the roadways into Survival of the Biggest.

Why is that a stupid corporate decision? SUVs have made those companies a TON of money!

	31-03-2003 20:47									#38
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Apple's poor piracy skills. Sure they stole the GUI from Xerox but also in that same lab were two other technologies that Steve Jobs could have stolen but didn't: object oriented programming and local area networking. 1 out 3 only earns a 33% (F)

	01-04-2003 01:53									#39
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quote: Originally posted by Urban Ranger No, the bigger one was IBM decided to use the 8088 instead of the 8086 to cut like 50 bucks from the cost.

How is that bigger?
IBM was already huge before that, still huge after.
The MS-DOS thing threw MS right to the top, and they've been there ever since.

That's why it's bigger, IMO.

quote: 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.

I never implied they never made mistakes, it's just that they capitalize on other people's mistakes to get where they are. Other companies can never figure out how to effectively do that that compete with MS.

	01-04-2003 01:59									#40
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Ford not giving the Dodge boys a raise.

Sega... in general.

Atari releasing a subpar Pac-Man.

Merging a Taco Bell with a Long John Silver...

	01-04-2003 02:11									#41
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A current one, if I understand it correctly.

Nintendo Gamecube not having much (any?) online gaming capability and few games (in Europe anyway) and watching PS2 and X-Box sales disappear into the distance.

(If I am not quite right on this it's because I dislike console games).

	01-04-2003 02:41									#42
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quote: Originally posted by Urban Ranger HP's merger with Compaq

ITS TRUE!

	01-04-2003 02:55									#43
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quote: Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui Why is that a stupid corporate decision? SUVs have made those companies a TON of money!

So what happens when people stop buying them? The Big Three can't be bothered to offer a decent product mix, and the end result is going to hurt them in the long run. They can't ride the gravy train forever.

Not to mention the Firestone tires, constant safety recalls, etc, etc. The car companies never accounted for people hurtling down the highway at 90 mphs in these mini-tanks, and its biting them in the a$s....hard.

	01-04-2003 03:15									#44
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Another on the SUV front...

International Harvester, decides to stop producing the Scout SUV because the niche market is too small for both the Scout and Ford's Bronco. Within two years the Jeep Cherokee saves Chrysler's ass, (along with the minivan) and the SUV market now has around 10,000 different models to choose from. Harvester changes their name to Navistar and keeps making farm equipment and long haul trucks.

	01-04-2003 03:28									#45
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All-time worst human resources decision: Portugal passes on Chris Columbus and sends him on to Spain.

	01-04-2003 03:32									#46
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http://www.business2.com/articles/m...0,47750,00.html

The 101 dumbest moments from this past year. Lots of good ones in there.

quote: How the right merger can create exponential growth. January 2002 One year after the completion of its much-ballyhooed merger, AOL Time Warner (AOL) posts a paltry quarterly loss of $1.8 billion. April 2002 Just three months later, AOL Time Warner announces a loss of $54.2 billion, the biggest quarterly loss in U.S. history. January 2003 Stunningly, a mere nine months after that -- and just two years after the consummation of the marriage -- AOL Time Warner sets another record with an annual loss of $98.7 billion.

	01-04-2003 03:36									#47
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yeah, the Time Warner/AOL merger was pretty bad. synergies my ASS!

	01-04-2003 03:51									#48
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quote: So what happens when people stop buying them? The Big Three can't be bothered to offer a decent product mix, and the end result is going to hurt them in the long run. They can't ride the gravy train forever.

You can make this claim for ANYTHING! What happens when people stop buying small **** Eurocars? What happens for McDonald's when people stop buying hamburgers?

Saying what happens when people stop buying them means nothing when there is no indication that people are going to stop buying them.

quote: Not to mention the Firestone tires, constant safety recalls, etc, etc. The car companies never accounted for people hurtling down the highway at 90 mphs in these mini-tanks, and its biting them in the a$s....hard.

You have a REALLY wierd way of thinking abotu what bites companies in the ass. Even with Firestone, Ford has made an absolute ton on SUVs, as have every American car maker. It's a cash cow and it doesn't look like it's gonna end soon.

After all, it's saved many car companies (like Sten has already stated, Chrysler).

	01-04-2003 03:56									#49
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Circuit City decides to "improve customer service" by firing 5000 employees. Not only do they fire 5000, they fire the best 5000, those that used to earned the most on commisions from sales. they then stop paying commisions to their sales people.

	01-04-2003 03:58									#50
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gepap, were you a circuit city sales rep?

	01-04-2003 06:00									#51
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Sony doesn't license the Betamax, a product with superior performance over VHS, and ended up on the losing end of the tape standard war.

	01-04-2003 07:11									#52
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Imran, Detroit, please chill. If you want to argue SUV's, go to a thread about SUV's.

Thanks!!

	01-04-2003 07:30									#53
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JohnT... Big&tasty isnt offered anymore. Sux for college student everywhere...

	01-04-2003 07:58									#54
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ATTP in an effort to cut costs, fired there highest-payed IT workers, complete with a nice payout bonus. They then realised that there was noone left in the company that understood the company's legacy systems. The very same workers were rehired as contractors, for the paltry sum of 3 times what they were previously receiving.

	01-04-2003 12:18									#55
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Skanky,

Good one.

quote: Originally posted by Asher How is that bigger? IBM was already huge before that, still huge after. The MS-DOS thing threw MS right to the top, and they've been there ever since.

Because if IBM used the 8086 instead, they wouldn't have gotten MS-DOS, they would have gone with CP/M-86, a more advanced OS at the time. MS would still be a computer languages vendor, but would not be as big.

	01-04-2003 19:12									#56
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quote: You can make this claim for ANYTHING! What happens when people stop buying small **** Eurocars? What happens for McDonald's when people stop buying hamburgers?

If either company was dumb enough to offer only certain product while ignoring everything else, they probably deserve to die a slow death.

Car companies can't afford to put all their eggs in one basket in terms of product development. This is what killed them in the 70's when the Japanese undercut the big three after gas prices went through the roof.

quote: You have a REALLY wierd way of thinking abotu what bites companies in the ass. Even with Firestone, Ford has made an absolute ton on SUVs, as have every American car maker.

Then why is ford's stock in the toilet, even with strong SUV's sales? GM and Chrysler are down, too. They're still getting killed across the board because they can't compete with the imports. And now the imports are cutting into their light truck and SUV markets.

quote: fter all, it's saved many car companies (like Sten has already stated, Chrysler).

FYI, SUVs didn't "save" chrysler. A government handout "saved" chrysler. Followed by the K-car, followed by the Caravan.