The Dumbest Moments in Business History Useless Products, Ruinous Deals, Clueless Bosses, and Other Signs ofUnintelligent Life in the Workplace
by Adam Horowitz |
|  | List Price: 11.00
|
Paperback: 176 pages
Publisher: Portfolio Trade (December 28 2004)
Costumer Rating: 
Read an ExcerptCriteria for Inclusion
Welcome to The Dumbest Moments in Business History. This volume is a collection of cautionary tales from which we all can learn valuable lessons about how not to conduct business. So I'm pretty certain you can expense it. Chapter 1: Research and Development
A bad idea has to start somewhere. It's that old business maxim: You can't make a defective omelet without designing a really inefficient, expensive and dangerous way of breaking some eggs. Welcome to R&D. Chapter 1: Research and Development, Part 2
The result was the Polavision, introduced in 1978. The $700 contraption created instant movies, yes - but they only lasted two and a half minutes, ran without sound and required a special viewing device if you actually wanted to watch them.
Book Description Business 2.0 magazine publishes an annual cover story called vThe 101 Dumbest Moments in Business." Featuring 101 hilarious items about the year's most unbelievably stupid business blunders, it's hugely popular with its more than half a million print subscribers and with the two million people who read it on the Web this year. In The Dumbest Moments in Business History, the editors of Business 2.0 have compiled the best of their first four annual issues plus great (or not so great, if you happen to be responsible) moments from the past.
From New Coke to the Edsel, from Rosie magazine to Burger King's vHerb the Nerd,v the book's highlights include:
A Romanian car plant whose workers banded together to eliminate the company's debt by donating sperm and giving the proceeds to their employer The Heidelberg Electric Belt, a sort of low-voltage jockstrap sold in 1900 to cure impotence, kidney disorders, insomnia, and many other complaints The time Beech-Nut sold "100% pure apple juice" that contained nary a drop of apple juice The Midas ad campaign featuring an elderly customer ripping open her blouse and showing her "mufflers" to the guys in the shop A London videogame maker that sought volunteers who would allow the company to place ads on the headstones of deceased relatives
Grouped by theme - bosses gone bad, criminally creative accounting, etc.- The Dumbest Moments in Business History is a fun and funny look at the big-time ways that big-time companies have screwed up through the decades. About the Author Adam Horowitz Adam Horowitz is the executive editor of Business 2.0 magazine and a creator of "The 101 Dumbest Moments in Business.". » More by Adam Horowitz
|
