Discussion: View Thread

Colleagues
Three weeks ago I asked if anyone could suggest examples of bad business
decisions, reporting that I had become used to using the Bay of Pigs while
students had become younger and less interested in US history!

By bad decision, I meant one that could be identified at the time it was
made. This 'a priori' condition provides a real challenge. There are, of
course, thousands that show up afterwards. I wondered whether Frank
Shipper's suggestion of Ford losing the K-car design to Chrysler falls in
this post event categrory.

Several colleagues pointed to the Challenger disaster, including full
references which were very helpful (Charles Wankel provided the longest
list). Looking into the layers of the story shows that identifying fault is
not so easy as headlines would suggest.

On the industrial front, Jay Warner's references to GE's refrigerator pump
was useful in itself and made me think of other ideas where
manufacturability and FEMA had been sacrificed in the rush to market.
Several examples occur in aircraft manufacturing.

I'm reporting this because it's the outcome of a good discussion group.
Contributions have given me food for thought so I'll shut up for a while.

But if anyone has any other examples of a bad decision...........?

John Naylor
Liverpool Business School

I'd like to suggest that the worst decisions were related to not updating
legacy and other computer systems to be Y2K compliant when the issue first
came up several years ago. It could not have been a cost issue since
conversion costs now, and other unknown problem costs yet to be determined,
seem to be higher than an organized plan of conversion would have been 10
years ago.

How did these CIO's, COO's, and CEO's expect to stay functional at the turn
of the year 2000 with systems that would send the calculations back to 1900?

Other issues might include the Ford Pinto gas tank problems, the Titanic's
lack of lifeboats, or even current cruise lines that are short of life boats.

Good luck, John. Let me know what happens with your research. I am also
looking for examples for my Executive Decision Making course.

Ted

What about the Mars I lander? I don't have the details, but apparently
the lander crashed on the surface of mars because two groups of
engineers worked with different info. One group used metric
measurements, while the other used standard. I suspect if you can get
any background on this decision, it might be much like the Challenger
decision (Group think), or perhaps we could come up with a new title
description for this one.

Naylor John wrote:
>
> Colleagues
> Three weeks ago I asked if anyone could suggest examples of bad business
> decisions, reporting that I had become used to using the Bay of Pigs while
> students had become younger and less interested in US history!
>
><snip>
> But if anyone has any other examples of a bad decision...........?
>
> John Naylor
> Liverpool Business School

I'll delete part of Mike's message for brevity. His message is actually about
bad decisions rather than flaming, and provide additional detail about his
examples related to the Bridge at Remagen I think, rather than Arnhem. This
particular operation was memorialized fairly accurately in a movie called "A
Bridge too far." that portrays the decision process fairly accurately. I'm
not a military historian, but if we need to check, I have access to more than
my share in our history department.

There was even a commercial war game (board game) based on the operation.
These might be interesting to use as part of a class.

Mike's comments below.

William Sharbrough

>Another military exapmle from WWII. In Sept 1944 the British developed a
>proposal called Market Garden which called for an attack through Holland to
>secure a bridge across the Rhine at Arhnem (I don't think that is spelled
>right). As a coup de main the British decided to use an Airborne division
>to secure the Rhine bridge. When the plan was developed the airborne
>attack area wa lightly held. However, in the days just before the attack
>the Germans moved armored units into the area fro rest and refit. The
>British detected the presence of these units but because of the group think
>support for Market Garden choose to ignore the warning signs. The result
>was the almost total destruction of the British 1st Airborne Division.>
>Michael R. Penrod, Ph.D.
>Assessment Specialist
>Office of Academic Assessment and Instutional Research
>219 Showalter Hall, mail Stop 132
>Eastern Washington University
>Cheney, WA 99004-2431

>(509)359-7607
>mike.penrod@ewu.edu

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
William C. Sharbrough, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Business Administration
The Citadel
171 Moultrie Street
Charleston, SC 29409

Office (843) 953-5164 FAX (843) 953-6764 or Home (843) 763-8512
E-Mail: SHARBROUGHW@CITADEL.EDU

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Bay of Pigs is basically a military example.

Another would be the Battle of the Bluge in WWII. In the weeks and months
prior to December 1944 allied intelligenc had convinced itself that the
Germans were not capable of offensive action in the west, despite
intelligence evidence to the contrary. Thus, warning signs were ignored.
On a narrower level, and the same example. Because intelligence saw no
possiblity of a German offensive the Americans made a decision to lightly
hold the Ardeenes front, an area where the major German offensive action
occured in May 1940. Because of group think, the allied armies were
unprepared for the German attack in December 1944.

Another military exapmle from WWII. In Sept 1944 the British developed a
proposal called Market Garden which called for an attack through Holland to
secure a bridge across the Rhine at Arhnem (I don't think that is spelled
right). As a coup de main the British decided to use an Airborne division
to secure the Rhine bridge. When the plan was developed the airborne
attack area wa lightly held. However, in the days just before the attack
the Germans moved armored units into the area fro rest and refit. The
British detected the presence of these units but because of the group think
support for Market Garden choose to ignore the warning signs. The result
was the almost total destruction of the British 1st Airborne Division.>
Michael R. Penrod, Ph.D.
Assessment Specialist
Office of Academic Assessment and Instutional Research
219 Showalter Hall, mail Stop 132
Eastern Washington University
Cheney, WA 99004-2431

(509)359-7607
mike.penrod@ewu.edu