Dumb Business Moves 2009 Highlights
What business moves have been made thus far in 2009 that really set themselves apart as, well, dumb?
Today’s CNN Money features their top 10 which is worth a read. Our favorites from the list:
GM Partners With Segway
It became clear this spring that General Motors was going to have to get smaller to survive, but this was ridiculous. A week after President Obama gave the company a 60 day deadline to avoid bankruptcy, GM took time out from its turnaround efforts to unveil the PUMA, a two-seat vehicle being developed with Segway that looked more like a rickshaw than a car.
The vehicle, capable of going only 35 mph and traveling 35 miles between charges, got lots of attention, but did little to change popular opinion about the company that had ridden large SUVs to the cusp of failure. On June 1, GM filed for bankruptcy.
Grassley to AIG Execs: ‘Commit Suicide’
Indignation over AIG bonuses was all the rage in March, but no one took more offense than Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), who infamously told an Iowa radio station that AIG executives should consider committing hara-kiri:
“The first thing that would make me feel a little bit better towards them is if they’d follow the Japanese model and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say I’m sorry, and then either do one of two things — resign, or go commit suicide.”
A spokesperson for Grassley later said the senator was only speaking “rhetorically.”
Geithner Gives Few Details, Tanks the Market
In February, President Obama used his first White House press conference to alert the public to a momentous event. “Tomorrow, my Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, will be announcing some very clear and specific plans for how we are going to start loosening up credit once again,” he said.
But when Geithner appeared at Treasury the next day, on Feb. 10, he offered few plans of any sort, let alone clear and specific ones, which helps to explain the stock market’s 5% plunge that day. Since then Geithner has loosened up, with the help of a media trainer — and the market has bounced back. Coincidence?
For juice lovers when reading the bit on Tropicana’s redesign blunder just simply remind yourself that nothing is worse than Coke’s launching of the “New Coke”.
Read the rest at today’s Yahoo Finance.
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Source:
Dumbest Moments in Business 2009…Midyear Edition
Jon Birger, CNNMoney.com
Yahoo Finance, Tuesday, June 30, 2009
