Whoops!: The 10 Worst Business Decisions In History

8/24/2018

The world of business is infamously brutal, as some unfortunate companies can go from billion dollar deals to bankrupt within just months. From the diet candy that shared its name with a deadly disease, to the irony of Blockbuster turning down Netflix, AllTime10s brings you 10 Worst Business Decisions In History. From Alltime10s.

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16 Comments

Stephanie Brock

8/24/2018 10:37:00 am

The three most important things I saw in this video were:
1All of these companies has one thing in common, which is doubting that anyone would ever want something different than what they are getting now. By doubting the market, they all moved too slowly and lost at the game.
2. Snapple was owned by Quaker Oats. Such a weird embarkment to choose from. They struggled to stay in the market by dumping $1.6 million dollars a day into keeping it afloat.
3. Western Union is an old company. I just associated it with sending money. Instead of a telecommunication means from a long time ago.

Do you think that companies make bad investments because they truly see money signs in the future or because they are stuck in a tunnel vision and hope that if they can do it I can too mentality?

I can apply learning from historic bad revenues. Ensuring to cut the cords before its too late is never a bad thing. I also think that by believing that what you are doing now is always going to satisfy your customers is destine to fail. You must move and be flexible with the market. Otherwise bankruptcy it is.

Corey Gaconi

8/27/2018 08:25:58 am

The three most important things I learned in this video were that a company should not be afraid to make a move in the market when introducing new products and given an opportunity to expand. I also never realized that Blockbuster had a chance to buy Netflix. Blockbuster clearly messed up and I am sure clearly regrets that decision. I also learned that Fox had the chance to make tons of money from Star Wars but instead made a bad deal with the director and they lost out on the chance to make a great deal of money. I also learned that one does not have to immediately try to make a company profitable as it could hurt the company. This happened in the case of MySpace and was a terrible tumble for the company.
A question I would ask to my classmates is: Have any of ya'll ever made a terrible business decision that you learned from? The biggest thing to take out of these situations is that you must learn from your mistakes.

Tara Fiore

8/27/2018 08:46:30 pm

Those were seriously the worst business decisions ever in history. The diet candy Ayds went down in smoke because it was the same time when the syndrome AIDS swept across the United States. I also learned that Fox made the worst deal in Hollywood with George Lucas over a space western movie called Star Wars, he took a profit cut in the beginning which now he is tremendously benefiting from. Another fact I learned that the man who bought Myspace sold it for only 6% of what he originally purchased it for. If I had to ask my classmates to discuss a question it would be, “Which of the ten worst business decisions did you find most interesting?” I can relate this to my life because I witnessed Myspace being one of the most popular social media websites to one of the worst. Also, Blockbuster used to be a family night ordeal, and now it doesn’t even exist.

Alayah Taylor

8/27/2018 09:30:43 pm

The 3 Most Important things I saw in this video were:

1. Never underestimate an idea without thoroughly looking through that company's business plan.

2.Netflix asked Blockbuster to buy them out in the early 00's in hopes to bring more revenue to Blockbuster and their company, but Blockbuster couldn't see how Netflix's business plan would benefit their company in any way. That was a major loss for Blockbuster being that Netflix is such a successful company today, and ALL Blockbuster locations are closed.

3. Schlitz beer had to recall over 10 million bottles of beer because customers was finding a mucus like substance at the bottom of their bottles, ultimately nicknaming the beer "Schlitz Snot".

Krystal Waddell

8/29/2018 07:58:23 pm

Everyone has 20/20 vision of things that have already occurred. A common path for these 10 business decisions seemed to be a sense of pride that led to downfall. Either buying something that was supposed to be profitable or turning down an offer for something that ended up being really successful because they believed they were already better. I think that we can learn from mistakes made by others, but making these tough decisions might not ever pan out the way we want them to. I believe diligently examining all details is crucial when partaking in these deals.

The question I would ask the class is are you open to new, emerging technology?

KJS

8/29/2018 09:56:55 pm

Majority of what I saw in the video was large companies not trusting in the proposal of these small companies. Because the large companies did not take advantage of these business proposals, some of them resulted in failing or losing tons of money. This reminds me of the first video with Steve Jobs explaining how we should remain foolish and take risk. Those risk you take could become beneficial in the long-run. My question to the class is will Uber or Lyft take advantage of technological advancements in the future?

Vanessa R

8/30/2018 10:44:55 am

One of the more important things I saw in this video is that many big businesses missed out on lucrative business opportunities because they were hesitant to change certain aspects of their businesses. Just because something became successful, doesn't mean it will stay successful forever. Another important thing I picked up was that business ventures that eventually became successful were mocked and downplayed when they were first presented as possible business ideas. Many successful companies lost their market share due to a lack of vision and looking toward the future. I can apply this to my life by taking new ways of doing things into consideration. Learning from these companies' mistakes is something that can allow me to make more sound decisions in the future.

Kayla Yao

9/3/2018 12:19:07 pm

One of the most important things I got out of this video is that many people are passionate about their business and are not quick to change. Many companies like Blockbuster and Kodak were so focused on what they do, they were not open to change, thus it caused them to bankruptcy and the new ideas such as Netflix to skyrocket in the industry. However, not all changes turn out this way and some actually do not do well with change. Just like Schlitz wanting to change the original recipe. However, I believe the biggest difference for this is that while Netflix was a revolutionary change, Schlitz only wanted to change their original recipe for a cheaper alternative, not necessarily to better the product.

Alex Mulkey

9/4/2018 04:59:57 pm

I think it’s interesting that Ayds didn’t want to rebrand and then when they finally decided to rebrand they went with the name “Diet Ayds” which is basically the same thing. I don’t think that candy would sell at all today. I think it’s crazy that the blockbuster mistake wasn’t higher on this list. That has to be one of the biggest fails ever to go from being on just about every corner to having a single store left in the United States. If they really laughed Netflix out of their office then they deserve the fall they took. It’s not surprising that MySpace is number one on this list. I remember how big MySpace used to be when I was growing up. I remember everybody had one with their own layouts and a selected song played when you visited their page and this it went downhill. And it went down hill really quick. The website was so awful you couldn’t even spend a few minutes on it without leaving for Facebook. It turned into a ghost town.

Jaslyn B link

9/14/2018 05:49:55 am

I should apply what I learned from the video by learning and putting into perspective what are huge mistakes that can be made to ruin a successful business. To stay on top, sometimes sacrifices and better changes has to be made in order to stay on top.

Jaslyn B link

9/14/2018 06:02:11 am

If I had to ask a question of my classmates on this for them to discuss, it would be what kind of decisions do you think you have to make in order to stay successful? As trends change, people change, so no business stays the exact same.

Darrius Lawrence

9/14/2018 09:39:16 pm

If I had to ask a question of my classmates on this for them to discuss, it would be what do you think your mindset have to be in order to have a a successful business in the long-run.

Taylor Bryant

9/26/2018 05:46:36 am

To me one of the largest mistakes has got to go to Blockbuster for not pursing the purchase of Netflix.Netflix is estimated to reach a net worth of 3.7 Billion this year, while all but 1 blockbuster in the entire nation has closed its doors. If Blockbuster would've made the purchase of Netflix who knows how strong and competitive they may be today.

Reed Scaglione

10/5/2018 08:23:04 pm

I can't believe that the Schiltz company was making such a cheap beer that it started to have a mucus like substance at the bottom of the bottle. How do you even think of still selling that? Who wants to drink snot??? I think that George Lucas is a genius for making that deal with fox. I don't think that he even knew how big star wars was gonna be and he ended up with the better part of the deal!

Wesley Beshel

10/7/2018 07:19:01 pm

I enjoyed this video because I didn't know about some of these companies existed. I realized that it only takes one wrong move for a company to fall apart and fail. The thing I learned most from this video is to never gamble on your company. Always have faith in it and make sure you make changes where they need to be improved. I ask my classmates, what kind of decision would you make in certain positions your company get put in?

Chad Bailey

11/2/2018 07:59:11 am

One of the most important thing I took from this video was that many large companies took missed out on great expansion ideas by taking an up and coming company for granted. Also I felt the blockbuster not buying Netflix was important because they had a chance to save their business by aquiring what would become their biggest competitor and they didn’t. The purchase of MySpace was important to me also. This was important because although MySpace was hot at the time social media was basically just becoming popular so they should have known new apps such as Facebook would come along and bring their value down. Something I can use in life from this video is don’t take businesses or people for granted if they ask you to invest because they could become the next big thing.

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Whoops!: The 10 Worst Business Decisions In History

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