From the XFL to Xerox's GUI give-away: astoundingly stupid business moves.
2/23/2004
Who doesn't like reading business blooper books? This one, written in a compelling, can't-look-away-from-the-car-crash style, lets readers indulge their voyeuristic tendencies and witness some of business-America's most dunderheaded foibles. The book is assembled to correspond to the divisions in a corporate organization. A few gems: R&D (RJ Reynolds' "smokeless" cigarette, Chrysler's she-car "La Femme"); HR (Edison School's child labor, EMI paying Mariah Carey to leave); Manufacturing (the DeLorean), PR (Wal-Mart "customer service" anecdotes, the Red Sox disco "Demolition Night" riot), and Legal (Martha Stewart, the unholy trinity of Oral Roberts' faulty fundraising, Jim Bakker's fraud, and Jimmy Swaggart's predilection for working girls). Though just a smattering of all possible tragic-comic business gaffes are included, Dumbest Moments is a valiant effort, considering how much content Horowitz and the editors of Business 2.0 had to cull through—Wendy Guild Swearingen.