Betting heavily on a technology that is either premature or fundamentally flawed, such as Motorola’s $5 billion Iridium satellite phone project.
The book identifies seven recurring "failure patterns" that frequently destroy billions in value: 7 Key Strategy Pitfalls Billion Dollar Lessons: What You Can Learn from...
Attempting to buy up an entire industry only to find that "economies of scale" turn into "diseconomies of scale" as systems break under the pressure. Betting heavily on a technology that is either
Basing major decisions on unrealistic projections and ignoring warning signs that the market is shifting. Practical Tools for Prevention Practical Tools for Prevention To avoid these traps,
To avoid these traps, the authors recommend institutionalizing dissent within an organization:
In , authors Paul B. Carroll and Chunka Mui analyze why major corporations with massive resources often collapse. Based on a two-year study of 2,500 corporate disasters, they argue that misguided strategy —not poor leadership or bad luck—is the primary cause of failure.