Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Don't You Love Reading Lists Like This?

We can indulge in a smirk of superiority as we read Fortune magazine's "The 100 Dumbest Moments in Business, 2007." Here are a few choice examples from the first 30:

10. Election officials in Florida promptly order 5,000 units. Diebold tightens security after it is revealed that a simple virus can hack its electronic voting machines. Months later a hacker uses a picture of a key from the company website to make a real key that can open the company’s machines.

13. It’s a fat world, after all. Disneyland announces plans to close the “It’s a Small World” attraction to deepen its water channel after the ride’s boats start getting stuck under loads of heavy passengers. Employees ask larger passengers to disembark—and compensate them with coupons for free food.

17. Quite a blow. After receiving a warning from the FDA, Redux Beverages agrees to stop calling its energy drink Cocaine. It changes the name first to Censored, then to No Name.

22. That no-good Uncle Bertie is finally doing something useful. Co-op Funeralcare, a funeral home in Dunfermline, Scotland, says it is investigating reports that employees routinely used the cremains of the departed to keep passersby from slipping on icy sidewalks. “There’s every chance people living nearby will have walked through the remains,” an ex-employee says. “Some of them probably even inhaled them.”

30. Remarkably, he has yet to be weeded out. In July, as Bear Stearns executives futilely attempt to prop up two hedge funds that ultimately collapse amid the subprime meltdown, CEO James Cayne spends ten of 21 workdays out of the office, playing golf and competing in a bridge tournament in Tennessee. According to the Wall Street Journal, his fellow bridge enthusiasts claim that Cayne sometimes smokes marijuana at the end of tournament sessions.

But wait, there's more! Check out http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/104034/101-Dumbest

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