43 Times Corporations Failed So Hard, People Just Had To Shame Them Online (New Pics)

Then there is the stubborn refusal to quit. The sunk cost fallacy is the urge to keep pouring money into a failing project simply because so much has already been spent, as in “we are already three years late, so what is another year?” When a company does finally change course, it sometimes panics in the opposite direction. In 2011, Netflix decided to split its DVD rental business into a separate service called Qwikster, and customers reacted so badly that the plan was scrapped within weeks.

And sometimes the bad decision is simply a joke that should have stayed in the speaker’s head. In 1991, British jeweler Gerald Ratner told a room of business leaders that one of his earrings cost less than a prawn sandwich and would probably not last as long. His company’s value reportedly dropped by around 500 million pounds and he was eventually forced out of the business.

Put all of that together and the mystery fades. Companies are not magical machines of logic. They are collections of busy, hopeful people running on coffee and deadlines, and every one of them can fall for a good presentation. The good news is that this makes for fantastic entertainment. The bad news is that somewhere right now, a meeting invite titled “quick sync” is about to produce the next entry on this list.