# Worst ideas by companies of all time? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 22, 2014, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ideas-by-companies-of-all-time/707901 "2014-12-22T10:45:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ideas-by-companies-of-all-time/707901/21 "2014-12-22T18:41:48Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > 2.) Xerox PARC was in existence for three decades before it divested. It’s still going strong. If “the suits back east” weren’t interested in what they were doing, they had a funny way of showing it by continuing to fund them. It wasn’t so much that they weren’t interested in what they were doing, as they weren’t interested in _monetizing_ what they were doing. But then, I haven’t been at Xerox since 1992, so things might have changed since then. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ideas-by-companies-of-all-time/707901/22 "2014-12-22T18:57:06Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > It wasn’t so much that they weren’t interested in what they were doing, as they weren’t interested in _monetizing_ what they were doing. But then, I haven’t been at Xerox since 1992, so things might have changed since then. No they haven’t changed a bit. They just keep copying what was done before. _flees_ ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ideas-by-companies-of-all-time/707901/23 "2014-12-22T18:58:45Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > From what I understand, the new flavor tested well with focus groups. However, because they didn’t ask what the focus groups would think if they replaced the old formula with the new, they assumed that the new flavor going over well was all they needed to consider, and did the swap. They didn’t realize how much they’d succeeded in getting the old formula’s claws into the American mindset. Yes, this is exactly right. My neighbor and friend was one of the men who was responsible for New Coke. According to him, the actual taste vs. Pepsi didn’t matter. What they unwittingly did is pit New Coke vs the classic recipe, and opposed to New Coke vs. Pepsi. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ideas-by-companies-of-all-time/707901/24 "2014-12-22T19:10:52Z")
Well, there was, of course, Ayds Diet Candy. To be fair, the candy preceded the disease name. Then there was the [pudding cup miles promo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Phillips_%28entrepreneur%29), wherein an engineer figured out that the cost of the pudding cups was less than the value of the miles and managed to accumulate $1.25 million air miles at a cost of only $3,000 to himself. I seriously doubt that ConAgra was damaged at all, but I’d bet that somebody got fired. ---
**Author:** ![phreesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@phreesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phreesh)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ideas-by-companies-of-all-time/707901/25 "2014-12-22T19:18:36Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > 1.) Xerox didn’t invent the mouse. Douglas Engelbart of SRI did. There are contemporary films of him describing it. Apparently the trackball was invented even earlier > > [Computer mouse - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_(computing)) > 2.) Xerox PARC was in existence for three decades before it divested. It’s still going strong. If “the suits back east” weren’t interested in what they were doing, they had a funny way of showing it by continuing to fund them. > > [PARC (company) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PARC_(company)) This is a little disingenuous. PARC had the key early components of the next computing revolution and essentially did nothing with them. While they may not have been destroyed by this mistake, it’s not an exaggeration to say they missed out on literally billions of dollars of profits. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ideas-by-companies-of-all-time/707901/26 "2014-12-22T20:23:18Z")
Similar to Xerox not taking advantage of its computing inventions, Sony could have taken advantage of its Walkman music player, video game systems and ownership of music and movie studios to invent the smartphone. But it completely missed that market. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ideas-by-companies-of-all-time/707901/27 "2014-12-22T20:55:40Z")
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**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ideas-by-companies-of-all-time/707901/28 "2014-12-22T20:56:11Z")
From a company I worked for, Bigfoot Pizza and Crystal Pepsi. Ah, yes, the Steak Lovers’ pizza too. A pizza with steak sauce instead of pizza sauce, using taco bell meat rather than real steak. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ideas-by-companies-of-all-time/707901/29 "2014-12-22T21:04:32Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Then there was the decision of Time-Life to buy AOL, whose main buisness (selling dialup internet access) was obviously going down the tubes. It was actually the other way around - AOL bought Time-Warner, not vice versa. Which ended up having an unfortunate side effect when the new management started looking at the revenue for Time Warner’s subsidiaries, decided they didn’t want to be in the pro wrestling business, and canned WCW. (Of course, WCW had had so many bad ideas by that point that [you could write a book about it](http://www.amazon.com/The-Death-WCW-Anniversary-Bestselling/dp/1770411755).) ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ideas-by-companies-of-all-time/707901/30 "2014-12-22T21:11:43Z")
Heh. WCW was dying anyway and it all worked out for the best. There was no other scenario in which Vince McMahon could buy it. Sad to see all that potential wasted. But in terms of worst ideas by companies, WCW would probably occupy 50 of the top 100 spots. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ideas-by-companies-of-all-time/707901/31 "2014-12-22T21:17:08Z")
The [Sinclair C5](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5) electric vehicle pretty much caused the decline and fall of Sinclair Research - the modern computing landscape might actually have been completely different if Sinclair hadn’t stumbled there. (OK, probably not, but maybe) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ideas-by-companies-of-all-time/707901/32 "2014-12-22T21:44:14Z")
> [@phreesh](#): > > This is a little disingenuous. PARC had the key early components of the next computing revolution and essentially did nothing with them. While they may not have been destroyed by this mistake, it’s not an exaggeration to say they missed out on literally billions of dollars of profits. It’s not disingenuous – Xerox did implement a lot of things that came out of PARC that had nothing directly to do with copiers (otherwise there was no point in even setting the place up). They certainly didn’t follow up on the possibilities for home computing, though. But that ain’t the same as not caring about PARC’s output because it wasn’t copiers. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ideas-by-companies-of-all-time/707901/33 "2014-12-22T22:06:16Z")
The XFL. Ugh, that was horrible. Let’s mix football with professional wrestling! Did anybody tune in to week 2? ---
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ideas-by-companies-of-all-time/707901/34 "2014-12-22T22:06:22Z")
[Polavision](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polavision) instant movies (1977). ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ideas-by-companies-of-all-time/707901/35 "2014-12-22T22:11:57Z")
Microsoft’s original plans for DRMing the Xbone out the wazoo certainly was one of the worst ideas a console manufacturer’s ever come up with. So bad that even after they backpedalled it still greatly hurt sales. Forcing Kinect bundles (also since backpedalled) was also pretty bad, but nothing like the DRM. Nintendo deciding to dump Sony from their SNES CD-ROM add on plans in favor of Philips is right up there too. Not only did the whole thing never go anywhere with Philips (other than a few shitty Mario and Zelda CDi games), it torqued Sony off enough to take their Nintendo PlayStation add on and develop into its own system, which has utterly outsold Nintendo’s own systems in every generation since, save one. Nintendo got pretty lucky with the casuals liking the Wii. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ideas-by-companies-of-all-time/707901/36 "2014-12-22T22:33:54Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > From what I understand, the new flavor tested well with focus groups. However, because they didn’t ask what the focus groups would think if they replaced the old formula with the new, they assumed that the new flavor going over well was all they needed to consider, and did the swap. They didn’t realize how much they’d succeeded in getting the old formula’s claws into the American mindset. What was funny was after the switch Gay Mullins, the founder of _Old Coke Drinkers of America_ (Who unsuccessfully tried to sue Coca-Cola to force them to bring back the original formula), was unable to identify which was which, and when asked which tasted better picked New Coke. > **[Why Coke Tried to Switch to "New Coke"](http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/11/why-coke-tried-to-switch-to-new-coke/)** > > Trevor A. asks: Why did Coke try to switch to “New Coke”? It turns out there was actually (if you squint at the problem hard enough), a semi-good reason for doing the switch.  It didn’t work out, of course… But then, it kind of did work out... ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ideas-by-companies-of-all-time/707901/37 "2014-12-22T22:45:57Z")
I was a kid so had no attachments, so I loved New Coke. It had the taste of Pepsi but with Coke’s superior zip. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2014, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ideas-by-companies-of-all-time/707901/38 "2014-12-22T23:31:28Z")
Coffee shack down the street closes around 3pm on Sat - at least 2 times I wanted a mocha around 4pm ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ideas-by-companies-of-all-time/707901/39 "2014-12-23T01:09:15Z")
The 1957 Packard. Packard made large, expensive cars. It bought Studebaker, which specialized in smaller, more basic models. Gradually, the two brands started to merge, until the 1957 model Packard was basically a modified Studebaker, complete with a Studebaker engine. By 1961, not only had the company dropped the Packard line entirely, it even removed “Packard” from the corporate name. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ideas-by-companies-of-all-time/707901/40 "2014-12-23T11:14:29Z")
> [@grude](#): > > One of those is a videogame where you fight monsters marketed to the younger crowd, like Doom. Towering Inferno is a movie. > > Inferno was a OS who depended on stuffy middle aged professional office types for adoption and success, different market where the name was more likely to be an issue. Right but cite that a) this hurt its adoption, b) this demographic is one that is likely to be offended. As I said I associate the term more with brushfire than hellfire and it’s not much different than Fire OS (or not as bad as Daemon Tools). Their association is based on a renaissance book that has inspired many religious themes but is itself a complete work of fiction (meaning we know Dante was the original writer and irrespective of how one feels about the actual Bible). So most people aren’t accepting damnation by using the software. People will hate a product if they are religious nutjobs and/or ultra-credible, and it doesn’t need a special name (Procter & Gamble [are evil](http://www.snopes.com/business/alliance/procter.asp)! Snapple are [Klansmen](http://snopes.com/business/alliance/snapple.asp)!) Younger crowd = 27-30+ somethings, like most PC games. There is however, the “Ubuntu Satanic Edition”! Naturally, the first version is not 1.0, but several hundred above that… > [@kunilou](#): > > The 1957 Packard. Packard made large, expensive cars. It bought Studebaker, which specialized in smaller, more basic models. Gradually, the two brands started to merge, until the 1957 model Packard was basically a modified Studebaker, complete with a Studebaker engine. By 1961, not only had the company dropped the Packard line entirely, it even removed “Packard” from the corporate name. Lots of unfortunate cars were essentially rebadged versions of a cheaper model with a higher sticker price. Like the Cadillac Cimarron, which was basically a Chevrolet Cavalier + $$$. But it’s got a new grille! GMs lines got kind of muddled at times which diluted the brands (why would I prefer a given Oldsmobile vs. Buick again?). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ideas-by-companies-of-all-time/707901.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-ideas-by-companies-of-all-time/707901.md?page=3)