Business Nightmares

Evan Davis uncovers the scarcely believable inside stories of how some of the world’s most successful businesses have made monumental mistakes. With top-flight British business leaders, including Sir Richard Branson, Sir James Dyson and Rita Clifton, Evan reveals how product design and manufacture can go horribly wrong, leaving customers in revolt and companies in crisis. Extraordinary errors include the story of how Coca-Cola bosses decided to stop producing the world’s favourite soft drink and replace it with ‘New Coke’; how Unilever came to launch Persil Power, a detergent so powerful that tests showed it shredded consumers’ clothes; and why the original Mini was priced too low. Evan extracts invaluable lessons from each misadventure in this riveting guide to what not to do in business.

Evan Davis uncovers the astonishing inside stories of how some of the world’s most successful businesses have made monumental mistakes. With British business leaders, including Sir Richard Branson, Sir Martin Sorrell and Rita Clifton, Evan reveals how marketing and publicity plans can turn from clever ideas into commercial catastrophes. Company insiders give their own accounts of these very public blunders, including how best-selling soft drink Sunny Delight hit the headlines and fell from favour; why there was such a backlash to a blip in Apple’s usually faultless PR handling; and how Gerald Ratner managed to topple his jewellery empire with a few careless comments. Evan extracts universal lessons from each exceptional error in this essential guide to what not to do in business.

Evan Davis uncovers the inside stories of mistakes that triggered some of the business world’s most spectacular falls from grace. With top British business leaders including Sir Martin Sorrell, Sir Richard Branson and Sir Gerry Robinson, Evan analyses deals that spelled disaster, and projects that backfired. Executives reveal what it was like to be at the heart of corporate calamities such as Sir Freddie Laker’s audacious but ill-fated bid to take on the big airlines; boo.com, the sportswear website that became the archetypal dotcom disaster; and one of the biggest business blunders of all time - the Royal Bank of Scotland’s takeover of Dutch bank ABN-AMRO. From each extraordinary error, Evan distils a vital strategic lesson, offering his essential guide to what not to do in business.