(BSNS WIRE) Business 2.0 Magazine Exposes '101 Dumbest Moments in Business' o
2003
Business 2.0 Magazine Exposes '101 Dumbest Moments in Business' of 2003
Business Editors
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 28, 2004--
Fourth Annual Collection of Business Buffoonery Features First Tie
for Grand Prize: Former NYSE CEO Dick Grasso and
Former Strong Financial Chairman Dick Strong
The latest issue of Business 2.0 (www.business2.com), on
newsstands Feb. 2, features the magazine's fourth annual list of the
"101 Dumbest Moments in Business," highlighting the most comical
corporate blunders and biggest business mistakes of 2003.
This edition includes the first-ever tie for the top spot--a tale
of "Two Greedy Richards," as the magazine puts it--between the
firestorm surrounding New York Stock Exchange CEO Dick Grasso's
exorbitant salary and pension and Strong Financial founder and
chairman Dick Strong's unethical "market-timing" trades to line his
own pockets. Both executives subsequently resigned.
The Business 2.0 list also reveals some lesser-known but just as
appalling lapses in corporate judgment. Making the list are technology
firms, media organizations, airlines, retail businesses, automobile
manufacturers, e-businesses, fast-food chains, and many others.
The following are the top 10 "dumbest moments" of 2003 according
to this year's "101 Dumbest Moments in Business":
1. The New York Stock Exchange board decides to pay CEO Dick
Grasso his $139.5 million pension up front. When public outrage
ensues, Grasso agrees not to take another $48 million he has coming to
him and then promptly resigns, claiming he was fired--which entitles
him to another $58 million.
1. (TIE) Investigations into the mutual-fund industry reveal that
Dick Strong, the founder and chairman of Strong Financial, made
$600,000 through market-timing trades contrary to his own company's
rules. He is immediately forced to resign.
3. Urban Outfitters sells a Monopoly knockoff called Ghettopoly,
in which the classic game pieces such as the top hat, shoe, and car
are replaced with machine guns, marijuana leaves, and rocks of crack
cocaine. In reaction to protests, the retailer discontinues the game.
4. A Dairy Queen franchisee is successfully sued by a female
customer after an employee allegedly slides into her booth, pulls down
her sweater, bites her on the breast, and declares, "I am like
Dracula."
5. The CEO of Clear Channel Radio tries to "backpedal" after disc
jockeys at three of the company's radio stations urge listeners to
violently attack bicyclists.
6. Nielsen/NetRatings issues a report mistakenly describing an
online game site called Blunt Truth as "an educational resource for
marijuana."
7. Evite sends out apologies to its users for having cited Yom
Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, as a "reason to party."
8. General Motors is forced to come up with a new name for its
Buick LaCrosse sedan in Canada when executives discover that crosse is
a slang term for masturbation in Quebec.
9. Ikea pulls a new children's bunk bed called Gutvik from its
catalogs in Germany after customers point out that the word sounds
like a German phrase meaning "good f**k."
10. Chrysler announces its sponsorship of the Lingerie Bowl, a
pay-per-view televised football game to be played by scantily clad
female models during halftime of the Super Bowl. After coming under
fire for the event's sexist nature, the company first reportedly
pressures the event's producers to change the uniforms to sports bras
and volleyball shorts, and then drops its sponsorship altogether.
"The seemingly endless supply of corporate goofs and business
errors never ceases to amaze our editors and readers. This year was no
exception," said Josh Quittner, editor of Business 2.0. "The '101
Dumbest Moments in Business' also provides a worthwhile opportunity
for our readers to learn from the corporate blunders of the past
year."
The January/February 2004 issue of Business 2.0 will be on
newsstands on Feb. 2. Executive editor Adam Horowitz is available for
commentary upon request.
The release of the "101 Dumbest Moments in Business" magazine
feature coincides with the publication of a new book, The Dumbest
Moments in Business History, written by Horowitz and the editors of
Business 2.0 and published by Portfolio, an imprint of the Penguin
Group (www.penguingroup.com).
ABOUT BUSINESS 2.0
Business 2.0, a monthly magazine about business, technology, and
innovation, is published out of The FORTUNE Group at Time Inc., a Time
Warner company. For more information, visit www.business2.com.
KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: RETAIL ADVERTISING/MARKETING PUBLISHING ADVERTISING/MARKETING
DVERTISING/MARKETING ADVERTISING/MARKETING AUTOMOTIVE ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCT
SOURCE: Business 2.0
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Business 2.0
Karen Palmer, 415-293-4837
karen_palmer@business2.com
or
Trylon Communications, for Business 2.0
Laura Goldberg, 212-725-2295, ext. 15
laurago@tryloncommunications.com
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