Big Mistakes in Business
What were the biggest mistakes high-tech leaders made in the past year? Here's what they said at Silicon Summit II:
- Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos: "Investing in Living.com, which isn't, and Pets.com, which is a dog."
- Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer: "Not always taking the patience we need on certain innovations."
- Michael Bloomberg: "We didn't hire enough people."
- Darien Dash, DME Interactive Holdings CEO: "We were impatient last year and we didn't just focus on getting our products out."
- Sony CEO Howard Stringer: "We should have had 2 million more PlayStation 2's available before Christmas."
- AOL Time Warner VP Bob Pittman: "Speed. ... We don't move quickly enough."
- Yahoo! founder Jerry Yang: "Focus on the long term. I think people got reactive in this marketplace trying to see too much that wasn't there."
- Gateway CEO Ted Waitt: "Trying to do too many different things and losing sight of the core basics it takes to make our customers happy."
- Nancy Peretsman, Allen & Co.: "Not acting on what we knew to be true."
- USA Networks CEO Barry Diller: "Not selling all the companies short represented here today, other than our own."
Silicon Summit II was held on March 11, 2001.