Why Businesses Fail? S01E10

In the previous episodes of Why Businesses Fail, we have covered a variety of causes for business failure, ranging from Cyber Security to failure to innovate. But one factor has caused more business failures than others. And that factor is Financial Fraud or a financial scam. We had intended to include this reason for failure as a separate episode. But we found not many subject matter experts were willing to go on record to share their experiences or insights on Financial failure. This episode covers some softer elements of financial fraud- loss of reputation, the morale of employees, and strained business and interpersonal relations.

What happens when the largest Internet providers decide to switch off the internet service to a particular part of the world? The recent events in Eastern Europe have impacted cloud-based services used by many organizations, for customer support and technology development. Is over-reliance on cloud solutions – blinded by the appeal of cloud-based services, alone a reason for failure? The answer is probably no. Is a lack of a Plan B a cause for the failure? The answer is definitely Yes.

Many of the instances cited in this episode can be summed up as the “Law of Un Intended Consequences”. One example is -Increased commodity prices leading to an increase in electricity costs causing datacenter to raise prices, resulting in cloud-based providers raising prices for their customers. But is increased price the only option for the providers? Not adopting an innovative approach to pacify or even delight customers in challenging times certainly is.

We conclude this series by alluding to some other factors, including entering into a partnership with an organization where values (or valuations) do not match, choosing the wrong brand ambassadors or mascots, and even mergers and acquisitions, are some of the reasons Why Businesses Fail.

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Audioboek: 5 juli 2022