Anthony Soohoo

Co-founder and CEO of Dot & Bo

"During my time as a product manager on Apple's PowerBook team, we were gearing up to launch a new product. As part of testing, we had found that a very small sample size was flawed and could be harmful. I was under tremendous pressure to make a decision on whether or not to hold off bringing the product to market. And there were good arguments on both sides."

On the one hand, the defected sample size was small and not statistically significant, and millions of dollars would be lost by holding off shipment. On the other hand, Soohoo believed the long-term impact risk was high.

"If the flaw was bigger than we thought, it could have created a huge loss of trust with our customers," he says.

When there is a difficult decision to make, make it based on what would create long-term value instead of gaining the short-term win.

Ultimately, Soohoo decided to delay the launch of the product. "In the end, it came down to taking a long-term perspective, and it just made more sense to delay the launch," he says. "Putting myself in the shoes of our customers, I think that's what they would have expected Apple to do. Not a popular decision at the time, but it was the right decision for the business."

The lesson: "Trust your gut to do the right thing for the customers. When there is a difficult decision to make, make it based on what would create long-term value instead of gaining the short-term win. That lesson has remained with me throughout my career."

Propose an alternative strategy you think would benefit the company.

• 1) What do you propose as a viable solution for the parties involved?
• 2) Would you do anything differently and what would it be?