Research into corporate "bloopers" by Professor Sidney Finkelstein pinpointed some reasons why smart executives made bad decisions.^® Some of these reasons included:

CEO identifies too closely with his or her company; CEO is too distracted by involvement in personal and social causes; CEO and executive team are so overconfident and aggressive that it's hard to trust them; CEO believes all problems are public relationsrelated and can be handled by putting a "good spin on it"; and CEO missed clear market signals. Find three examples of bad decisions made by executives. Do any of your examples fit under the reasons listed above? What could other organizations learn from these mistakes? What are the implications for an organization's corporate strategy? LO1