Mexico City 1979 Western airlines Flight 2605 hit a trcuk on the runway. 5 factors:
pilot and navigator tired
communication mix-up between ground and the crew
malfunctioning radio
heavy fog
ground controller stressed by the crisis failed to light the runway

BUT - these same five happen a lot and the plane does not crash...

n the late 1990s Sergey Brin and larry page tried to sell their company for £1.6m Noone was intertsted - now worth £200 billion.

The betamax videotape lost out to the cheaper, lower quality VHS system because:
betamax could not tape entire movies
it was standalone

so they listened and created the minidisc, able to copy whole albums and better quality than CDs - able to record and play unlike CDs

but they still lost out - because of the internet - and no-one saw this coming

The ipod was closed , large, expensive, resisted by major labels, prop software. yet, it succeeded.

Is the main cause of strategic failure not bad strategy, but bad luck - strategy that just happens to be wrong?

Even with great leadership, clarity of vision, and a keen set of commitments, strategy can be wrong

Rather than making predictions which inevitably have errors, companies should react to changes happening on the ground - the measure and react strategy of Zara - they put out a load of styles and manufacture what is popular in stores

hence, divert resources to where they are needed on the fly

Planners think they already know the answers - they have the solutions

Searchers admit they dont and hope to solve the problems using the knowledgeand experience of insiders and local knowldge - William Easterly

Cargo cults

In WW2 in battle against Japan, islanders were fascinated to see packages rain down from big birds in the sky carrying tins ad cloth - food from heaven!

after the war, locals burned down trees, cleared areas, bult full scale planes out of straw, constructed radio towers - they were doing everything right - but no airplanes landed

South sea islanders - they are doing everything right -

But substanceless imitation of form i a waste of time - imitating Google wont make you google - don't mimic he behaviour of successful people without undertanding whjat really made them a success in the first palce