HOW2FAIL.NET

HISTORICAL FAILURE ARCHIVE

Read the choices,
not just the outcome.

We record what they tried, what went wrong, and why the choice looked reasonable at the time—with evidence.

STRUCTURED CASES

Historical Failure Cases

2 cases

01

1985–2002 · The Coca-Cola Company, Coca-Cola USA, Pepsi · 13 sources

New Coke

Under pressure from competition with Pepsi and based on large-scale blind taste tests, Coca-Cola completely replaced its existing formula with New Coke in 1985. However, short-term taste preference did not represent consumers’ reactions to the loss of memories, habits, and choice associated with the existing brand, and the company returned the existing formula as Coca-Cola Classic in July 1985 while selling both products concurrently.

Wrong customerCompetitionOverconfidenceProduct-market fitCommunication
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02

1962 · British government, French government, Air France, British Airways, Airbus · 10 sources

Concorde

Concorde was a case that realized scheduled supersonic passenger transport through joint development by the British and French governments. Although it did not demonstrate a sustainable expansion model due to increased development costs and demand, maintenance, and support cost problems toward the end of its operations, the provided materials are better aligned with viewing it as a limited success combining technological and operational achievements with commercial limitations, rather than defining it simply as a complete failure.

OverconfidenceRegulationExcessive costUnit economicsWrong market
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