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Group think

Come to think of it, everyone just told each other what they wanted to hear. The result? A really bad strategic decision that never should have been made, $2 billion in losses, even more destruction of shareholder value and who knows how many lawsuits.

Why didn’t months of pre-merger due diligence uncover the truth? Because that mostly amounts to a bunch of high-priced lawyers and accountants dotting “i”s and crossing “t”s so that everyone’s covered if the deal goes south and the lawsuits start flying. Indeed, the shareholder litigation did fail, as it usually does.

I wish I could say that sort of thing is an anomaly, but it’s not. It happens all the time. In case you've ever wondered why, researchers at the University of Michigan and Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management have a theory.

The theory is that “flattery and opinion conformity” make CEOs overconfident, resulting in “biased strategic decision making” and, well, you know the rest. In other words, CEOs who surround themselves with yes-men that engage in groupthink are more likely to maintain the status quo and implement or stick with ill-conceived strategies. And of course, that’s bad news for their companies.

- The evils of yes-men and groupthink, By Steve Tobak, CBSNews.com, October 17, 2017.

2. I recently wrote a piece about parking valets, and how they were a goldmine of information for luxury car designers. One of the comments from a reader made me laugh. Then it made me think. It was from a user called D-Livs, who wrote: