Running a company is a lot like steering a giant ship. When the captain makes a great call, the whole crew celebrates; when the captain makes a terrible one, everybody grabs a life jacket and braces for impact.
Over the years, some CEOs have made wildly bad decisions that causedn’t just a little turbulence—they ran the whole company straight into the ground. Let’s look at 15 times the head honcho made the wrong move and watched everything around them come crashing down.
15. Ron Johnson Tries to “Fix” JCPenney
Ron Johnson came in hot with a vision to turn JCPenney into a sleek, hip brand, but customers just wanted their coupons back. Ultimately, he alienated loyal shoppers, tanked sales, and got the boot.
14. John Sculley Kicks Out Steve Jobs
John Sculley thought firing Steve Jobs would make Apple easier to run, but it almost disappeared. It took bringing Jobs back years later to save the brand from complete irrelevance.
13. Eddie Lampert Turns Sears Into a Hunger Games Arena
Eddie Lampert decided to promote competition among departments at Sears, turning teamwork into a blood sport. The only thing that won was bankruptcy.
12. Tony Hayward Fumbles the BP Oil Spill Response
Tony Hayward’s tone-deaf handling of the BP oil spill turned a crisis into a full-blown PR nightmare. Saying he “wanted his life back” while oil flooded the Gulf didn’t improve things.
11. Carly Fiorina’s HP-Compaq Merger Mess
Carly Fiorina pushed a controversial merger between HP and Compaq that had shareholders and employees scratching their heads. It led to massive layoffs, sinking profits, and eventually, her ousting.
10. Adam Neumann’s WeWork Pipe Dream
Adam Neumann thought WeWork could be a lifestyle brand rather than just office space, and investors were all in — until they realized he was spending like a rock star. The company crashed into a failed IPO, and he left with a golden parachute.
9. Marissa Mayer Goes on a Shopping Spree at Yahoo
Marissa Mayer’s plan to revive Yahoo involved buying many companies nobody cared about. Instead of saving the company, she drained its resources, and Yahoo ended up getting sold for pennies on the dollar.
8. Jeff Immelt’s Wild Ride at GE
Jeff Immelt made so many expensive bets that didn’t pan out that GE went from industrial titan to barely hanging on. He even had a backup private jet following his central plane, so why not double down on bad optics?
7. Ken Lay and the Enron Implosion
Ken Lay let Enron get so wrapped up in shady accounting and risky schemes that the whole house of cards collapsed. When it all came crashing down, it triggered one of the biggest scandals in corporate history.
6. John Antioco Passes on Netflix
John Antioco laughed Netflix out of the room when they offered to sell themselves to Blockbuster for a bargain. A few years later, Blockbuster was dead, and Netflix was printing money.
5. Ge’s AOL-Time Warner Disaster
Gerald Levin thought merging AOL and Time Warner would create a media powerhouse, but it became one of the biggest flops ever. Culture clashes and a collapsing dot-com market made it a $100 billion lesson in regret.
4. Brian Driscoll’s Hostess Meltdown
Brian Driscoll ticked off workers and creditors at Hostess with big bonuses for executives and little else. The result? Twinkies disappeared from shelves for a heartbreaking period.
3. Martin Winterkorn’s Dieselgate Debacle
Martin Winterkorn was at the wheel when Volkswagen decided that cheating emissions tests was a good idea. The scandal cost billions, destroyed trust, and left VW scrambling to clean up the mess.
2. Travis Kalanick’s Uber Freefall
Travis Kalanick built Uber into a juggernaut, then torpedoed it with scandals, lawsuits, and a toxic culture. Eventually, investors forced him out to prevent the company from bursting into flames.
1. Elizabeth Holmes and the Theranos Fantasy
Elizabeth Holmes promised revolutionary blood testing with Theranos, but forgot one tiny detail: the technology didn’t work. When the truth came out, it became a spectacular collapse and a courtroom drama for the ages.
