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The Ridiculous Excuses Big Companies Use to Explain Their Failures
Stupidity uttered by the mouth of a billionaire or an official does not become wisdom, but rather acquires the features of a crime to be investigated.
Corporate crises and failures are an inevitable part of the business world. However, the ways in which companies explain their failures are sometimes astounding and contrary to common sense. When billion-dollar corporations and their executives begin to wriggle out with ridiculous excuses, it not only undermines consumer confidence, but also raises questions about leadership competence and the overall culture of responsibility in business.
In this article, we will look at the most absurd excuses that large companies have used to explain their failures, analyze the psychology of corporate excuses, and propose alternative crisis management strategies that really work.
Classification of corporate excuses: from funny to dangerous
Corporate excuses can be divided into several categories depending on their absurdity and potential harm to society.
1. Justifications like “Nobody could have foreseen this”
Perhaps the most common excuse in the corporate communications arsenal is the unpredictability of the problem. The 2008 financial crisis spawned a wave of such claims from bankers and investment firms.
“Nobody could have foreseen the collapse of the real estate market,” the head of one of the largest investment banks argued in 2008, despite economists warning of a growing bubble for several years.
A Harvard Business School study found that in 78% of corporate failures, there were early warning signals that management simply ignored. Claims of unpredictability are often an attempt to hide the systemic problem of inadequate risk management and ignoring warning signs.
2. Shifting blame onto consumers
Particularly ingenious are companies that try to blame their failures on consumers. This is particularly evident in the technology sector.
When the iPhone 4 had trouble receiving the signal in 2010 due to the design of the antenna, Apple initially claimed that users were “holding the phone incorrectly.” This case was a textbook example of how even the most successful companies can resort to absurd explanations.
In another well-known case, after mass complaints about problems with laptop batteries, one of the major manufacturers said that “the problem is related to atypical use of devices”, although the investigation revealed a system defect in production.
3. "It was an isolated mistake."
A problem minimization strategy is often used by corporations to present a system failure as an isolated case. Pharmaceutical companies and food giants especially often resort to this tactic.
When one of the world’s largest automakers was caught using software to cheat emissions tests in 2015, management’s initial explanation was that it was “an initiative of several engineers.” Further investigation revealed that the problem was systemic and affected millions of cars worldwide.
According to a Stanford University study, in 67 percent of cases, corporate scandals, initially presented as “isolated incidents,” later turned out to be part of a broader problem of corporate culture or governance.
4. Justification of technological complexity
A convenient way to evade responsibility is to cite the excessive complexity of current technologies or processes that are supposedly impossible to control.
"Algorithms are so complex that even developers don't always understand how they work" is a popular excuse for tech giants when discussing the ethical issues of their products.
This explanation is particularly common among companies working with artificial intelligence, algorithmic systems, and sophisticated financial instruments. However, experts note that referring to technology’s black box is often a convenient way to avoid implementing proper monitoring and testing systems.
Psychology of Corporate Irresponsibility
To understand why executives resort to ridiculous excuses, it is necessary to consider the psychological mechanisms underlying corporate irresponsibility.
Research in organizational psychology shows that the phenomenon of “group irresponsibility” often occurs in the corporate environment – when many people are involved in decision-making, personal responsibility is blurred, and no one feels personally responsible for negative consequences.
Another factor is cognitive dissonance. Senior executives often sincerely believe in the integrity of their companies and strategies. When reality contradicts this belief, psychological defense works in the form of rationalization and justification.
The culture of “quick wins” and short-term results that dominates stock markets also fosters an environment where long-term risks are underestimated and admitting mistakes is perceived as weakness.
The “Empire Before the Collapse” Phenomenon
Special attention should be paid to the phenomenon that experts call the “empire before the collapse” – a situation where a company on the verge of a serious crisis demonstrates a particularly aggressive self-confidence and denial of problems.
In the months before bankruptcy, executives publicly declared a company’s “exceptional financial health” and “unprecedented growth prospects.” Research shows that the closer a company is to collapse, the more optimistic and detached from reality the public statements of its management become.
The most absurd corporate excuses in history
The history of business contains truly outstanding examples of corporate excuses that are puzzling by their absurdity.
This is not a failure, but a deliberate strategy.
When a major technology company released a product in 2011 that was met with extreme negative feedback, management said that “the backlash was part of a marketing strategy to get attention.” Two months later, the product was discontinued, and the head of the division was fired.
The problem is that consumers don’t understand our concept.
After the failure of one of the models, the CEO of the automaker said that “the market is simply not ready for such an innovative design”, despite numerous studies showing that the design was the main reason for the rejection of the purchase.
Force Majeure Circumstances of Global Scale
A special category of excuses were references to global factors that allegedly could not be predicted. The financial crisis, the pandemic, and the geopolitical tensions are all convenient explanations for companies whose problems actually began long before these events.
“The pandemic completely changed the market conditions,” the retail chain explained its bankruptcy in 2020, which, according to financial reports, was on the verge of collapse as early as 2018 due to its inability to adapt to online trading.
The Alternative Approach: How Companies Should Respond to Failure
There is an alternative approach to crisis management that is not only more ethically sound, but also produces better results in terms of preserving consumer reputation and trust.
Effective crisis management strategies:
- Quick recognition of the problem. Research shows that companies that immediately acknowledge a problem rebuild trust much faster.
- Transparent information. Provide complete information about the extent of the problem, even if it is unpleasant.
- A clear plan to deal with the consequences. Specific steps with time frames and measurable results.
- Compensation for victims. Fair compensation without bureaucratic obstacles.
- Systemic changes. A public commitment to make changes to the corporate culture and practices that led to the problem.
Examples of companies that successfully overcome crises through honesty demonstrate the effectiveness of this strategy. In 2015, a technology company experienced a major data breach. Rather than denying the problem or minimizing its significance, guideline:
- Within 24 hours, he publicly acknowledged the leak.
- Provided detailed information on the nature of the compromised data
- Developed and presented a plan to improve security
- Offered affected users free personal data protection for 5 years
How to recognize ridiculous corporate excuses
For the average consumer, it is important to be able to recognize the signs of unfair corporate communications. Here are some warning signs worth paying attention to:
- Using overly technical language to explain simple problems
- Lack of specifics in the description of the problem and plans for its elimination
- Shifting responsibility to external factors or consumers
- Minimizing the scale of the problem despite the obvious facts
- Delay in admitting a problem after it was publicly discovered
Critical thinking and consumer awareness play an important role in shaping a more responsible corporate culture. Companies that regularly resort to absurd excuses must feel the reputational and financial consequences of their behavior.
Conclusion: A new era of corporate responsibility
The days when big companies could get away with ridiculous excuses are gradually fading into the past. The rise of social media, citizen journalism and general consumer awareness is creating an environment where corporate transparency and honesty are becoming not just an ethical choice but a business necessity.
Companies that are the first to recognize this transformation and move from a culture of excuses to a culture of responsibility will gain a significant advantage in the form of consumer trust, a resource that is becoming increasingly scarce in today’s world.
Ultimately, stupidity uttered by a billionaire or an official doesn’t really become wisdom. And the challenge for society is to ensure that such stupidity does not go unpunished, but is transformed into a lesson for corporate culture.
Glossary of terms
Cognitive dissonance is the psychological discomfort that occurs when conflicting ideas, beliefs or values clash in the mind. In the corporate environment, it often manifests itself as an inability to recognize mistakes that contradict the company’s self-perception.
Risk management is a risk management system that includes the identification, analysis and decision-making aimed at reducing the likelihood of negative consequences of risk events.
Corporate culture is a system of shared values, beliefs and practices that determine the behavior of employees and management of the company.
Crisis PR is a set of communication measures aimed at managing the reputation of a company during a crisis.
The phenomenon of “group irresponsibility” is a psychological phenomenon in which in a group of people personal responsibility is blurred, and everyone feels less responsible for collective decisions and their consequences.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the concept that companies take into account the interests of society, taking responsibility for the impact of their activities on the environment, consumers, employees and other stakeholders.
Reputational capital is an intangible asset of a company based on the positive perception of its brand by consumers, partners and society as a whole.
