Changing business conditions, upstart competition, bad luck and just plain dumb decisions can knock the highest-flying companies off the Fab 50.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Lay and Skilling not only presided over some monumentally dumb decisions but tried to convince the rest of the world those decisions were, in fact, smart.

FORBES: Magazine Article

The basics of capitalism, the reason it works is that one of the core-central features is companies go out of business when they make dumb decisions.

NPR: Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch: What Does It All Mean?

It transferred a huge amount of money from the productive sector of the economy to the government, and also exacerbated "moral hazard" by rewarding companies and executives who made dumb decisions.

CNN: Commentary: Say no to the auto bailout

No, I just want to have some rules in place so that when these guys make dumb decisions, you don't end up having to foot the bill. (Applause.) That's pretty straightforward.

WHITEHOUSE: "White House to Main Street" Town Hall: Elyria, OH

Just sounds like yet another one of the many dumb decisions the board of Sony have made since their late-90s heyday, a time when they could do no wrong and everyone thought the MiniDisc was the future.

FORBES: Sony Will Let Microsoft Announce Its Next Games Console First

So they always begged me not to share their names publicly but wanted to support my efforts and supplied me with lots of inside stories of bureaucracy and what they saw as dumb decisions which they wanted me to bring to light.

FORBES: Continued Questions About Patti Hart's Leadership At IGT