Title: Lessons From the Failure of the Ford Edsel
Headings: 4 lessons from the failure of the Ford Edsel, one of Bill Gates' favorite case studies
4 lessons from the failure of the Ford Edsel, one of Bill Gates' favorite case studies
The Edsel has new life today as a collector's item.
Don't let egos trump research
Focus your vision
An advertisement for some of the many variations of the Ford Edsel.
Don't put yourself in a situation you can't get out of
If you fail, accept it and move on, all the wiser for it
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Content: Ford
Don't put yourself in a situation you can't get out of
A year before launch, Ford began a teaser campaign for the E-Car, the code name for the Edsel as it was being developed. It gave customers the expectation that they were going to get an irresistible car of the future. Ford execs seemed to never once consider failure to be an option. They created an entire Edsel division and persuaded dealerships to order a certain number of cars before the Edsel was even finished. Had they acted more cautiously and avoided betting so much on the car, they could have pulled back once the stock market took a nosedive in the summer of 1957, and people stopped buying mid-priced cars. Mere weeks before the car's launch in September, Brooks writes, "Automotive News reported that dealers in all makes were ending their season with the second-largest number of unsold cars in history." If you fail, accept it and move on, all the wiser for it
At launch, the car was too expensive, used up too much gas, and was mocked in the press. A redesigned 1959 Edsel debuted to better reviews, but the damage was done. Nobody wanted an Edsel. A 1960 Edsel came out in limited production, but Ford president and future secretary of defense Robert McNamara finally pulled the plug in 1960.