Monkey Business
Business 2.0 has a list of what they call "101 Dumbest Moments in Business." I didn't read the whole list but I wanted to add one to it anyway.
During the 1980's, toursits from Japan flooded Hawai'i. They came with their pockets full of yen and spent librerally. Some businesses, focusing on short-term profits, decided to take advantage of the Japanese by over charging them. Sometimes, these businesses marked up items several thousand percent. While it may be a coincidence, most of these businesses were multinational corporations, not local companies.
For awhile, these managers were thought to be geniuses because their profits far outshone their competitors. Indeed, institutional investment managers fell over themselves trying to buy stocks in these companies. Money was to be made and seemingly everyone wanted their share.
But eventually the Japanese realized, not being as stupid as the managers thought they were, that they were being overcharged and took their business elsewhere. The economic bubble burst and these high flying managers went down in flames while the local business, that had always sought to give long-term value to their customers in the hope of earning their repeat business are doing just fine, thank you very much.
While there are no guarantees in business, those that focus on building long-term relationships through dealing in a fair manner with their customers will probably still be around 10 years from now. Learn well this lesson and you won't end up on any Business 2.0 dumbest list.