Also I forgot: the aforementioned company also was a physical goods company. Warehouses full of stuff, etc. There was an intense pressure to get rid of the inve

Also I forgot: the aforementioned company also was a physical goods company. Warehouses full of stuff, etc. There was an intense pressure to get rid of the inventory as quickly as possible (inventory turns) because most of the items were subject to "spoilage" or obsolescence. Yes, negative margins are bad, but they're a whole lot better than not selling the item at all (recovery). Inventory isn't as liquid as cash, and you can't use the excess inventory to pay salaries. There can be a real view of needing to liquidate just to get some cash to buy more inventory. If you're not careful, however, you can easily get into the mindset "we'll take a loss on this batch, but we'll make it up next time" - and next time is no different. Although folks are claiming the CEO didn't understand basic math I wonder if the problem was much more complex and nuanced. Haven't we all pulled an all-nighter to get a project "done" even though we knew that it would be buggy, and it would've been better to get good rest and merely admit to missing a deadline? I'm not excusing his alleged behavior, just suggesting that folks here might empathize a bit more.