Seemed Like a Good Idea Inc.†

Wall Street Journal, February 6, 2008 — Blue french fries. A colorless soda that tastes funny. A frozen soup-and-sandwich convenience food that turned out to be inconveniently labor intensive.

These products not only failed in the marketplace, but did so predictably, at least in the eyes of Calvin L. Hodock, a marketing guru whose "Why Smart Companies Do Dumb Things" is all about the many ways that innovation can go wrong. Mr. Hodock knows a thing or two about the subject, and his book offers considerable wisdom, some of it conventional and some of it not. Despite having a wooden writing style and a propensity for stating the obvious, he raises a handful of matters worth thinking about.