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boo hoo
Ernst Malmsten, Erik Portanger,
Charles Drazin
The collapse of the e-business boo.com was more dramatic than any other of the companies that suffered the burst of the dot.com bubble. In part it was because it was the first big European crash, but also because of talk of extreme exorbitance and mad spending from the unlikely founders - a pair of young Swedes, one of whom was best known as a fashion model. This book is Ernst Malmsten, one of the founder's, chance to balance the books. It's an exciting insider tale of the meteoric rise and collapse of boo.com, and while Malmsten doesn't hide the mistakes, he also gives us a chance to see the positive side of boo - and of what it might have been. In the end, what Malmsten perhaps doesn't realize, but comes through strongly, is how unsuitable the founders ideas were for a practical company. Two small examples. They staffed their UK call centre with sassy, streetwise, expensive London types - Malmsten explicitly says their clients would want to speak to 'someone in Scotland' - totally missing the point that when you ring a call centre you want reassurance, something no one does better than Scottish call centres, not sassy, streetwise fashion junkies. Another, more dramatic error was putting a large amount of money upfront, before the site was even launched, into an online magazine to accompany the site, with expensive editors and journalists from the US to Sweden. Unfortunately, not only was this an unnecessary upfront expenditure, by 1999 it was already very clear that people don't want online magazines. The most stunning illustration is that it was only weeks before the intended launch date that they realized they had no project plan - and no technology platform. Like fashion itself, this operation was all appearance with no substance. But don't let that put you off the book - it's a superb description of the highs and lows of the most incredible business rollercoaster ride, is easy to read and has insights for everyone. When we last checked, long lead time in the US - worth a few extra dollars to get it quicker from the UK and learn more business lessons than any MBA can teach.
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