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May 1999

The Law of the Rathole

Sometimes, walking away from a risky technology project is the better part of valor. Here are five handy rules for avoiding "ratholes."

By G. Pascal Zachary

Business history can be highly misleading. Why? It's written by the winners. Historians spend careers studying the making of the atomic bomb, but not the making of the atomic-powered plane (a spectacular Air Force failure). Research managers analyze DuPont's development of nylon, not Coca-Cola's creation of New Coke (a dud).

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