1/ Holding design meetings for the sake of holding meetings.
2/ Adopting a compensation plan that no one understands.
3/ Copying the competition, yet expecting to surpass them.
4/ Treating employees as a cost rather than as an asset.
5/ Failing to reprimand unethical behaviour for fear of short-term consequences.
6/ Increasing executive compensation while cutting employee salaries.
7/ Trying to “fake” the ability to deliver a service.
8/ Introducing a new technology without teaching employees how to use it. 
9/ Valuing a one-time sales transaction over a lasting customer relationship. 
10/ Promoting a person with good performance but poor integrity.
11/ Failing to implement improvements because they’re deemed to be too small.
12/ Starving key initiatives because resources are spread equally across the board.
13/ Preaching from an ivory tower about what the “real world” is like to people in the trenches.
14/ Failing to reward an exceptional performer more than a mediocre one.
15/ Terminating an employee via email or voicemail.
16/ Assuming that communication can be controlled.
17/ Failing to offer constructive input during employee evaluations. 
18/ Encouraging innovation while penalizing failure. 
19/ Failing to recognize the connection between happy at home, happy at work.
20/ Allowing plenty of time to fix problems but not enough time to do it right in the first place.
21/ Failing to recognize the cost of mistrust, bureaucracy, and red tape. 
22/ Taking employees and customers for granted.
23/ Believing that money is the only motivator.
24/ Failing to capitalize on the power of word of mouth.
25/ Working hard to attract new customers while doing little to keep them.
26/ Believing strongly in maintaining equipment but not in training employees.
27/ Talking about the best thing to do but then failing to do it. 
28/ Spending an exorbitant amount of time and effort on internal presentations
29/ Failing to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit of employees. 
30/ Maintaining multiple business units that work at cross-purposes with each other.
31/ Promoting people based on politics rather than ability and performance. 
32/ Spending heavily on advertising while cutting customer service.
33/ Rewarding “yes” people and then expecting fresh ideas. 
34/ Making everything a priority, which means that nothing is a priority. 
35/ Managing by assumption rather than basing decisions on real information. 
36/ Making promises knowing they can’t be fulfilled.
37/ Fighting progress by saying “we’ve always done it this way.”
38/ Thinking they can cut their way to greatness.
39/ Spending more time putting out fires rather than lighting them.
40/ Adding quality control inspectors rather than designing properly from the start.
41/ Trying to control the uncontrollable.
42/ Allowing one person to undo what someone else just completed. 
43/ Failing to communicate the rationale behind decisions.
44/ Taking action without first understanding the situation. 
45/ Failing to monitor corporate vital signs.
46/ Beating up suppliers and then expecting their loyalty.
47/ Introducing performance rewards that are inconsistent with business goals. 
48/ Addressing all areas of cost except apathy. 
49/ Saying “yes” to low-priority opportunities.
50/ Enforcing rules that everyone knows don’t make sense.