Perseverance doesn’t always pay off for companies – sometimes it’s better to ‘fail fast’

Slack's embrace of a ‘fail fast’ approach helped it become the world's dominant intra-office messaging app. AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato

Across the business world, companies often double down on struggling ideas, retreating only after clear evidence shows they won’t work.

A recent spectacular example was Meta’s metaverse push. After the organization invested US$80 billion over several years, it announced changes in March 2026 that all but abandoned its grand strategy.