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Why do top companies like Sonos, Snapchat, and Apple keep making the same costly mistakes? It’s not a lack of talent or resources—it’s something much deeper.
In this episode, Sharran unpacks how some of the biggest brands have fallen victim to avoidable mistakes—and what you can do to ensure your business doesn’t follow the same path. From Sonos’ disastrous app update to Snapchat’s unpopular redesign and Apple Maps’ failed launch, Sharran reveals a recurring pattern that costs companies billions in lost trust, revenue, and reputation. Learn the five critical lessons from these failures and how to apply them to your business for smarter decision-making and long-term success.
If you want to avoid billion-dollar mistakes in your business, tune in to learn from the failures of the biggest brands and apply these lessons to your business.
“If your product isn’t ready, please don’t ship it—your reputation depends on it.”
– Sharran Srivatsaa
Timestamps:
01:15 – Why even smart companies keep making the same mistakes
02:36 – Sonos’ app failure: The update that broke customer trust
03:20 – Snapchat’s disastrous redesign and mass user backlash
04:01 – Apple Maps: The launch that forced a public apology
04:50 – Netflix’s Qwikster debacle and the cost of poor communication
05:51 – Five major lessons to avoid these business pitfalls
07:22 – Here’s a big takeaway from the episode
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Transcript:
[00:00:00] Hey, this is Sharran Srivatsaa. Welcome back to the Business School Podcast. In this episode, I’m going a different direction. I’m actually deconstructing an insane business case study for you. Why do smart companies like Sonos, Snapchat, and even Apple keep tripping up over the same mistakes? It’s definitely not because of lack of resources.
[00:00:16] It’s definitely not because of lack of talent. So what gets, so I’m going to unpack this curious pattern in the business world. Why some companies repeat the mistakes, why it’s so costly and growth and loyalty and how you can avoid it by some adjusting a very few things. I break down all of this step by step starting right now.
[00:00:40] One thing is for certain, just because it’s tried and true doesn’t mean it’s working right now. So the big question is this, where can you learn what is working right now? The strategies, the tactics, the psychology, and the exact how to. How to grow your business, how to blow up your [00:01:00] personal brand and supercharge your personal growth.
[00:01:03] That is the question. And this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Sharon Srivatsa and welcome to business school.
[00:01:16] Here’s the big question. Why do companies like Sonos and Snapchat and even Apple keep making the same exact mistakes? And why do they never seem to learn? Because when you ignore your customers and your team, the fallout can be catastrophic. Sonos learned this the hard way. But the crazy part is they are not alone.
[00:01:37] Companies like Snapchat and Facebook and even Apple have made similar mistakes. It’s crazy, right? So the question is, why does this keep happening? And more importantly, how can you avoid it in your life and in your business? Let’s get to Sonos. Sonos is a brand built on trust, premium speakers, high paying customers, and a reputation for a lot of quality.
[00:01:59] [00:02:00] But in 2025, a single leadership failure derailed it all. The question is what happened? A buggy app update. That’s it. But the real story is about ignoring feedback from both users and their internal employees. And here’s the kicker. Sonos isn’t the first company to stumble this way. It’s happened multiple times in the past.
[00:02:22] And I’m going to show you exactly what happened. So here we go. What went wrong at Sonos, the shocking parallels to other brands like Snapchat and Apple, and five lessons that every leader can take away from these failures, including. All right, so let’s get started with Sonos. They rolled out a massive app update, a complete rewrite.
[00:02:42] meant to modernize their system. Totally makes sense, right? But their engineers flagged some major issues, critical bugs that could break core functionality, key features like syncing speaker volumes were not ready, crazy, basic stuff. And the executives, well, they just ignored the warnings and pushed [00:03:00] the app update live.
[00:03:01] The result was just utter chaos. Customers faced broken systems, features they relied on were missing, and thousands of one star reviews flooded the app stores. Sound familiar? Well, let’s look at some other brands that made the same exact mistake to show you that this is not an isolated incident. So something similar happened at Snapchat in 2018, Snapchat rolled out a redesign that nobody asked for users hated it over 1.
[00:03:29] 2 million people signed a petition to revert the changes, a petition that’s crazy. And what happened next? Their daily active users dropped for the first time in company history. Come on, we’ve got to see this stuff coming, right? So what’s the obvious lesson here? Number one, listen to your audience before making drastic changes.
[00:03:54] Number two, look at number one. That’s exactly it. Now, Apple, for example, [00:04:00] is not immune to this. In fact, Apple Maps is another classic example. When Apple launched their own Maps app in 2012, it was riddled with inaccuracies, missing cities, incorrect directions, bridges that appeared to be underwater. And the backlash was so intense.
[00:04:19] That CEO, Tim Cook issued a public apology and get this, he even recommended that the users try competing services like Google Maps. Personally, I think it was a pretty classy move. You’re showing consumers that you care about what they want. Even if your company doesn’t have the solution for it at this time.
[00:04:38] Good job, Tim Cook, way to own it, right? So what’s the lesson? If your product isn’t ready, please don’t ship it. Your reputation depends on it. And that’s the important thing. Then, by the way, there’s Netflix. Netflix tried to split its streaming and DVD rental services into two separate platforms. Netflix and Quickster.
[00:04:59] I don’t [00:05:00] know if you remember it. The announcement was so confusing that the customers just revolted. Netflix quickly scrapped the idea, but not before losing over 800, 000 subscribers. There’s a big lesson here. Clear communication is critical because when you confuse your customers, you’ll lose them 800, 000 of them.
[00:05:20] So now back to Sonos. CEO Patrick Spence eventually released a YouTube apology titled, We are fixing it. But here’s the problem. The comments were turned off. The apology felt more like damage control than accountability. Because of this, the fallout was just significant. The customers lost trust. The brand’s reputation took a massive hit.
[00:05:42] And the CEO, Patrick Spence, he stepped down as CEO. It’s so sad because this could have easily been avoided if they just listened to their teams. All right. So let’s wrap into my five big lessons. And the fifth one is going to be the one for you as well. So number one, test before you launch. For [00:06:00] example, Facebook’s 2008 redesign faced huge backlash.
[00:06:04] Why? Because they rolled it out before fully understanding the user’s needs. Invest in testing. And then your customers will totally thank you for it. Number two, listen to your team. The Sonos engineers warned executives about the app issues. Ignoring internal feedback is like flying blind. Great teams build great products, but only and only when their voices are heard.
[00:06:29] Number three, please don’t sacrifice core features. Microsoft’s Windows 8 redesign failed because it abandoned the start button. Something users really relied on to actually get going. By the way, here’s a pro tip. If you’re making changes, preserve what your audience loves, right? Small things. Number four, you got to communicate transparently.
[00:06:50] Netflix quick stir debacle taught us that unclear messaging can kill even the best ideas. So just be upfront with your audience.
[00:07:00] own your mistakes. I’m telling you, people can handle the truth because I am the people. And number five, act quickly. Well, when Tumblr, the old blog engine banned adult content in 2018, they lost a massive chunk of their audience.
[00:07:16] If you make a mistake, fix it fast, or you’re probably risking some pretty permanent damage. Here’s my big takeaway. Whether you’re Apple or Sonos or Snapchat, the rules are the same. Test your ideas, listen to feedback, communicate clearly. Because in today’s world, your customers and your team expect more.
[00:07:37] So now the real question is, can Sonos recover from this or will this be the mistake that they never came back from? Now that’s the 1. 7 billion question. Hey, if you like this episode, I went a little different on how I generally do my podcast. So I I’d love for you to. Maybe take a screenshot and tag me and say, Hey, that was helpful because then I can do [00:08:00] and create more like this for you.
[00:08:01] I want to create relevant news, relevant ideas, and get the best, biggest business learnings from them and give it to you in a very short amount of time. So if you like this, please do me a favor, screenshot this episode so that I tag me and so that I can make more like this.
[00:08:22] Hey, it’s Sharran, I have a cool gift for you. Since you like this podcast, I actually have an ultra super secret private podcast that I make just for my partner companies and the CEOs and influencers that I advise. It’s called 10 K wisdom because I try to wrap 10, 000 worth of value in every single episode in just under 10 minutes.
[00:08:46] That’s why it’s called 10 K wisdom. It’s raw. It’s real. It’s got no intro or outro or anything like that. It’s just straight to the point and to the insights. Since you like this podcast, I think you will like that. So for the first time, I’m making it available to you. Just go to 10Kwisdom.com the number 10K wisdom.com and my team will activate it for you as my gift. Go to 10Kwisdom.com. I’ll see you there.