Five myths that blind high‐growth companies: The case of “RosyOpticals.com”

This case is a cautionary tale. Though “RosyOpticals.com” was one of analysts’ favorite start‐ups in the Internet boom, this San Francisco company’s prodigious plans to get big in a hurry caused it to ignore some basic tenets of strategic management. It is not that giving their offering away to grow exponentially was a totally a bad idea as an initial strategy. But they did not encourage managers to develop realistic alternative plans. This article incorporates Doug Randall’s experiences from April 2000 to June 2001 and also the insights from a number of his colleagues at similar companies.