by Just when you think that executives have a prowess at making decisions, in comes this story from this week’s News Of the Weird:
In April, according to a New York Times story, when a Japanese art collector sought to choose between Sotheby’s and Christie’s auction houses to handle a sale (which ultimately brought in $17.8 million) and quixotically asked the two houses to play rock-paper-scissors for the privilege, Sotheby’s lost out on the eventual $2.3 million commission
by choosing paper. (A Christie’s executive quoted one of his 11-year-old daughters: “Everybody knows you always start with scissors.”)
So, the next time your kids challenge you to a match, or thumb-wrestling, remember: You may be honing an ability that could cost your company $17.8 million.
