Israeli Adam Neumann graduated from the Israeli Naval Academy and became a captain in the Israeli Navy before going to business school at Baruch College in New York. In 2010 he co-founded WeWork with his friend Miguel McKelvey, providing shared workspaces geared to startups, entrepreneurs, and small companies. WeWork (which at one point included the following slogan on their website: “We dedicate this to the energy of we – greater than any one of us but inside each of us.”) grew over the next nine years to employ more than 5000 people, and achieved a value of approximately $47 billion. The company began plans for an IPO in 2019, but public scrutiny of the company’s business model and Neumann’s leadership led to a huge drop in valuation (to approximately $12 billion) and a postponement of the IPO offering. Neumann stepped down as CEO in September. Neumann has always been a controversial figure. He claimed to have convinced Rahm Emanuel to run for president and says that Saudi prince Mohammed bin Salman improved the standing of Saudi women because of his intervention. He also stated that he aspired to be the Prime Minster of Israel, as well as the “president of the world.” Prior to starting WeWork, Neumann unsuccessfully pursued other business ideas, including the design of a line of women’s shoes with collapsible heels. Which of the following was another one of Neumann’s failed business concepts?
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A. He created a baseball cap with a built-in solar panel that could be used to charge cell phones. The product was marketed with the line “Use your head on a sunny day.”
B. He created a company which sold baby clothes with knee pads, under the slogan “Just because they donʼt tell you, doesnʼt mean they donʼt hurt.”
C. He designed a golf ball with a built in GPS which would communicate with golfers via their cell phones, enabling them to locate where the ball landed, thus preventing them from losing their balls. The product slogan was “You'll never be teed off after you teed off.”
D. He designed an airbag to go on wheeled baby walkers, marketed with the tagline “You have ten in your car. Shouldn’t you have at least one for your baby?”
E. He designed a synagogue with individual phone booth sized rooms for each congregant to pray in, under the slogan “You love to daven. You just can’t stand the whiny sound of the Jew in back of you.”