Why do some big successful brands go bust?

Toast is back for a new series, taking a look at the decisions that often left investors burnt.

I'm Sean Farrington, a BBC business journalist. I'll be hearing about the hype.

They're going to do the deal that makes them the most money at that point of time.

And I'm picking what went wrong, talking to owners and employees to ask, what can we learn?

It was being undercut by similar rivals. It just couldn't survive.

Toast. Listen first on BBC Sounds.

Hello and welcome to more or less. We're the program all about the numbers all around us, on the news and in life, and I'm Tim Harford.

On Sunday, the 9th of August, it was announced that Belarus's autocratic leader, Alexander Lukashenko, had won a landslide victory in the

presidential election, securing 80.23% of the votes cast, perhaps surprising, given there were large

demonstrations against the government only last month.

The opposition candidate, Svetlana Chechnovska, received only 9.9%. And since the results, protesters have taken to the streets, demanding that Lukashenko's step

down and claiming that the elections were rigged.

Lukashenko has been in power for 26 years and is often described as Europe's last dictator.

There was little to no scrutiny of this election by observers, and doubts about its legitimacy

have been raised by the US, Germany and the European Union.

This week, we're looking at the numbers behind this widely questioned election result.

People are really scared to talk about politics, right? I saw this when I was in Minsk,

and it was sort of, you know, is your phone with you? Is there anyone behind us? And during my

fieldwork there, I was tailed the

entire time that I was there by an operative from the KGB. That's Brian Klaus. He's an associate professor

in global politics at University College London, co-author of the book How to Rig an Election,

...