Murphy's law is alive and well.

Australian telco Telstra's strategy briefing, ahead of its partial privatisation by the Australian Government, got off to a bad start when the emergency sprinkler at the venue unexpectedly activated and forced a sudden evacuation .

The incident triggered the usual sort of quips from the Australian media about raining on parades and Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo walking on water.

But it did get me thinking about other screw-ups and accidents that have hit even some of the best-run businesses.

As a result, I put together a list of 10 mishaps that have hit the corporate world.

Some of it would have been avoided by risk planning. But there are cases here where nobody could have done anything. Sometimes, stuff just happens.