Out of my last 10 hires only 1 was what I would call a failure, in that we ended up letting her go.

Here's the thing: we hardly ever hire for skills or skills alone. Most of the time I hire people for their attitude, interest, and personality characteristics, not just because they have skills. In fact, the people I have had to hire were hired solely based on skill.

When you can't tell me why you're interested in the company, what you're really telling me is that you're too lazy or don't care enough to make an effort to have looked at my website, determined if you felt in line with our mission statement, and would actually want to be a part of this team. I'm not hiring an independent worker, I'm hiring someone to be on my team. I'm going to invest a heck of lot on onboarding you, paying into payroll taxes and unemployment, benefits, etc. And if you don't know anything about my company, then that lack of initiative tells me you aren't a good fit.

It's not like you have to sell me that you intend to stay at my company for a million years and be the next CEO. You can answer this question positively without selling your soul. I've done it when I was on the other side of the fence. I do it now with clients I onboard.