“We see no global slowdown in IT. Despite what one competitor said. Our key customers (those that view information technology as a competitive advantage, not a cost center) are continuing to invest. They're investing to drive on-line relationships, fuel competitive advantage, and drive efficiencies - but mostly they're investing because they see a return."
And how does his personality come through? Have you read the current issue of Wired about the electric Tesla car? Here's Jonathan:
“Being cheap (or cutting corners on components) doesn't matter as much as delivering value and innovation. A 230 MPH supercar that gets 9 miles to a $4 gallon of gas, isn't nearly as interesting to today's consumer as a Tesla - that uses electricity at a cost of about 1 cent/mile (and appears to outperform most supercars, and yes, I'd like to own one, and no, I haven't convinced my wife). And Niagara is to Tesla as [competitor here] is to an outdated supercar. (And again, if you'd like to try a FREE NIAGARA for 60 days." Pretty good, especially for a CEO.
Ok, says Stross, Microsoft boasts it has more than 3,000 employees who blog, but where is Steve Ballmer? Perhaps he should have suggested Ray Ozzie.
Strange that Stross never mentioned the other prominent executive blog, by Bob Lutz, the "car guy" now at GM, whose Fastlane is a break from cautious corporate traditions. The latest posting is from CEO Rick Wagoner and elicited this comment from trollhattan saab:
“First of all, we have GM CEO Rick Wagoner taking the unprecedented step of communicating his thoughts on GM's current turnaround strategy on the Fastlane weblog. Fastlane's normally reserved for pumping up the products and has been an historical repository for the septegenerian sausage, Bob Lutz. This time, Rick's taking deliberate steps to ensure that all the GM faithful know that people are working, and working hard, to put things right on GM's own terms.”
This is very good give and take for a conservative company like GM.
http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/archives/2006/07/turnaround_mome.html
Pasted from <http://www.trollhattansaab.net/archives/2006/07/gmrn_update_1.html
So the challenge is for Microsoft -- where are the senior exec blogs to explain where the company is going in informal terms? FSG -- Any takers?
One amazing bit in the Stross piece was about Sun's legal department. It gave Sun employees a one-time briefing on relevant security law and then trusted them to stay out of trouble. Wow!
Debbie Weil, author of "The Corporate Blogging Book," said that CEOs could save a huge amount of time by communicating to employees, customers, partners, and shareholders through a blog. "Why not do it more efficiently? [than email] Instead of one to one message, why not a communication from one to many thousands?"
Stross concludes:
Ms. Weil, the author, spoke with me last week about the reluctance of Fortune 500 executives to share their thoughts on a public blog, and could find no acceptable excuse for their silence.
“They should come down from the mountain and communicate in their own words without handlers, Ms. Weil said. “For what they’re paid, is that too much to ask?”
