Over the decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed the concept of corporate personhood\u2013the notion that the law treats companies in largely the same way that it does human beings. I\u2019m a mere tech pundit, so I\u2019m not taking a stance on that legal concept one way or the other.<\/p>\n
Still, this I know: Technology companies sure act like people. They\u2019re capable of being idealistic, admirable and, on rare occasion, unselfish. But just as often, they exhibit frailties that are astoundingly human. They brag, and then can\u2019t back it up. They make short-sighted decisions. They get all skin-thinned and say things without thinking them through first.<\/p>\n
Like people, companies are also capable of improving themselves, as long as they\u2019re self-aware enough to understand their own weaknesses. With that in mind\u2013and with New Year\u2019s Day almost upon us\u2013I\u2019d like to politely suggest a few resolutions that would make great tech companies even better. (Judging from the behavior of some pretty big outfits in 2011, they could use the advice.)<\/p>\n
Ready?<\/p>\n
1. \u201cI\u2019ll be more patient.\u201d<\/p>\n
In April, RIM released the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Anyone who bought one quickly learned that that the product wasn\u2019t really finished and would have benefited immeasurably from a few more months of work. Then in July, HP shipped its TouchPad tablet. Same deal\u2013and when the tablet didn\u2019t immediately sell like gangbusters, HP killed it after only six weeks.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t see any evidence that RIM, HP or the people who bought their tablets gained anything from the fact that the two companies got their products out early rather than when they were done. I\u2019ll remember that in 2012\u2013and if the deadlines slip on any upcoming items I\u2019m looking forward to seeing, I\u2019ll try to take it calmly. It might be a good sign.<\/p>\n
(MORE: Don\u2019t Pine for Bill Gates, Microsoft Fans)<\/p>\n
2. \u201cI won\u2019t squabble in public.\u201d<\/p>\n
Early in 2011, Google got suspicious that Microsoft\u2019s Bing was cribbing its search-engine results. Google secretly injected some nonsense results into its engine, and when the same gibberish showed up in Bing, it accused Microsoft of \u201ccheating\u201d in the search wars. Bing fired back by saying Google had performed a \u201cspy novel-esque stunt.\u201d Watching the sniping from the sidelines, I felt slightly embarrassed for both sides.<\/p>\n
I felt even more uncomfortable in September, when Oracle and enterprise software company Autonomy started bickering over a really mundane question: Whether Autonomy had shopped itself to Oracle before selling itself to HP. (Title of one of Oracle\u2019s statements on the matter: \u201cAnother Whopper from Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch.\u201d)<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t expect Vulcan-like rationality from tech companies, but I think that businesses look best when they\u2019re cool and collected\u2013not touchy and snarky.<\/p>\n
3. \u201cI\u2019ll stay humble.\u201d<\/p>\n
I swear I\u2019m not setting out to pick on RIM. But it didn\u2019t just release a buggy PlayBook\u2013it accompanied the tablet\u2019s arrival with a metric ton of TV commercials that oozed hubris. I understand that \u201cadvertisement\u201d and \u201cmodesty\u201d are mutually-exclusive terms. I still think, however, that the marketing campaign reflected RIM\u2019s own attitude towards its brainchild, which was utterly out of whack with reality. If the company had maintained some sense of perspective while the PlayBook was in the works, the odds would have been higher that it would have been a decent product. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over the decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed the concept of corporate personhood\u2013the notion that the law treats companies in largely the same way that it does human beings. I\u2019m a mere tech pundit, so I\u2019m not taking a stance on that legal concept one way or the other. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n