Resistance is futile

One of my heros is BL Ochman and her comment about acceptance of new media at corporate HQ is right (later today I will post further on this) . She goes back to a post by Jerry Bowles, "Why CEOs Are Afraid of Social Media" and extends the fact that most leaders do not want to operate their organizations as experiments in democracy or collective intelligence.

Resistance also is futile. Look at Dell. They ignored the great hue and cry about their customer service for years. Meanwhile, the online commentary grew to a tsunami. When Dell finally launched a blog, they still tried to play by the old rules and push their message out while ignoring the elephant in the room.

A week or so later, when the Dell battery recall was mounted, the company already had a way to communicate with customers, and that forum made it clear that they were trying. Looking back, I'm sure they're wondering why they were so afraid of customers.