Google Goes Radically Transparent: Unedited Meeting Video

March 12, 2012 By

Google ImageI’m old enough to remember the days when Google was the scrawny upstart and the king of Internet search was Yahoo. Oh, how times have changed. Yahoo now struggles to survive and Google is a giant. One of the downsides of Google’s meteoric rise is that it’s lost a little big of their original mojo. Google controls so much now it seems like just another large, dominant company. It’s lost some of it’s personality and charm. Many even view Google with suspicion and wonder about it’s “do no evil” credo.

Just recently, Google has done something I think is pretty extraordinary. They have posted an 8 minuet video of an engineering meeting on Google search. Completely unedited and unscripted. It’s not particularly thrilling viewing as it’s filled with technical talk about how the spelling corrections work in Google search, but it’s a fascinating look inside one of the world more important companies. It helps people realize there are actual people behind the giant company, people who care about the product they are producing.

So much of what we see from large corporations are heavily produced and edited video and productions. The message crafted. Can you imagine Apple doing much a thing as this? Not in a million years. People like behind the scenes stuff anyway. I wish more companies would have the courage to do things like this. It is moving much closer to what I call talking in a human voice. Being this way and realting better to your customers and prospects is one of the largest strategic advantages smaller companies have against their larger rivals who often are not capable of doing it. Bravo to Goggle on this move.

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Ty Blows It

January 24, 2009 By

artsashamaliadollstyTy, the toy company responsible for the Beanie Baby madness maybe showing is desperation in the shameless marketing of its two new dolls. Two African American dolls named Sasha and Malia. It just so happens that those are the names of the Obama daughters. The media, the American public and Michelle Obama herself have caught on to this right away and there has been a public outcry. Using the presidential children to market your product without their or their parents consent is pretty pathetic.

But here is what’s worse. Ty says they did not name the dolls after the Obama daughters and that they will not reveal the source of their inspiration for the names because all product development including name choices are “proprietary”. Notice to corporate america or any company for that matter; when you get your hand caught in the cookie jar, far better to come clean than try to stonewall. This one is pretty easy to see through and Ty only looks idiotic with their straight out of corporate marketing statement. I would rather Ty said something like, America is excited by the Obama presidency and we wanted to honer the Obama kids with their own Ty dolls. At least that would make some kind of sense. This is the New Media age Ty. It’s time for transparency and honesty not hiding behind meaningless corporate statements. I am very dissapointed and I won’t be buying any Ty products anytime soon.

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Steve Jobs Comes Clean

January 5, 2009 By

Speculation about the health of Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been swirling for over a year. People are taking more notice of his physical appearane than the products he announces at his famous presentations. Apple has been characteristicly mum on the topic, giving no indication of Steve’s real condition.

Finally, this Sunday, Steve Jobs published a letter to the Apple community talking about the real reason for his obvious weight loss over the year. It’s obvious from the end of the letter it’s something he did not want to do. Steve Jobs has never liked talking about personal matters. The problem is Steve Jobs is no ordinary individual. He isn’t even an ordinary CEO. Jobs is a personality, a rock star if you will. When you are one of the most watched and popular CEO’s in corporate America, and when so much of the health and future of your company appears to rest on your shoulders, you’re going to get the increased scrutiny.

In the new social media world of increased transparency and openness, Apple is one of the worst companies. They do not play in this world. As innovative as their producs are, Apple marketing is as traditional as ever. The Apple community is amazingly strong and creates plenty of it’s own user generated content, but Apple almost never talks directly with the community. Apple gets away with it, though, because Jobs “reality distortion field” is so strong and their producs are so strong. But this may not last forever

Until Jobs finds a way to clone himself, Apple remains a cult of personality and when someday Jobs is forced to retire, Apple will have to find it’s way without him. If you want a good profile of Steve Jobs and his personality, I recommened reading The Second Coming of Steve Jobs. The book gives you a good idea of why Apple is the way it is. With Jobs gone, I think Apple will have to change. They will have to start using more social media tactics of transparancy and engadement with customers. My goodness, they might even have to start an actual blog.

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