Exemplifies what is wrong with HBR, US MBA, technology {thinking,understanding}

Posted Nov 18, 2010 22:09 UTC (Thu) by brianomahoney (guest, #6206)
Parent article: Did Google Arm Its Own Enemies With Android? (HBR)

This article, and the 'oh-right' comments in the HBR clearly exemplify what is wrong with most American Pointy-Haired MBA thinking, concentrate on control and product differentiation rather than total market size and quality to monetize. See how that worked out for Detroit.

Ignore the non-US market where choice and consumer protection are often stronger.

Ignore technology and law/licence eg GPL.

Fact: (1) to take google.com off a phone you would have to disable or filter all internet access, good luck with selling cripple phones; (2) all Android phones will quickly be jail broken, then all apps witll have the open APIs.

Opinion: Trying to build walled gardens is an expensive waste of time, you need more engineers and fewer MBAs and Lawyers.

Exemplifies what is wrong with HBR, US MBA, technology {thinking,understanding}

Posted Nov 19, 2010 9:19 UTC (Fri) by dgm (subscriber, #49227) [Link] (2 responses)

So right. It depises me to no end that those people are so anally fixed with that fantasy that they control their customers, and that impulse to shove stuff down their throats.

Exemplifies what is wrong with HBR, US MBA, technology {thinking,understanding}

Posted Nov 19, 2010 17:34 UTC (Fri) by Doogie (guest, #59626) [Link] (1 responses)

Anally fixated? Shove stuff down their throats? Did I walk into the wrong chat room by accident? :)

Exemplifies what is wrong with HBR, US MBA, technology {thinking,understanding}

Posted Nov 22, 2010 15:38 UTC (Mon) by dgm (subscriber, #49227) [Link]

I apologize for the language. I should have prepended a "Not Safe for Work" notice. But when I said it depises me, I meant it quite literally.

Again, apologies.

Exemplifies what is wrong with HBR, US MBA, technology {thinking,understanding}

Posted Nov 21, 2010 22:10 UTC (Sun) by PaulWay (guest, #45600) [Link]

> This article, and the 'oh-right' comments in the HBR clearly exemplify
> what is wrong with most American Pointy-Haired MBA thinking, concentrate
> on control and product differentiation rather than total market size and
> quality to monetize. See how that worked out for Detroit.

This is the real point, I think, to draw from this article. The HBR is 20 years behind - locking customers in was the new 'clever' business model that was old before the dot-com bubble - and it clearly thinks that preserving this business model is the only way to make money. Google is doing more to change the USA by inventing new business models that work than anything else that I can see.

The other thing that they don't get is that there's basically no point in trying anyway. Google is already basically unassailable in search: no-one's going to be able to do to Google what Google did to the search engine wars of the 1990s. And it's not just about search - there's Google calendar, Google mail, Google docs, Google maps, Google earth, Google news, Google Translate, Google ... - Google is a household word and brand that covers a myriad of uses. Even if your vendor managed to purge their Android phone of references to Google, people will pull up their browser and log into Gmail with it anyway, or will download the Gmail app from the app store. People search with Google and read Gmail on iPhones! That's how much you cannot lock people in - or, more precisely, lock people out of using Google.

This needs a photo of the title with "Business Fail" on it.

Have fun,

Paul