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No man can serve two masters...

...is the way Jesus put it 2000 years ago.

The problem MS has faced since 1981 and has never really come to grips with, is which set of customers are to get top priority?. The conflict between MS, the OS developer, and MS, the application developer has long been an issue (why should ISVs trust MS if they're going to use their control of the OS as a competitive advantage for their own applications?), but we've also seen the conflict between MS, provider of operating systems to hardware manufacturers and MS, provider of operating systems to retail customers; MS the OS developer, and MS the intellectual property advocate (think DRM); etc. The new conflict between MS the OS developer, and MS, the ad agency is really more of the same.

If MS gives the end user of its software top priority, they have to forgo some rather lucrative moneymaking opportunities, but if they don't, then the end user (who, in the end, is the one providing the revenue) has no reason to trust them. Instead of choosing, MS tries to "walk a fine line" and risk everyone's displeasure. Been rather expensive in legal fees. All large corporations face these sorts of issues, but I think MS has done a particularly poor job of addressing them.

In the end, I think the end user has to come first. That conflicts with the investor-centric rhetoric, coupled with executive-centered reality that has dominated so much of American business over the last 25 years, but it's the end user that provides the money that pays both the investor and the executive. Treat him like a resource to be exploited, and he's bound to resent it, once he figures out where he stands.

Posted by: John L. Ries   Posted on: 01/27/09  (Edited: 01/27/2009 @ 06:43) You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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