With permission of the author, I'm reprinting an open letter to CIOs bent on eliminating "unnecessary diversification" in computer OSs.
While its ultimate tone is adversarial, I think it's an uncommonly prescient profile of Mac and Windows users.
soup
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Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 13:26:15 -0400
From: MacWay@aol.com
Subject: Essay to CIOs
Message-ID: <961008132614_538970637@emout15.mail.aol.com>
Keyword: Market by market, Enterprise
This essay is from:
John Martellaro, <j9z@dsunix2.dsrd.ornl.gov>
Article #8 --- Aug 30, 1996 -- (C) 1996, John Martellaro
An Open Letter to CIOs
In your work over the years, you may not have been exposed to all the
details of the Macintosh revolution. Some of your technical people may
have told you that Microsoft's Windows 95 has caught up with the
Macintosh, so you may think that the issue now is simply that of initial
cost, platform homogeneity, and consistency for your maintenance people.
The issue is very, very far from that simple, and here's why.
The PC evolution was based on the principle of bringing into the fold
more people and lowering the common denominator. Bill Gates, being in a
Henry Ford frame of mind, knew that 1) early adopters pay the brunt of
the R&D costs and 2) selling 10 million copies of something at $99 each
is a lot better than selling 10,000 copies for $5,000 each. Microsoft's
core corporate policy is to learn from the research of the early adopters
and implement it for the masses. You see this in SQL Server, derived from
Sybase and Windows 95, derived from the Macintosh. By dumbing down the
product and expanding it to the masses, Microsoft satisfies the business
world's need to be mainstream. Solid, stable, economy minded business
people don't ever want to be on the edge, be outcasts, or be criticized.
That's why no one ever got fired for buying Microsoft software. This mind
set is crucial to the argument here.
Macintosh users, in contrast, grew up in a climate of creativity,
experimentalism and technical excellence. To put an affectionate and
humorous bent on it, they live in terror of being ordinary. For this
reason, Macintosh users have gained a reputation for being somewhat
adamant in their love for and loyalty to Apple - to the vast irritation
of the more sedate and middle of the road corporate users who will accept
whatever you give them. You may also have wondered in the past why
Apple's are popular in the educational, scientific, and artistic/graphics
areas. The first two of those fields are not usually associated with
abundant funding, and you may ask yourself why Apple concentrates there -
to their financial disadvantage. In fact, it's the other way around. As
the Macintosh evolved, those users who were the most creative, most
independent, and most inclined to be a little more talented than their
friends happened to be in those industries. Apple is embraced by those
who want the best for themselves as they showcase their talents. This
limits Apple's market share, but it's the character of that segment that
you should keep in mind.
Remember your management classes in which you were told about diverse
personality types and Myers-Briggs tests. Remember what they said about
who people who hate to raise a fuss or stand out in a crowd versus those
who are natural leaders. As you re-engineer, downsize, and otherwise
re-invent your company, remember that your most important assets are the
people who have a vision, who dream, who will take a stand and take
risks. People who are loyal and good problem solvers.
In the course of your job, you may have run across a short and deceptive
article about corporate cost savings with a single platform. Or one of
your IS people may have suggested, without knowing any better, that a
single platform may be easier (for them) to support. But remember this.
Your scientists, your leaders, your independent people who aren't afraid
to take a stand will make life miserable for you if you try to take away
their Macintoshes. These are the creative ones. Some of these problem
solvers, if you betray their loyalty, will leave in disgust and join your
competition. Others will dream up creative ways to get rid of the problem
- YOU!
Finally, remember that the whole principle behind Windows 95 is that you
can make money with perceptions. Windows 95 appears on the surface to act
like a Macintosh. It has a mouse, windows, and icons. For some people,
this is sufficient evidence to technically conclude that Windows 95 is
"just like a Mac." But you know better. You know that the life and death
of your company depends on objective reality. When politics gets in the
way of reality, Space Shuttles blow up, bridges collapse, or companies go
out of business. Your Macintosh users know that Mother Nature can't be
fooled and that performance beats vague perceptions. If you antagonize
your troops who are most rooted in your corporate reality, you risk
execution failure of the whole enterprise.
Again, you lose your job.
So, Mister CIO. Read this article again and reflect deeply on the
consequences of eliminating your most valuable assets - your technical
employees, grounded in reality, willing to be different, willing to lead
your company into the next century. Standardizing on PCs could be the
costliest, and last, mistake your company makes.
_______
Note that the essay is a personal essay, not associated in any way with
my employer or the U.S. Dept of Energy. You may reprint it with my
permission so long as you include this line.
(C) 1996, John Martellaro |
