Nathan's Occasional Blog

It takes tons of work to get and keep a customer, even more an evangelist. It takes one idiot for your company to blow all of that and unleash the wrath of the web.

A complete failure to care about the customer – The Office Weblog:
“I am not a happy camper at the moment and the source of my frustration is Apple Computer and their online store. Today I got a first-hand taste at just how badly the company can be at taking care of a customer. And it’s pretty much soured me on ever doing business directly with the company again.”

I read something a couple months back on Gaping Void that all of these stories keep reminding me of: Apple has gone from a “we” company to a “they” company.

Anyway, “We” companies are built by and for a community of users. Everything (including profits) flows from this core value of serving the users. We companies and their profitability are incredibly sustainable.

“They” companies are traditional companies that seek to optimize profitability at the expense of everything else. These businsses are not sustainable and they tend to overreach and ultimately end up in a long and steady decline.

Microsoft is the poster child for a “they” company.

Craigs List is the poster child for a “we” company.

Apple used to be a “we” company.