Personal Coach Martin Brossman serving Raleigh,Durham and the Washington DC

OK, the Emperor’s Underdressed
(Putting the Personal Back into the Personal Computer Industry)
By: Martin W. Brossman

I would like to propose that our current emperor is the personal computer industry. Not only is the emperor quite exposed, he is also an upstart servant boy, raised on cola and pizza. To make it short, the story goes that one day this lad was playing in the back of the emperor’s courtyard. Then, in a bizarre twist of fate, found himself fifteen years later striding down the streets of the country Acirema, unaware of his exposure and being both hailed and hated like an emperor. Deciding that all the people around him could not be wrong, he concluded that he must be the emperor and that his clothes were so fine he could not see them.

Maybe I am being a bit harsh, but, just for fun, let’s examine this emperor’s reign further, or, that is, today’s personal computer industry through an analogy of everyday activities: If your kitchen were behaving like the computer industry, you would have plates breaking randomly on the shelf. When you contacted the manufacturer, after waiting for long periods of time on hold, you would be told the
problem is that the cabinets holding your plates are defective and need replacing. Of course, after replacing the cabinets, you find the plates still keep breaking, your plate warranty has expired, and the manufacturer would be pleased to resolve your problem on the telephone with a customer service representative for only $3.99 a minute.

Imagine a computer step so simple that forgetting it would be equivalent to forgetting how to use a knife and fork during a two-day illness. However, for whatever reason, you do forget it and have to resort to a large computer manual on your bookshelf to find out how to proceed. Unfortunately, the index, of course, is arranged in such a confusing and haphazard manner that the procedure cannot be found.

Consider being encouraged by the household appliance manufacturer to upgrade your appliances every year. Naturally, each new upgrade requires an inordinate amount of time to figure out how to use. You also often find that the old features have changed, creating confusion for you, and that part of your upgrade money went into fixing problems with the original product because it was not tested well enough before shipping. You also notice that the upgraded products seldom seem to have the improvements that you personally wanted.

Frustrated, you begin to study some of the companies producing these products. You soon realize that their prime focus is not on providing you, the customer, the best quality product for the money. Instead, it is to increase the perceived value of their stock. Thus, the people primarily interested in what will produce the highest short﷓term profit, the stockholders, are allowed to be the prime influence in the company.

Personal computers have become a common household tool and toy today. They come packed with more software than the typical user can use in a lifetime. With a little examination, the lack of real commitment to serve the customer starts to surface. For example, do you know anyone who knows what “invalid page fault in USELESS32.DLL” or “ GRAIN32 caused a global protection fault in module USED.EXE at” means? (This is, by the way, a common error you might see on your personal computer.) Furthermore, if you do find someone who knows what it means, you will find that this person can seldom help you solve the problem.

Did the person from whom you bought the computer, or the manufacturer, for that matter, tell you that no matter what you do, over time, your operating system and programs will just break down and will eventually have to be reinstalled? The only way you will know this is that you will get more and more strange random errors or unintelligible warnings. In addition to this, you will have to continually check for software patches and new drivers from the manufacturers web sites to maintain your computer.

Have you ever thought it odd that there are so many books to teach you how to use a program that costs several hundred dollars and already comes with its own manual? Maybe all these extra manuals are necessary because there was not enough in﷓the﷓field design work done to make the program easy to learn. Or, perhaps, the manuals were written before the product was fully developed to be sure the product and manual go out the door at the same time, forcing the customer to test the product and manual at his or her own risk. Have you ever seen a computer company ship a backup tape or some other backup information packet with a basic personal computer system? Have you ever met a customer who does not need some form of easy automatic backup system? Imagine getting a car without a spare tire and jack!

It’s time for the emperor to get in shape, learn some real leadership skills, and put on some clothes.
Instead of providing a wide range of software and features, why shouldn’t the emperor focus on what the customer needs--a user friendly, bug proof, reliable, and simple-to-use computer? What has happened to elegance, quality, and simplicity? These words have lost their meaning on unread posters on the walls of corporate America. But, you know, America engages in some of the most seductive and entertaining product advertising in the history of mankind that tells us how great the products are and how lucky we are to be able to buy them.

Do you know who really is to blame here? I am afraid it is you and I because we tolerate it. We seldom ask the following question before buying products or stock: Does this company truly treat their people well and produce quality products that serve people?

From a consumer point of view, your satisfaction or dissatisfaction needs to be communicated. If an employee undertook special help to be sure you were satisfied, make sure he or she is recognized by sending a letter to this person’s manager. The employee may already be in trouble for spending too much time just to create a satisfied customer. If you are a manufacturer of computer products and you feel that you are participating in making a product that is less than the best for the customer, STOP IT. Consider that this is where you work over forty hours a week and that what you produce is a partial statement of who you are. If you are a manager and not talking directly with your customers on a weekly basis, consider yourself profoundly out of touch and start making it a point to know your customers. If you get a good product, tell friends. If you don’t get what you want, don’t just complain randomly to people who have no power to change the product. File a formal complaint with some useful suggestions. You don’t have to live with that reoccurring though; “I’ve been misled.” We vote every minute of our lives with our attention, time, and money; I invite you to think more about how you are voting. Slogans such as “Better things for a small planet” may not justify a PC produced by a company that pays its CEO $13 million a year or that buys its parts from the lowest and sometimes least quality-conscious supplier. Yes, there are many great things about the personal computer industry, but this is America and we should demand more.

We need to realize that the servant boy would never have reached the level of emperor without our support and blessing. Instead of trying to overthrow the emperor, we may find it is more efficient to tell him he would look better and more impressive in new clothes and that he needs to shape up and eat better like a great emperor does. Remember: we have the power, we buy the products, we are the most important part of a company--we are the CUSTOMER.