Month: April 2014

There ought to be public shaming of executives who game the system to look better.  Consider this example.  Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) was developed to help investors better compare companies.  It is a step toward greater transparency.  But executives have found ways around it so they can’t be measured against peers.  There isn’t much of an excuse for this.  It’s bad investor relations, and it is obvious to anyone who looks at what the companies are doing.  Rather then force compliance to XBRL, the move now is to get rid of it for small companies who find it a burden to tag their numbers in the 10-K.  Executives can talk all they want about their concern for investors and consumers but when something as basic as this becomes a way to obfuscate performance, their actions speak louder than words.

When does it make sense to give away proprietary technology?  When it risks being eclipsed and failing as a product.  That is the decision IBM has made for its Power microprocessors.  It has turned the chip into open architecture to get more people to use it.  Now, IBM will need to build relations with collaborators who adopt the chip design.  The OpenPower Foundation already has two dozen members. Public relations among manufacturers is often fractious because each lets self-interest control decisions.  It takes a far-sighted CEO to understand that cooperation is better in the long run.  IBM is clearly hoping that its collaborators are willing to work with it, but the company should not be surprised if foundation members are demanding and attempting to modify the Power chip to make it once again proprietary to their designs.

This is an interesting story of perception versus reality.  It seems professional violinists can’t tell the difference between a Stradivarius violin and a well-made modern one.  Yet, the Strads cost millions more than a modern violin and artists compete to get them.  One would think that the price of a Strad would plummet as a result, but it hasn’t.  Perception can overpower reality even with the most sophisticated of people.  PR practitioners and marketers know well the power of perception.  That is how we got the title of spinmeisters.  But it is also a warning.  Those who would play with the power of perception can be shown up by facts and lose in the end.  The cost of a Strad is far above what most violinists can afford to pay — in the tens of millions of dollars.  That alone forces musicians to look for less expensive alternatives.  Reality has a way of overpowering perception eventually.  

Can a comedian make a racially insensitive joke and get away with it online?  Apparently not.  Stephen Colbert is the focus of a Twitter campaign to cancel his TV satire show for offending Asian Americans.  Colbert has fired back and made a joke of the joke.    A satirist can sometimes do  that.  Anyone else would be the target of the “PC police.”  It is nearly impossible for anyone working in public relations to engage in satire.  That’s because we are conditioned to take individuals and companies at face value.  Today is April 1, the traditional time for practical jokes and pranks.  It is interesting that those who launch one are often believed, even when what they say or do is outrageous.  Satire is best left to comedians, but even they can get into trouble.