Naked Conversations
Chapter One
Souls of the Borg
"[Corporations] cannot commit treason, nor be outlawed,
nor excommunicate[d], for they have no souls."
-Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634)
We live in a time when most people don't trust big companies. Headlines
gush with tales of malfeasance, abuse, and old-fashioned plunder, but
that's just part of the problem. There's a general perception that large companies
are run by slick lawyers and book-fixing accountants who oversee armies
of obedient, drone-like employees. Companies are perceived as monoliths
without souls. In short, we see no humanity.
For a very long time, Microsoft has been among the first companies you
think of when this picture is drawn. Often perceived as predatory and heartless,
Microsoft has a reputation for ruthlessly rolling over competitors, wrestling in
courtrooms against government prosecutors, and exposing its customers to
security flaws and frustrating glitches. To see how people express their views on
Microsoft, check it out with any search engine. When we conducted a Google
search, "Evil Empire + Microsoft" brought up 471,000 resp ... read full excerpt from Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers ebook
