Comments on: Reality check: maybe evil can still be successful after all http://www.theequitykicker.com/2007/12/14/reality-check-maybe-evil-can-still-be-successful-after-all/ Nic Brisbourne's view from London on venture capital and exploiting change in technology and media Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:08:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: James Penman http://www.theequitykicker.com/2007/12/14/reality-check-maybe-evil-can-still-be-successful-after-all/#comment-1298 James Penman Sun, 16 Dec 2007 20:50:32 +0000 http://www.theequitykicker.com/2007/12/14/reality-check-maybe-evil-can-still-be-successful-after-all/#comment-1298 If you've ever spent too much time in the company of optimistic entrepreneuers/financiers, try John Gray's 'Heresies: Against Progress and Other Illusions' and 'Straw Dogs'. He's been at Oxford, Harvard, Yale and now at the LSE and relative to your post it's, well, thought-provoking stuff to say the least :) If you’ve ever spent too much time in the company of optimistic entrepreneuers/financiers, try John Gray’s ‘Heresies: Against Progress and Other Illusions’ and ‘Straw Dogs’. He’s been at Oxford, Harvard, Yale and now at the LSE and relative to your post it’s, well, thought-provoking stuff to say the least :)

]]> By: James Penman http://www.theequitykicker.com/2007/12/14/reality-check-maybe-evil-can-still-be-successful-after-all/#comment-11054 James Penman Sun, 16 Dec 2007 20:50:00 +0000 http://www.theequitykicker.com/2007/12/14/reality-check-maybe-evil-can-still-be-successful-after-all/#comment-11054 If you've ever spent too much time in the company of optimistic entrepreneuers/financiers, try John Gray's 'Heresies: Against Progress and Other Illusions' and 'Straw Dogs'. He's been at Oxford, Harvard, Yale and now at the LSE and relative to your post it's, well, thought-provoking stuff to say the least :) If you’ve ever spent too much time in the company of optimistic entrepreneuers/financiers, try John Gray’s ‘Heresies: Against Progress and Other Illusions’ and ‘Straw Dogs’. He’s been at Oxford, Harvard, Yale and now at the LSE and relative to your post it’s, well, thought-provoking stuff to say the least :)

]]> By: Brian Phipps http://www.theequitykicker.com/2007/12/14/reality-check-maybe-evil-can-still-be-successful-after-all/#comment-1297 Brian Phipps Fri, 14 Dec 2007 21:14:01 +0000 http://www.theequitykicker.com/2007/12/14/reality-check-maybe-evil-can-still-be-successful-after-all/#comment-1297 How social sites address privacy issues can have strategic implications, due to the customer model that the site employs. If a social site's customer model is that customers are nothing but sheep with data to be fleeced, the social site may gain advertisers and business in the short term. Unfortunately, that approach also steers the social site toward creating a rather mindless and passive customer base that can't add much value in terms of initiative and innovation. On the other hand, a customer model that treats customers as equal and active partners in the brand, with appropriate privacy protections (i.e., respect), need not lose out on ad revenue, and still keeps vital innovation avenues open at the user level. Of course, when you're juggling a paper valuation of $16 billion, the evil path to the bank may seem fairly tempting. How social sites address privacy issues can have strategic implications, due to the customer model that the site employs. If a social site’s customer model is that customers are nothing but sheep with data to be fleeced, the social site may gain advertisers and business in the short term. Unfortunately, that approach also steers the social site toward creating a rather mindless and passive customer base that can’t add much value in terms of initiative and innovation. On the other hand, a customer model that treats customers as equal and active partners in the brand, with appropriate privacy protections (i.e., respect), need not lose out on ad revenue, and still keeps vital innovation avenues open at the user level.

Of course, when you’re juggling a paper valuation of $16 billion, the evil path to the bank may seem fairly tempting.

]]> By: Brian Phipps http://www.theequitykicker.com/2007/12/14/reality-check-maybe-evil-can-still-be-successful-after-all/#comment-11053 Brian Phipps Fri, 14 Dec 2007 21:14:00 +0000 http://www.theequitykicker.com/2007/12/14/reality-check-maybe-evil-can-still-be-successful-after-all/#comment-11053 How social sites address privacy issues can have strategic implications, due to the customer model that the site employs. If a social site's customer model is that customers are nothing but sheep with data to be fleeced, the social site may gain advertisers and business in the short term. Unfortunately, that approach also steers the social site toward creating a rather mindless and passive customer base that can't add much value in terms of initiative and innovation. On the other hand, a customer model that treats customers as equal and active partners in the brand, with appropriate privacy protections (i.e., respect), need not lose out on ad revenue, and still keeps vital innovation avenues open at the user level. Of course, when you're juggling a paper valuation of $16 billion, the evil path to the bank may seem fairly tempting. How social sites address privacy issues can have strategic implications, due to the customer model that the site employs. If a social site’s customer model is that customers are nothing but sheep with data to be fleeced, the social site may gain advertisers and business in the short term. Unfortunately, that approach also steers the social site toward creating a rather mindless and passive customer base that can’t add much value in terms of initiative and innovation. On the other hand, a customer model that treats customers as equal and active partners in the brand, with appropriate privacy protections (i.e., respect), need not lose out on ad revenue, and still keeps vital innovation avenues open at the user level.

Of course, when you’re juggling a paper valuation of $16 billion, the evil path to the bank may seem fairly tempting.

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