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Intel From Behind the Curtain
Good Morning Silicon Valley writes "So now that we've reached this postmodern understanding that all official corporate communication is, if not a charade, part of a ritualized dance where meaning must be divined between the lines, where do you turn to hear an executive talk straight? Why, to his or her blog, of course. Even more candid than the still-rare public executive blog is one meant just for internal consumption, and that's what makes Intel President Paul Otellini's postings such interesting reading. The Mercury News snagged a copy of Otellini's 8-week-old blog and found it full of frank interaction with employees on strategic initiatives and the competition."
Many employees get fired for this sort of candid thing...
I suppose seeing as he's the president that that would be sorta difficult.
Does anyone see the board coming down on him?
The trouble with this kind of thing is that it is public and it is there forever. If you say the wrong thing it can cost you big time in court.
A couple of cases come to mind:
Just last night, a mistrial was declared in a murder case because one of the witnesses had put stuff on the internet that made her seem less credible. The stuff had been taken down a long time ago but the cache was still there. (The trial is the 'Jonathan' trial in Toronto.)
Recently a bunch of brokers got nailed because the text messages they thought couldn't be intercepted were intercepted. The messages proved that they were plotting against their employer.
If you want to have a frank discussion with your employees, you have to be very very careful. Treat it as though it will become public and will be there forever.
everyone and his brother's probably read this by now, but How to Deconstruct Almost Anything by Chip Morningstar is about the funniest techie answer to the field. (the *only* techie answer?)
however, when the jokes (and they are good!) are done, he goes on to offer a helpful reading list for the interested
From the blog itself, the first entry (at the end of the PDF, it's in reverse chronological order):
While this is intended as an internal blog, I recognize that it will become public--welcome to the Internet! As a result, please recognize that I may be a bit limited in my comments and responses to protect Intel, and that we may exercise some editorial privilege on your comments for the same reason. I want to be clear on this up front. This is the price of entry to this blog.
Mercury News is putting quite a spin on this "internal" stuff.
Having RTFA, I'm even mor impressed by the EMPLOYEE comments... they have a very clear view of what the currents in the market are like, and a lot of them cite Apple as having a strong 'cool' factor that they would like Intel to compete with, as well as addressing the reliability / complexity factor of a PC as a home appliance.
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia