“… And Carry a Big Stick”

August 24, 2015 by Leave a Comment

by,

Suzanne Coleman

Well good, Tim Cook finally acted.  As the CEO of a massive company, a big part of your job is managing your reputation.  Apple has historically done that quite well, especially with often overly-aggressive legal actions.  But in the last few months, they have sat passively by while their company has been defamed by “journalist” after “journalist.”  Manipulating public opinion by manipulating reports is sleazy, but since we as a society have lost most of our journalistic quality over the last few years, companies and individuals need to step up and act when necessary.

And let’s define necessary as when your investors are being destroyed due to false statements of fact meant to deliberately manipulate public opinion and therefore your stock price.  Yeah, let’s start with that.

I was going to call investor relations today (yes I own Apple stock, which you probably know by now) and have a conversation with them about this issue.  A nice class-action lawsuit brought by investors against reporters who spread falsehoods about Apple just might be what is needed to revive journalistic integrity.

I know, most of you have probably never heard of that…

_____________________

“Speak softly and carry a big stick.”  -Theodore Roosevelt, prior President of the United States of America

Filed Under: Apple, POP News, Stocks and Economics Tagged With: , , ,

The Apple Fail

April 24, 2015 by Leave a Comment

by,

Suzanne Coleman

[Ok, I wrote this about a week or so ago, when they reported the delays in delivery for the Apple Watch, but since I didn’t publish it, I’m doing it today.  The analysis is still relevant.  Only time will tell if this new product release method that Apple employed will work or not, though I’m thinking it certainly isn’t be the ideal way to do things.]

I’ve got to say, when you pay someone 75 some million dollars because they’re “Just so awesome” to get them to come to your company and work, you’d probably think they wouln’t completely f@%* up your business, wouldn’t you?  Well, that’s what is happening now, or so it seems.

It’s the Apple Fail, not the Apple Watch.

Telling your customers that your BIG NEW PRODUCT is going to be available on April 24th, and then failing to have product available?  Wow, that’s the kind of company that quietly disappears from the news as it goes out of business.  That is such a huge strategic FAIL I don’t know what to say.

Not only do they not have product available for sale, they are telling people who already paid for the product that they will have to wait MONTHS to get it!  WHAT?!@  Omg, Apple, I am so not happy.

And during the run-up campaign to the release for the Apple Watch, having major news outlets telling the public that the watch CANNOT BE PURCHASED in the store?  Seriously?  Who’s in charge there?  I mean, I caught the error, nobody at Apple did?  Hmm…  Obviously people who went into the stores WERE able to buy it online while in the stores.  How many didn’t even bother going because they weren’t interested in being jerked around?  Yeah, I wonder.  The kind of people who might pay $10,000 for a device, that’s the kind of people who aren’t really into being jerked around, and probably a few others as well.

And now they are saying that deliveries might not have such huge delays after all.  What to believe?  Like Taylor Swift said: “This is exhausting.”

I know they have pulled this availability manipulation before, and it didn’t destroy the company, so maybe people find it attractive and charming, kind of like playing hard to get?   But that kind of selfish, manipulative behavior generally tends to push people away…

 

NOTE:  I own Apple stock, and I expect the same thing from them that I do from any company that I work with/interact with:  quality customer service, ethics, reliability, responsibility, quality products, etc.

After their stock’s performance this quarter, I’m not sure I’ll still be adding this note to my posts… see Amazon, Netflix, YY, Starbucks, Qihoo, Tesla…

Filed Under: Apple, POP News, Stocks and Economics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

America Today…

August 4, 2013 by 1 Comment

What we saw happen on wall street is what is happening in the rest of America.  We are no longer a people concerned about right and wrong, ethics, customer service and satisfaction, reputation can be bought, companies can close and reopen under another name.  No one expects to have the products they buy actually function or arrive in great condition anymore.  Recently reviewing my larger purchases over the last 10 years or so, I realized that over 70% of them had to be returned due to damages or dysfunction.  Customer service was often a nightmare and human English-speaking assistance was very hard to come by.

The same lack of honor and commitment is seen from labor to professionals.  We read about bought judges, lawyers who don’t do anything for you yet expect to be paid massive amounts of money, hospital systems claiming non-profit status and charging $2 for a gram of acetaminophen!  What happened to honor, ethics, reliability, social responsibility?  I don’t know when or where it happened, but greed overtook humanity.  Now we have to take it back.

 

 

Add your thoughts below.  Have you had similar bad experiences?  What did you do about it?  Why do you think our government doesn’t seem to care about the people anymore?  What should be done?

Filed Under: Extra! Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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