Microsoft as a Learning Org LO9799

Elizabeth Reed-Torrence (ereedtorg@seattleu.edu)
Fri, 6 Sep 1996 13:49:30 -0700 (PDT)

Replying to LO9745 --

I tried to restrain myself BUT I have to comment about Microsoft...

I live in the Pacific Northwest of the US and I see small software
developers trying to make a living from the Windows platform. Those that
succeed and make a good product will have their product undermined or
bought at some future date by the behemoth... I do not believe that this
is using LO principles... It is Class competition at its lowest
denominator. Microsoft makes good products but my question is, do they
have to have the entire market? What of the ethics of a learning
organization?? I use some of their products. But I also opt out of other
of their products because the better product is often an earlier version
of a competitors product... Does this sound like industrial espionage?? or
a LO??

I do not mean to take us off topic but to use Microsoft as an example of
an LO when what I see and read about MS is arrogance, pure arrogance...
gives me pause.

In addition often I meet folks in the world of outdoor recreation from MS.
I can offer many cases of their arrogance. I ask, is this part of an
inherent corporate culture that is arrogant? In their minds they may own
all of the software development... but they do not own mother nature and
they do not own the beautiful PNW...

From the North end of Puget Sound, ET

ereedtor@seattleu.edu

On Wed, 4 Sep 1996, Magnus Ramage wrote:

[Quote of prev msg shortened by your host...]

> To me this has a somewhat negative tone to it, suggesting that Microsoft
> are simply organisational cuckoos, waiting for an idea to develop and then
> taking it over. Or maybe you meant it positively. What is good about
> Microsoft is the energy with which they have pushed forward the computer
> revolution - it took them a long time to reach the same standard as Apple
> in terms of usability and consumer accessibility, but they appear to have
> more or less reached that point. I understand their mission statement is
> "a computer on every desk, running Microsoft software". I'm ambivalent
> about the latter part, but if it makes the former more likely (and it
> appears to) then it does something of a service.

-- 

Elizabeth Reed-Torrence <ereedtor@seattleu.edu>

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>