3 ms·

> Do you people suffer split personality or something? I think it was Marissa Meyer who said, "Companies don't do things. People do things." Companies are jus

> Do you people suffer split personality or something? I think it was Marissa Meyer who said, "Companies don't do things. People do things." Companies are just collections of people grouped together under some sort of legal structure. It doesn't mean that they actually all act as if they were one monolithic entity. Even at relatively small companies, it's not unusual for one team to have the authority to make a decision that later gets contradicted or reversed either higher up the chain, or in a different part of the organization. I don't know if this is better or worse than average at Mozilla, but it's certainly present to at least some extent in any company of (almost) any size.

Osmose 12y ago
> I don't know if this is better or worse than average at Mozilla, It's less about contradiction (which implies a final decision was made and then reversed) and more about being painfully open. Other companies may also have lots of instances where there's internal disagreement on things, but when your standard form of communication is mailing lists, IRC, and blog posts, it's a lot harder to maintain the façade of a unified mind.
- mantrax5 12y ago
  You're exactly right. This would be like a person who is unable to lead internal dialog, and everything they think, they say out loud.
mantrax5 12y ago
A well run company acts as one person. That's what a brand means. For good or bad, in the mind of people companies are allocated as a "person". We give personal characteristics to brands, so we value companies that act predictably, have certain well-known values and are consistent with their own values. It's the utmost responsibility even if your CEO changes every month, that the next CEO ensure continuity in spirit and operation of a company. After all, sure, companies don't do things, people do. But also people don't do things, brain cells do things. When a person is acting erratic and inconsistent, you don't talk about their internal brain cell conflicts, you see a problem at the person level. Same way erratically behaving brands & companies will be written off, because they don't stand for anything and have no reliable characteristics. Companies that act inconsistently are said to have "left hand doesn't know what right hand does" problem. It's not a feature, it's a bug. It's no coincidence the analogy is to that with the mind of a single person. You may be collection of brain parts, but for proper operations it's crucial you operate self-consistently. Companies are no different.
- girvo 12y ago
  This isn't your average company, though. It's Mozilla. Their main product is a completely open-source browser, and nearly 100% of their decision making is done out in the open, with the community's input being a massive part of it. So, while I agree with your assessment when it comes to most companies that can act like that, this is different in my opinion.

Osmose 12y ago

> I don't know if this is better or worse than average at Mozilla, It's less about contradiction (which implies a final decision was made and then reversed) and more about being painfully open. Other companies may also have lots of instances where there's internal disagreement on things, but when your standard form of communication is mailing lists, IRC, and blog posts, it's a lot harder to maintain the façade of a unified mind.

mantrax5 12y ago
You're exactly right. This would be like a person who is unable to lead internal dialog, and everything they think, they say out loud.

mantrax5 12y ago

A well run company acts as one person. That's what a brand means. For good or bad, in the mind of people companies are allocated as a "person". We give personal characteristics to brands, so we value companies that act predictably, have certain well-known values and are consistent with their own values. It's the utmost responsibility even if your CEO changes every month, that the next CEO ensure continuity in spirit and operation of a company. After all, sure, companies don't do things, people do. But also people don't do things, brain cells do things. When a person is acting erratic and inconsistent, you don't talk about their internal brain cell conflicts, you see a problem at the person level. Same way erratically behaving brands & companies will be written off, because they don't stand for anything and have no reliable characteristics. Companies that act inconsistently are said to have "left hand doesn't know what right hand does" problem. It's not a feature, it's a bug. It's no coincidence the analogy is to that with the mind of a single person. You may be collection of brain parts, but for proper operations it's crucial you operate self-consistently. Companies are no different.

girvo 12y ago
This isn't your average company, though. It's Mozilla. Their main product is a completely open-source browser, and nearly 100% of their decision making is done out in the open, with the community's input being a massive part of it. So, while I agree with your assessment when it comes to most companies that can act like that, this is different in my opinion.