I often hear from various communities that they think that companies are purposely trying to hurt them. Dumb decisions that they see as coming from “the company”, assuming said company is hell bent on destroying their lives.
One of my colleagues, on a totally separate matter gave me a great quote that I’ve changed up a bit to fit in better with community:
“Never ascribe to malice what can be sufficiently explained by conservativism or poor implementation”
The reality is that every big company (or even small ones) isn’t some cold corporate entity in the sky. It’s easy to point at Sony and talk about how “Sony” is dumb, mean, or clueless. Sometimes there are examples (Recording Industry) where the company actually is trying to purposely stick it to their consumers.
But for the most part, companies are made up of individuals who are trying to make it through the day and do the best job they can while they’re at work. But all too often, the workers have forgotten the love of the brand that the community still has running strongly through them. It’s natural, really – we can only stay really excited about something for so long, unless we go out of our way to find ways to keep things spicy.
But rarely is there any true malice behind most decisions a person in a company makes. They’re trying to do the best they can to a) serve customers, b) serve the company, or c) both of the previous. And often they don’t get it right. But screwing up isn’t malice, it’s just screwing up. It’s really easy to point fingers at a company and say “They hate their fans!” or “They’re just trying to screw us out of what we deserve”.
But the reality is that laziness, walled in thinking, or poor implementation often give the best answer for the question “Why did this debacle happen??”
