Tag: Ethics

Satya Nadella and “Trust in Technology”

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella digressed from standard earnings call topics two weeks ago to discuss the importance of ethics, privacy, and cybersecurity.  While he did not provide a specific reason for the digression, the Facebook hearings and impending GDPR implementation were likely motivators.

Nadella noted that the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge are “tremendous opportunities” for Microsoft customers, but that it is critical that both Microsoft and its customers “ensure trust in technology” across three dimensions: privacy, cybersecurity, and ethics. Nadella argued that “privacy is a fundamental human right” and that the firm has implemented an “end-to-end privacy architecture” which is GDPR compliant.

“For customers, we will provide robust tools backed by our contractual commitments to help them comply with GDPR,” said Nadella. “In fact, for most customers it will be more effective and less costly to host their data in Microsoft’s GDPR-compliant cloud than to develop and maintain GDPR compliance tools themselves.”

With respect to cybersecurity, the company spearheaded a coalition of 34 global tech and security companies for the Cybersecurity Tech Accord, “an important first step by the industry to help create a safer and more secure online environment for everyone.”

Nadella also announced the establishment of an AI and Ethics in Engineering and Research Committee at Microsoft “to ensure we always advance AI in an ethical and responsible way to benefit our customers and the broader society. This includes new investments in technology to detect and address bias in AI systems. Microsoft stands for trust, and this will continue to be a differentiating focus for us moving forward.”

Up until recently, information technology and social media have been viewed as social goods with few drawbacks, but now that we are all tied into the social communications fabric, we are beginning to worry about the dark side of such connectivity whether it be job losses through automation, the stripping away of privacy, the vulnerability of our networks to hacks, or the undermining of objective truth and democratic systems.

One step towards addressing these problems is the GDPR Chief Privacy Officer requirement with its focus on privacy and cybersecurity.  At most companies, this role is likely to be one of compliance, not ethics or broader social questions.  At a few, however, this role may grow beyond mere compliance and begin to address the broader social and economic issues posed by information technology.

 

Ethical Competitive Strategy

When training sales reps, I emphasize staying “above the fray.”  Besmirching a competitor’s product also sullies your reputation.  It shows a lack of class and a sense of desperation.  Oftentimes it can backfire.

“It is a mistake to believe that you can win hearts and minds by attacking your competitor. When you have no idea how strong the relationship is, you can make a complete fool of yourself, doing more harm than good, and doing nothing to create a real opportunity.

Speaking ill of your competitor is an indication of who you are, not who they are. There are better strategies available to you.”

It is much better to position the value of your offering and focus on areas of differentiation than it is to throw mud.  You should lay landmines for competitors, not besmirch their reputation.

A landmine is simply an emphasis upon those features and benefits where your product or service offering excels.  The goal is to frame the discussion around the dimensions in which your product provides superior value to the end user.  Keep in mind that value is dependent upon the customer in question, so you need to factor in job function, industry, company size, etc.  Also, be careful to select areas in which your firm excels overall, not dimensions in which you are superior to competitor X that is vying for the deal but inferior to competitor Y.  Otherwise, you may later find out you lost the deal to Y.

Likewise, you should expect your competitors to be laying landmines for your sales reps.  They need to understand where these mines are laid and how to diffuse them.

One tool I recommend is the quick parry.  This is a quick response to the question, “how are you better / different than company X?”  A quick parry is only three or four sentences and usually begins by saying something positive about the competitor before transitioning with a BUT or HOWEVER.  The positive item can be a recognition of some dimension in which they are the acknowledged leader or a dimension which is of limited importance to the customer in question.  Thus, if you are selling to an SMB, you might emphasize the breadth of their solution for enterprise customers vs. the ease of use, quick implementation, and pricing models you offer for smaller firms.  Such a tool differentiates your service from the competitor without throwing mud.

Of course, sales reps will only be able to deploy landmines and respond with quick parries if they understand both the value proposition of their offerings, the needs of their clients, and the strengths and weaknesses of their offerings vis-à-vis competitors.  This is where tools and training come into play.

 

Sales Lessons from My Mother

The Thonet Bentwood Rocking Chair has been in production for 150 years. It is a design classic.
The Thonet Bentwood Rocking Chair has been in production for 150 years. It is a design classic.

My mom had a varied business career from which her sons took lessons about hard work, business ethics, and perseverance.  After earning a Master’s in Design, she worked for the state of Connecticut designing educational facilities for the severely mentally challenged (at the time, mentally retarded was the proper term before the R word became an epithet).  After a few years, she entered capital equipment sales, first for Thonet, a famous furniture manufacturer, and later for Amedco, a hospital equipment company.  She was proud of the companies she worked for and it was pretty cool that we owned a Thonet bentwood rocker, a 19th century design classic.  She later managed sales, marketing, and HR at my parent’s clinical research company.  At all three companies, she excelled.

My mother was working her sales territory in the early seventies when companies were reluctant to hire saleswomen.  She was equally comfortable working with purchasing departments, nurses, doctors and engineers.  She would be out on the loading dock when the truck arrived with the equipment, toolbox in hand, assisting with the delivery.

She also went to every bid opening, using it as another opportunity to meet with government purchasing departments and research competitive bidding.  One time, her analysis of a low bid led her to realize the firm was passing off reconditioned equipment as new.  While she initially lost that bid, she protested that the competitor did not conform to the requirements of the RFP and wrestled the contract away from them.  That is perseverance and a judicious use of competitive intelligence.

She also made sure that my brothers and I had a chance to assist with her nursing home deliveries.  She’d hire us to help unload the equipment and push it on dollies to each of the rooms of a new nursing home.  It was good, honest work and gave us an opportunity to witness her sales victories.  We earned $10 an hour, and she expected us to work just as hard as the rest of the crew during the installation.

My mom also had a strong ethical perspective.  For her, sales was about developing relationships, meeting your promises, and never bad mouthing your competitors. When she began selling hospital beds, her territory was poorly developed.  It was basically controlled by the #1 company in the space and it took her years to build up her pipeline and develop the relationships to wrest away sales from the incumbent.  This meant she often delivered samples or sold a few birthing beds (a specialty product) years before the next capital investment cycle.  Birthing beds were her Trojan Horse.

Happy Mother’s Day