Industry Note: Facebook + MS = Error
Got a few emails for thoughts on Facebook + MSN deal.
I think it's pretty simple. MSN offered a sweeter deal, Facebook went for it. If the rumour is accurate, the offers on the table the Facebook kru turned down (justifiably so) tell us that money counts for them. Fair enough.
The larger context of this deal is that serving ads isn't going to make or break the next media revolution, which is going to be squarely about redefining branding.
But it's difficult to see how a supplier without edge competencies is going to have much success at revolutionizing branding. And if there's a single company in the world who I would pick to never, ever succeed at the edge, it's MS.
They violate nearly every single one of the new principles of management that are the roots of edge competencies every day (you know, transparency, sharing, all that good stuff). Being evil is in the Microsoftian DNA. Unfortunately, returns to evil must necessarily diminish in a world where markets, networks, and communities are redefining value creation.
It doesn't matter how much money they throw at redefining brands - in fact, more often than not, $$ kills innovation dead. Rather, what matters are all the things we keep talking about here - all of which are anathema to MS, etc, etc.
Hey Umair,
this is Chris from the "Media in Transition" Conference - please get in contact with me:
[email protected] or
[email protected]
The Pope is coming the day after the conference on September 9th and our window for getting flights/hotel is closing rapidly, actually by the hour.
We need your personal info by Sunday evening (firstname/mittle name/lastname/address/phone nr.) - so we can book the flight and hotel, while assuming your schedule is free on September 7th/8th. Please erase this comment, since it is not related to the post.
Sincerely, Chris