why we hate successful companies

[want_to_believe]

Some words about PARC, the Palo Alto research Center. Never a really big organisation, but with intresting output. The high time of parc was during the early 70th. At the late 70th, Xerox, the owner of parc downsized his prestigious research center due to very bad overall business performance in the whole Xerox Company. But it is very remarkable what happened to those people who left. All of them are retired by now, but they left some well known “footprints” in the IT industry. Here are some.
Peter L Deutsch, the developer of Gostscript
Charles M Geschke and John Warnock, founders and chairmen of Adobe Systems  inc.
Robert M Metcalfe, Founder and chairman of 3com
James G Mitchel, founder and chairman of Javasoft, the developers of the java language
Robert F Sproull. Vice president and co-founder of Sun Microsystems together with William Sutherland  ( from Parc as well )
Robert Tayler, Director of DEC
William Duvall, developer of surfwatch.

And a lot more in research positions at Intel, Microsoft, Xerox and IBM. Remarkable, isn’t it ?

[tinky winky]

Nualum, GE IS hated by many people because, if I remember correctly, owns nuclear power plants in the Pacific Northwest (OR & WA).  Dupont also has a bad environmental record for toxic spills into rivers on the East Coast of the US.  They also both market products directly to consumers, notably GE sells (crappy) appliances and Dupont household chemicals.  As you can see, their reputations have nothing to do with their consumer products.

Joseph27, interesting to know that you would follow Microsoft's example in using illegal, monopolistic tactics to further your business interests.

[nualum]

Twinky winky may well be right about the records of GE and Dupont. However, when we think about ordinary people's views of large corporations, I think they have feelings about consumer products companies like McD or Microsoft simply because they have dealings with them or know of people who have dealings with them. On the other hand, those big corporations which deal at a distance from the public are often unknown or if recognized, have a blurry image among the public. We may have some feelings about Burger King, for example, but we don't even know the name of the immense British corporation which owns it. That is my only point.

[Joseph27]

tinky winky - I guess I failed business ethics.  But seriously Microsoft has embarked on some questionable business practices but they're just there to make a buck - albeit at everyone elses expence.  

[tinky winky]

Joseph27, I have no problem with making a buck.  Capitalism is a very successful system and I myself am happy to have benefitted from it.  I do not bite the hand that feeds me.  

That said, even in the United States - the home of the Almighty Dollar and the Pursuit of (Material) Happiness - we put limits on capitalism.  Microsoft was found guilty of violating the law against unfair business practices.  One could make an excellent case that the biggest damages were not to consumers, but other businesses. I personally would not be willing to violate the law, especially one I agreed with, to make a buck. From your enthusiastic endorsement of Microsoft's tactics, I infer that you would. That I found interesting.

Some companies are hated for a reason.  Some because they are over-exposed and become uncool.  Sorry to belabor this point.  My last two cents.

[nualum]

As someone from the East Coast, I would not want to disparage PARC or minimize its many accomplishments. However, I can't help beating the drum for Bell Labs. Eleven people have won Nobel prizes for their work done at Bell Labs. That number by itself might not seem immense. However, Japan has had eight Nobel prize winners, including this year's winner; and one of those was for literature, not science.