Virgin joins the Sony-Dell-Apple Battery Fray
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Loading ...I found out here on Wired’s blog that Virgin is now banning the use of all Dell and Apple laptops that are not plugged into a seat power outlet. Thus, Virgin now joins the fray of the Sony battery issue with Dell and Apple.
A rapid set of commentary erupted on the Wired blog, and elsewhere I’m sure, adding fuel to the fire that has been burning for some time now (no pun intended of course).
Regardless of the merits of Virgin’s decision, it is a controversial one by its very nature (i.e. selectively revoking a common right). In today’s world, that means the “Read/Write Web”, or Web 2.0, is going to jump on it, and how Virgin handles the customers and prospects that engage on the web will have a meaningful impact on its brand and sales. The same can be said for Dell, Apple, and Sony who opted into this issue in a less voluntary manner.
So is Virgin prepared to engage in the Web conversation efficiently and effectively, or will this blow up in their face? Having the R/WW as active and effective as it is as a customer engagement medium now forces companies to ensure that they are prepared to handle the Web response to their decisions before making them. Most companies are not prepared.
Readers of this blog (or of the CEO Blog tag on Kalivo) know my perspective that companies need more than just a blog or forums to handle these events properly and achieve positive outcomes for their business. In fact, if they are ill-prepared to handle the Web response, then normal business decisions, such as this Virgin example, can quite possibly do more harm than good regardless of the merits of the decision itself. Ignoring or not properly handling the Web response is basically equivalent to ignoring newspapers, radio, or television in their respective ascendancy.
We at Kalivo will certainly be monitoring the response to Virgin’s announcement and Virgin’s response to those responses. The same can be said for Dell, Apple, and Sony … and Ford, and ….
Are you prepared to handle the Web response to your next business decision? Better yet, do you feel proactively engaged in the Web conversation?
[UPDATE: Slashdot ran a story on this and of course produced more comments for Virgin from the Web.]
– brian
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