gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards"

an open letter to bill gates

Dear Bill,

One of your more groovy and well-known employees, Robert Scoble called the little South African wine company I work for, Stormhoek, "Microsoft's Real Competiton". [This was in response to an earlier blog post of mine.]

Of course I was delighted. Good PR for Stormhoek etc, plus I was getting tired of always hearing you guys just mentioned in the same breath as Google or Apple. I mean, give somebody else a turn, C'mon.

Of course, the "Stormhoek vs Redmond" idea left a few people going "Huh?"

Small wine company? Big software company? Competitors? What's up with that?

Frankly, methinks what seperates us are minor technicalities. Size isn't everything. After all, unlike Microsoft, we don't have an army of folk on the payroll. Not do we have an army of sharholders to keep happy. Both are a royal pain to keep on board. Small has its advantages. We like that. "Meaning Scales".

Secondly, at the end of the day, we're both competing for the same thing.

We're both competing for other people's money. We've both got bills to pay.

More importantly, we're both competing for what they call "Conversation Share". People have a choice; they can spend their limited time on earth talking about the X-Box, or talking about a small vineyard in South Africa. Their choice, not ours. All we can do is make their choice easier to make in our favor, using what limited resources we have. And that in turn sustains our markets. That in turn allows us to meet payroll.

And yes, both Microsoft and Stormhoek are ultimately selling the same thing. We're both selling stuff that allows people to interact with each other more easily. Both software and wine are forms of social lubrucant. At the end of the day, "Other People" is all we have.

You're a smart guy; none of this stuff will be alien to you. But it's alien to much of the wine business, and dare I say, business in general. A lot of people get into the wine business to escape the real world- leave the rat race and open a vinyard etc etc. We're trying to do the exact opposite. We want to kick some butt. We want to disrupt the market we're in. We want to prove a point. Software or booze, it isn't what you do, it's the way that you do it.

And yeah, if either Microsoft or Stormhoek ever forgets this stuff, we're dead. When Robert Scoble talks about Microsoft's Job Number One should not be "Making Products", but "Thrilling Customers", he's not just talking about software. He could be talking about wine just as easily. ANY person in business should have the same goal. It isn't rocket science. Again, "Meaning Scales".

Good luck in Redmond. Looking forward to seeing Vista when it comes out.

Godspeed,

Hugh MacLeod

http://www.gapingvoid.com

Cumbria, UK

Posted by hugh macleod at November 16, 2005 12:36 AM | TrackBack