The Hand That Controls the Sock Puppet Could Get Slapped

One Response to “The Hand That Controls the Sock Puppet Could Get Slapped”

Chris Messina on July 17th, 2007 at 10:00 am

That NYTimes article was certainly an interesting look at the pressures and constraints on executives — who must be going mad these days with so everyone seeming to have a voice but them in discussions about their companies. I think it’s a pretty sad state of affairs — not to mention an indictment of the way business must be conducted today — that these executives are so constrained by their shareholders that they’re unable to speak freely or engage in reasoned dialogue.

But, I guess the trends we see in corporate America have now invaded the White House (or vice versa, I’m not sure which) and we increasingly see a divide between those who are “puppet-mastered” by shareholders and those who are not.

For Citizen Agency, we tend to only work with organizations who are capable of engaging honestly in communities — and who get that it’s no longer all about them, but about a wider and more diverse discourse. We teach that you not only can no longer “control the conversation” but that to do so, as this article intimates, is contrary to ones goals.

Ironically, this level of transparency forces organizes to become humble servants once again and to actually compete on quality and execution rather than pure marketing dollars or the ability to lie convincingly. Of course we still have a long way to go, but stories like this help to prove the point that the old way of doing business is an affront to our better moral values and to what we, as consumers, are willing to put up with anymore.

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