"At a San Francisco dinner on Tuesday evening, he was candid about his
company's (Seagate) ultimate mission: 'Let's face it, we're not changing the
world. We're building a product that helps people buy more crap - and
watch porn.' "
http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/30/magazines/fortune/obrienseagate.fortune/index.htm?section=money_latestFor the uninitiated, Seagate is one of the world's leading manufacturers of storage equipment - chances are the hard drive in the computer you're using right now is a Seagate drive.
Anyway, point is, we need more CEOs like this. The world has become so bloody PC and smothered in boring PR-speak lately its refreshing to see someone finally be frank and honest.
The rest of the interview is also quite interesting, reflecting on his views on everything from mistakes, to consumer focus, to the current wave of startups. Well worth a read.
I'm sure if he put this past his PR crew, they'd tell him to shut up. But far from damaging his company's sales (hence profits), its probably helped it, judging from the comments left by the nerds on
digg. After all, nerds are the biggest group of consumers of his products. And with that said, I'm gonna go buy a new Seagate drive for my new computer
.
P.S. As a complete contrast in advertising, check out
http://www.engadget.com/2006/12/01/benq-uses-wtc-and-9-11-imagery-to-sell-devices/. As much as people want to believe that it wasn't the intention, its still pretty poor to use the 9/11 as a platform to sell your products, whatever they are. Retract it BenQ. (If they need another reason - retract it because of the silly spelling error; geez, can't they even click the spell check button in Word?)