Everything Old is New Again. More Lessons From Facebook
I went through a week or so as a Facebook-a-holic. I don’t know how it happened, it just did. I think it started when I downloaded the application to my Blackberry, so no matter where I was I knew what was happening on my home page. As more and more of my high school peers hopped on the FB (that’s what the regulars call it) bandwagon a pattern seemed to emerge in peoples’ behaviors, including my own. People who did not like each other back then would not “friend” each other now, (I know. The word FRIEND was never intended to be a verb, but it is now on the internet). People who did not know each other well at all back when Tawny Kitane was” hitching a ride on White Snakes’s car had no problems being online pals now though. People were willing to give the benefit of the doubt to people they did not know, but they seemed to be saying en masse that people they knew and didn’t like 25 years ago would never change and were still probably jerks now. Does that make any sense? Didn’t all of us grow up just a bit after high school?
I can’t really distance myself from this phenomenon. I saw the name of a girl who broke my heart at a party in 6th grade when she completely ignored me after I asked her to dance. I’m sure she’s a wonderful person now and a mother of three who would be crushed if someone did this to her son. She probably doesn’t remember the incident at all, and maybe she was just really shy. I never found out because I never spoke to her again. The point is, I know who she is, she knows who I am, we know a lot of the same people online, but I never clicked to add her as a friend because I have this image of her as a stuck up 6th grader. On the other hand, one of my best buds online is someone I never even met. I was willing to take a chance with her but not with someone who dissed me in middle school.
Just as people tend to have long memories for personal trauma and tragedy, companies and industries tend to have extended institutional memories of past failures. In both cases it is a mistake to assume that what was once painful or embarrassing, or in the case of operations what was once unsuccessful or a loser, will still be so today. 6th grade crush and I today might be fast friends and have lots in common. Or she could still be full of herself. There is no way of knowing until you try. Similarly, just because natural gas taxicabs were a failure in New York City a decade ago, or rollups of taxicab companies from the 90’s were operational disasters, it doesn’t necessarily follow that such things would not be more successful today.
Institutional memories are valuable commodities. They give you background as to why procedures were put into effect, why regulations were enacted, and why certain employees, customers and competitors behave the way they do. In certain situations institutional memory can be of great value. When we were in negotiations with Creative Mobile Technologies to place point of sale equipment with advertising capabilities in the rear seats of our taxicabs in Chicago we had the benefit of two previous attempts that had already failed. The first system went bust due to poor technology and inadequate funding. The second fell victim both to overly expensive equipment, and to complicated contracts with multiple parties that hindered our flexibility. Our new endeavor was designed with simple, elegant and relatively inexpensive technology that has capabilities far beyond those of either of the previous two attempts. Just as importantly, however, the contracts are simple two party agreements that enable CMT and us to quickly react to market forces without having to deal with the bureaucracy of two additional large corporations.
Institutional memory becomes a liability, however, when it irrationally prevents corporations from proceeding with potentially profitable ventures. Consider again the case of the rear seat devices. Many companies after living through two failed ventures would simply assume that the project was not meant to be. Such companies would see the idea of “taxi tv” as a failure, rather than the technology and methodology used to attempt the project in the past. By doing so they would eliminate the possibility of correcting the problems of the past and creating profits for the future.
Remembering the past is never a negative in and of itself. Misinterpreting the lessons of the past, however, can be stifling and counterproductive. After writing this page and considering the issues of analysis of the past I decided that I would attempt to befriend my middle school nemesis. I will let you know when I get up the nerve.