“Customers are vermin. They infect companies with disease.”

— Max Barry, book Company

He says this with complete solemnity. “A company is a system. It is built to perform a relatively small set of actions over and over, as efficiently as possible. The enemy of systems is variation, and customers produce variation. They want special products. They have unique circumstances. They try to place orders with after-sales support and they direct complaints to sales. My proudest accomplishment, and I am being perfectly honest with you here, Mr. Jones, is not the Omega Management System and it associated revenue stream—which, by the way, is extremely lucrative. It is Zephyr. A customer-free company. Listen to that, Mr. Jones. A customer-free company. In the early days, you know, we tried to simulate customers. It was a disaster. Killed the whole project. When we started again, I cut every department that had external customers. It was like shooting a pack of rabid dogs. Now, I’m not claiming Zephyr Holdings is perfect. But we’re getting there, Mr. Jones. We’re getting there.”
Q4/1: October, p. 105
Company (2006)

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Max Barry34

Australian writer 1973

Lionel Trilling book Sincerity and Authenticity

Source: Sincerity and Authenticity (1972), p. 64

“The future lies with those companies who see the poor as their customers.”

C.K. Prahalad (1941–2010) Indian academic

C.K. Prahlad, cited in: Bibek Debroy, ‎Amir Ullah Khan (2004), Integrating the Rural Poor Into Markets. p. 17

“An infected Russia, a plague-bearing Russia; a Russia of armed hordes not only smiting with bayonet and with cannon, but accompanied and preceded by swarms of typhus-bearing vermin which slew the bodies of men, and political doctrines which destroyed the health and even the souls of nations.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

The Aftermath, by Winston Churchill (published 1929), p. 274
Early career years (1898–1929)

“Great fit and synergism for both companies and excellent outcome for employees, customers and shareholders.”

Philippe Kahn (1952) Entrepreneur, camera phone creator

San Jose Mercury News May 6th 2009, regarding the Sale of Borland to Micro Focus http://www.mercurynews.com/centralcoast/ci_12309355.

“For a generation of customers used to doing their buying research via search engine, a company’s brand is not what the company says it is, but what Google says it is.”

Chris Anderson book The Long Tail

Source: The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More (2006), Ch. 7, p. 99

“Outsiders act as employees, employees act as outsiders. New relationships blur the roles of employees and customers to the point of unity. They reveal the customer and the company as one.”

Kevin Kelly (1952) American author and editor

Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World (1995), New Rules for the New Economy: 10 Radical Strategies for a Connected World (1999)

“Expertise now resides in fanatical customers. The world's best experts on your product or service, don't work for your company. They are your customers, or a hobby tribe.”

Kevin Kelly (1952) American author and editor

Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World (1995), New Rules for the New Economy: 10 Radical Strategies for a Connected World (1999)

“No one ever built a billion-dollar company without employees, investors, business partners, and customers.”

Jay Samit (1961) American businessman

Future Proofing You (2021)

“It's still unclear whether that takes place (that 2019-nCoV can spread before people show sings of being infected). But if it does, that might explain why the disease is spreading so quickly.”

Malik Peiris (1949) Sri Lankan scientist

Malik Peiris (2020) cited in " Number of Coronavirus Cases Passes SARS Outbreak https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/number-of-coronavirus-cases-passes-sars-outbreak/5265482.html" on Learning English, 29 January 2020.

“You have to build an industry. You have to be very nimble, and you have to be connected to your customers, and that can't be done with just one company.”

Mike Lazaridis (1961) Canadian businessman

Bloomberg: "The Co-Inventor of BlackBerry Is Building Canada’s Quantum Brain Trust" https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-09/the-co-inventor-of-blackberry-is-building-canada-s-quantum-brain-trust (09 February 2018)

“Customers are vermin. They infect companies with disease.”

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