"CEO, or the design director, or someone with a huge amount of power at Heinz should personally use every one of its products for some arbitrary amount of time before it is approved to be sold."<p>Do you really think the CEO doesn't use Heinz Ketchup in the new bottle? I love the new bottle! It has never "jammed" up for me and its a huge improvement over the glass bottle. I guess you should use those tiny ketchup packets if you're having a problem with getting ketchup out of the bottles. Did you know that Heinz is in the process or might have already released a bottle that doesn't let that "watery ketchup" come out when you first use it. It was their number one complaint from ketchup users. That's customer focused innovation!<p>I know that your an Apple fan boy but believe it or not - not "everything Apple" is god-like in fact I find the iPod Nano lacking and it was the first product I ever bought from Apple.<p>Getting back to the Heinz ketchup bottle - I eagerly await your better re-design...
<i>The only thing that matters to a company of any size is its product and customer experience.</i><p>That's a load of crap. What is true for a small start-up is not necessarily true for a huge behemoth.<p>There are many other components to the mechanisms for making money (which is what businesses are - human machines to make money), and although product development and customer services are very important in the early stages of a company, the focus shifts, later, to other areas (like sales or value chain optimisation). Those can make a much larger difference to the company's profits, once it is at scale, and so they deservedly get more attention at those scales.<p>This article represents a very narrow-minded, naive view of business. Perhaps you should work in a wider variety of companies before making such grand statements. Maybe read a book or two about corporations. I recommend "Management" by Peter Drucker as a (heavy, but excellent) starter.
This is why startups exist. Those large companies that cite politics as the reason for a crappy product <i>do</i> have a valid excuse. People and politics are <i>real forces</i> and they have <i>real power</i> in the organization. Overcoming them for the sake of good design is a lot harder, and probably not worth it, compared to just creating a startup to build great things.<p>Also, what is this "you should follow me on Twitter" stuff? I <i>should</i>? Really?
I like the new ketchup bottles. They've never clogged for me, and they rest upside down so you're never trying to get ketchup from the bottom of the bottle.<p>The rest of the article is right on, though.
The problem with the airline industry in general is that the old axiom "Fast, Cheep, Good - pick any 2" doesn't hold up.
Tickets are so cheep the airlines bleed money. The whole point of flying is the speed. As far as "good" goes they can't compromise on safety so it's an industry that sort of has to pick "all three". That is a challenging business model to say the least.
"The only thing that matters to a company of any size is its product and customer experience."<p>Many things matter. Although every company is different, the 3 most important are almost always:<p>- Profitability<p>- Cash flow<p>- Owners wealth<p>Of course, product & customer experience are important. As means to get to higher objectives. But certaintly not the only thing.
The same would be true of startups that become big companies. For example I'm sure it would be a nightmare at somewhere like Google to make UI changes to the core search listings.<p>I think someone who has worked on both sides would provide a better insight into the problems faced at large corporate companies compared to the startup environment.
Sturgeon's Law (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law</a>) seems worth invoking here. The thing is, if big companies didn't get weighed down by their own bulk and bureaucracy, how would small companies ever compete with them?
"...this kind of email really angers me..."<p>Chill.<p>One of the most important things in business is knowing when and where to expend your energy and passion which, believe it or not, is a limited resource. If this motivates you to change something, great. If it angers you, get a grip and find a better outlet. Anger is a waste. Don't allow them to let you do that to yourself.