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Geographic ignorance costs Microsoft
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| malek |
Here's a funny story...
THE GUARDIAN , GLASGOW, SCOTLAND
Friday, Aug 20, 2004,Page 12
Insensitive computer programmers with little knowledge of geography have cost the giant Microsoft company hundreds of millions of dollars in lost business and led hapless company employees to be arrested by offended governments.
The problem has damaged the company's reputation and the "trust rating," which is seen as key to keeping the company competitive, has dropped, a senior Microsoft executive revealed on Wednesday at the International Geographers Conference in Glasgow.
In a frank assessment of the company's problems in trying to be a global player without offending local sensibilities, Tom Edwards, its senior geopolitical strategist, said employees' lack of basic geography was to blame.
The company has now launched geography classes for its staff to avoid further bloomers which have caused embarrassment and cost money on a grand scale. He said that as a geographer himself it was depressing that Americans had a reputation for being particularly unaware of the rest of the world.
The annual National Geographic Survey had thrown up the sad fact that only 23 out of 56 young Americans knew the whereabouts of the Pacific Ocean.
"It is therefore no surprise that some of our employees, however bright they may be, have only a hazy idea about the rest of the world," he said. "The repercussions on us can be very serious."
As an American company with a global reach, Microsoft had to try to foster trust for the reliability of its software and not cause offence.
He said in all cases the mistakes made were simply through ignorance but this was not how they were seen in the countries concerned. They were all seen as deliberate policy and so the offence taken was far greater as a result.
Perhaps the best known, and one of the most expensive, errors was a color-coded world map showing time zones, which showed the disputed Jammu-Kashmir region as not being in India -- an offence under Indian law. The mistake led to the whole of the Windows 95 operating system being banned in the country, losing large sales.
For Microsoft Office 97, the firm removed the color coding and sold 100,000 copies in India.
Edwards said the decisions on what to do about disputes arising over Microsoft products was taken entirely on commercial grounds.
For example when employees were arrested in Turkey because Kurdistan had been shown as a separate entity on maps of the country, a decision was taken to remove Kurdistan from all maps.
"Of course we offended Kurds by doing this but we had offended the Turks more and they were a much more important market for our products. It was a hard commercial decision, not political," Edwards said.
One mistake that caused catastrophic offence was a game called Kakuto Chojin, a hand-to-hand fighting game. The fighting went on with rhythmic chanting in the background which in reviewing the game Edwards noticed appeared to be Arabic.
"I checked with an Arabic speaker in the company who was also a Muslim about what the chant meant and it was from the Koran. He went ballistic. It was an incredible insult to Islam," Edwards said.
He asked for the game to be withdrawn but it was issued against his advice in the US in the belief that it would not be noticed.
Three months later, the Saudi Arabian government made a formal protest. Microsoft withdrew the game worldwide.
His investigations showed the Japanese, who had developed the game for Microsoft, had added the chant to the tape because they liked the sound of it without checking its origins.
"They were chastised and corrected," he said.
Edwards said it was better to be honest and open about these mistakes. It was all part of rebuilding that vital trust in the product.
funny stuff |
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| xKaoSx |
| Nice- go ahead- release it in the US- The idiots here wont notice. :rolleyes: |
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| JM |
| quote: | Originally posted by xKaoSx
Nice- go ahead- release it in the US- The idiots here wont notice. :rolleyes: |
correct. you wouldnt notice.
>JM< |
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| FuzzyGreen |
| Why should I care if some fighting game has Arabic chanting from the Koran in the background? |
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| torontotrance |
| Microsoft and idiotic business decisions....nothing new :haha:. Gates lives to work from letting others make things then stealing that idea and crushing the company with evil tactics. (i.e netscape) |
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| discojoe |
| iv read some of their tactics in China (fighting the titanic piracy industry).. their strategy there is brilliant. But Microsoft isnt the only company guilty of cultural mishaps. The most classic example was general motors when they tried to market their 'nova' car in Mexico, anyone who speaks spanish would understand why the car didnt sell very well. |
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| torontotrance |
| But companies need to know their culture and the country before they try to do things because losing millions or billions hurts the company and tends to piss off the shareholders. |
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| LiquidX |
| It is common sense, as well part of the Marketing and research a company makes in a country before selling their products on each particular country. |
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| smokeape |
If India didn't like Microsoft's version of the map, I guess that would mean they would pirate someone else's software instead? Haven't seen many MicroIndia or MicroChina operating systems these days...
;)
[[[smoke]]] |
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| Lira |
| quote: | Originally posted by discojoe
iv read some of their tactics in China (fighting the titanic piracy industry).. their strategy there is brilliant. But Microsoft isnt the only company guilty of cultural mishaps. The most classic example was general motors when they tried to market their 'nova' car in Mexico, anyone who speaks spanish would understand why the car didnt sell very well. |
KIA Motors sells a car here whose name means something like "Stupid Ass" in Portuguese (Besta), and it sold quite well :D |
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| rallyengr |
| quote: | Originally posted by discojoe
iv read some of their tactics in China (fighting the titanic piracy industry).. their strategy there is brilliant. But Microsoft isnt the only company guilty of cultural mishaps. The most classic example was general motors when they tried to market their 'nova' car in Mexico, anyone who speaks spanish would understand why the car didnt sell very well. |
That's a myth. The car actually sold quite well in Spanish speaking countries. Also, no va and nova are pronounced differently. No va wouldn't even be used to describe a car that didn't run, it would be said as "no funciona" of "no marcha."
http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp
Anyone who has lived in a city close to border with a large hispanic community knows just how popular Nova's are with them. |
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| King_Mack |
| quote: | Originally posted by FuzzyGreen
Why should I care if some fighting game has Arabic chanting from the Koran in the background? |
because it has a negative image on the specific chanting. It sorta insinuates that by chanting it, it encourages violence. Especially since the Qu'ran already has such a bad image of violence(that people make up, rather than read about it).
I personally dont find it offensive, but after seeing how many people can tie "Jihad" with the Qu'ran...I really dont blame them |
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