What does a CD in the mail have to do with performance excellence? A lot. The CD I just received in the mail offering me a month of AOL dial-up for free shows a total lack of any understanding of the value of data. What a waste. Without getting too specific, let’s just say that if there are two dial-up accounts remaining in my entire zip code, I’d be shocked. Maybe there’s a little old lady somewhere that’s simply never made the switch, like the folks that were still paying AT&T in 1990 to lease a telephone. But what a sign of desperation!! AOL must really be on its last legs to think the investment in mailing out discs can pay off today.
I suppose it’s possible that someone thinks that given the state of the economy, people are ready to downsize from broadband to dial-up. Ridiculous! First of all, anyone that has ever had a broadband connection is either going to cancel it because they can’t afford it, or stick it out. But downgrade to dial-up? Come on. And many of the people that are out of work need their broadband connection more than ever—it’s what they’re using to search for a job.
I am so sure that the data would say that this is a bad investment, it’s proof positive to me that AOL, and many other companies, still aren’t seeing the value in data analysis beyond the quality geek. And they couldn’t be more wrong. It’s too bad AOL isn’t trading independently anymore because boy would there be a stock worth shorting with THIS kind of data about how the business is being run.
Time Warner—ditch it fast!
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