R-E-S-P-E-C-T: You Can't Help Loving Tech Companies, They're Designed That Way

Most Admired. That is the title Fortune magazine has assigned to its widely followed annual poll of corporate reputation. Tech companies captured the top three spots (Apple, Google, Amazon). And in another poll, tech companies captured three of the top five.

To what do we owe this outpouring of love and respect? The article that follows maintains that tech's eco-system-orientation creates a built-in level of support. Inclusive, interactive and innovative, tech companies are deeply intertwined with their suppliers, customers - and each other. In addition, the Silicon Valley foundation myth credits them with being misfits, rebels and iconoclasts who struck it rich, a proverbial 'Revenge of the Nerds' that has quite literally changed the world. All of which binds them together - along with all those who feel disrespected, disenfranchised and unappreciated, arguably a majority of the human race.

While we agree that the networked life contributes to this reputational dominance, it is wee bit more complicated than that.

Humans love devices. Whatever the purpose and provenance, we cannot resist playing, poking and probing. Apple comes out with an elegantly designed, insanely functional new phone and a plurality of users want to 'jailbreak' so they can mess it up themselves.

The last product that engendered such widespread fascination and affection was the automobile. And the similarities are compelling: both changed the way we live, were based on the application of engineering and technology to human needs and desires, applied design and marketing to whet global appetites - and both promised that fundamental human desire, freedom of movement. Inherent in the features of both was an implicit offer of revolution against the controlling influences of hierarchical existence. Whether real or illusory, the perception rang true. Which is why governments are so wary of them.

In tech, that revolutionary impulse was seconded by the lifestyle: foosball in the office, beer on Fridays, work when you want. Dress code? The less formal the better. And to top it all off, fortunes have been made.

So, tech embodies the soaring dream of the human spirit. We root for them like for no other industry on earth, and possibly in history. That's a pretty sizable advantage - and one they do not appear in danger of squandering anytime soon. JL

Marcus Wohlsen reports in Wired:

Tech scored a trifecta this week, polishing its reputation as the world’s best-loved industry by taking the top three spots on Fortune’s annual list of most admired companies.
Apple retained its first-place title for another year, followed by Google and Amazon. The results come just a few weeks after the same three companies made the top five in another major poll ranking corporate reputations. In that survey, taken by Harris Interactive, Amazon placed first, Apple second and Google fourth. (Fortune polled executives, analysts and other corporate types, while the Harris surveyed the general public.)
That same poll found that the respect Americans accord the tech industry far outstrips the good feeling they have toward any other sector of the economy. On Fortune’s list, tech rules the top ten, with IBM also placing sixth. The only other industry that comes close is caffeinated beverages: Coca-Cola was fourth, and Starbucks was fifth. Considering very little happens on computers without a cup of coffee or a Diet Coke within arm’s reach, I’d argue those two companies could count as honorary members of the tech industry. Consider them support staff.
All of which raises the question: why? What is it about tech that allows these corporate giants to enjoy so much love?
In a sense, it’s because they’re simply better designed to be loved, says Rob Jekielek, director of corporate reputation at the Reputation Institute. Jekielek says that the very nature of how tech products are developed, especially software, fosters a corporate culture that lends itself to likability.
Tech companies tend to have an approach centered on the “ecosystem,” Jekielek says. That’s opposed to what he calls the “push funnel,” the old-fashioned approach in which a company makes a product, makes potential customers aware of the product and hopes they’ll come buy the product.
While the “push funnel” is linear, the “ecosystem” model as described by Jekielek is circular, or at least doesn’t move in just one direction. Products evolve alongside customer use and feedback. There’s an engaged responsiveness, a sense of exchange, an intimacy of interaction between consumer and company that other industries don’t offer.
Take, for example, the Apple Maps fiasco. Apple put out something crappy. People complained. Apple apologized for the crappy thing, then suggested competing alternatives. Ultimately, Apple greenlit Google’s new, even better maps app – the competition it had clearly set out to squelch in the first place. Maps cost Apple some love, and arguably some of its share price. But imagine that kind of complaint-and-response interaction with a car company or a bank.
Fortune cited the maps debacle as a crisis in the face of which Apple’s reputation has remained resilient. Jekielek says tech companies have more of that kind of resilience built in by virtue of their internal processes of iteration and feedback through which most of their products get developed in the first place. He points to Coke as one company that’s done well at re-orienting itself to cultivate an “ecosystem,” an effort that has made Coke the second-most–liked brand on Facebook behind Facebook itself. But he says it’s harder for non-tech companies to adapt because the approach has to be nurtured.
For tech companies, on the other hand, it’s in their very nature to seek feedback early and often.
“If it’s in your DNA, you’re going to bring people in because you know you need their feedback,” Jekielek says.”To a large degree it’s just the nature of the work that they’re doing.”