Last year, a well known business network offered to buy Ecademy (note: I am a shareholder of Ecademy). It was a reasonable offer but the manner of the acquisition just didn't sit right with Ecademy's founder, Penny Power. The offer had caveats, the key one being that Ecademy URLs point to the acquirer's home page until such time all its members are 'integrated' (transferred, sucked in, hoovered up) after which Ecademy is switched off.
Penny Power refused to sanction the wholesale destruction of a community she's nurtured for 11 years. This kind of schizoid thinking is not a good sign for the members of the interested party, which number millions nor indeed for the future of its business. Let me explain what happens when you 'just buy lists'.
A few years ago eBay bought Skype for $2.8 billion. There was I thinking eBay would integrate Skype to add another dimension (level of trust) to the buying experience or maybe even enable people to sell services as well as products. No. It turns out eBay just thought 5% of their equity was worth 100 million email addresses to promote their service to. Three years later eBay had to write down a loss of almost $2b (two thirds). This has all the hallmarks of MBA Authoritarian mentality - rape, pillage plunder, the consequences of which untold millions around the world are suffering from.
Here's a little message for you guys (and you know who you are);
"What counts is not only what leaders do and how they do it, but the inner place from which they operate" C O Scharmer
.....or even better "look and learn" from Penny Power's example of how to lead.
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