Infrastructure & Microsoft Stupidity

Here's a hilarious story from Email Marketing Voodoo. (I've got a good point at the bottom, so read through it.)

Monday, May 14, 2007 - Oh, the Irony

start rant//

If you own an Xbox 360, you’re most likely a subscriber to their Xbox Live online feature. Well, I do own an Xbox 360 and guess what… I play games online. Yeah yeah yeah… point and laugh all you want.

When signing up for Xbox Live, you’re also offered to sign up for their email list, which I opted in to without hesitation.

So I have been receiving messages here and there for the past six months from Xbox. Their emails are designed modestly; its content is concise and personalized with my gamer tag. Last week, they sent out two emails. One focusing on systems updates, the other focusing what I’ve been missing since I played last. I skimmed over both relatively quick, but one thing was glaring at me. Both emails had the same header:

Please add Xbox@email.xbox.com to your address book to ensure delivery.
Read this issue online if you can't see the images or are using Outlook 2007.

Does anyone see the irony here?

Xbox 360 -- a product developed and manufactured by Microsoft -- sends out emails to their users and they say in plain English, “Hey nerds, this simply won’t work using our new email software, because well… that would just make too much sense”.

You would think that those responsible for Xbox 360's emails would at least design them so they'd show up for those using Outlook 2007.

//end rant.

JEFF'S TAKE: Lately I find myself saying "Infrastructure" a lot. Is our Infrastructure capable of handling what we are asking it to do? In the case of Microsoft, can an e-mail sent to Microsoft Gaming fans be read on a Microsoft E-mail application. Evidently the answer is no. (Truly, how stupid is that).

Let's look at the larger picture. It makes perfect sense to send an e-mail to gamers. But shouldn't someone have checked with the Outlook guys to see if it would work, or better yet when they saw it didn't work, ask the Outlook guys what needed to change in the e-mail get it to work?

Infrastructure will only get you as far as you will let it go.
Is it strong enough to stand on its own?
If you pull one of its legs out from under it, will it still function?
As time goes, and as growth continues, does it get stronger or weaker?

And that's the problem with Microsoft. As the Infrastructure grew, communication stopped. I'll wager the XBOX guys have no idea who the Outlook guys are. There's probably in completely separate departments (if not separate cities/states), and it's easier to ignore the problem than to get it working right. That is infrastructure failure.

In my own businesses I'm constantly trying to evaluate our infrastructure.
Is there communication between top and bottom?
Is the manager reading/understanding the situation properly?
Are the employees respecting the managers?

If there is no communcation from top to bottom, then what chance is there to truly succeed? One of my favorite quotes right now is from Marketing Guru Seth Godin:

"99% of the time, in my experience, the hard part about creativity isn't coming up with something no one has ever thought of before. The hard part is actually executing the thing you've thought of."

To function properly, top and bottom need to be in communication. The Boss, The Manager, The Frontliners/Pawns/Minions. If the top doesn't understand where the bottom is, frustrations will arise at the bottom. If the bottom doesn't understand that the top is driving towards a new vision, the Boss becomes frustrated that the vision isn't being executed. If the managers miscommunicate the vision/direction, everyone is screwed.

The wider the infrastructure, the more difficult communication becomes. The harder it becomes, the more vital a role it plays.