🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <185_9507290925@syncnet.dmrt.nl> datawave.acorn@syncnet.dmrt.nl (Simon Elzinga) writes:
>
>Hi Simon,
>
>SL> I wonder what Acorn will do if he refuses to become an Agent?
>
>*Nothing* - Only he returns to be Acorn Dealer or he shuts up his store.
>At the end of the year, i *DO* not hope this actually, there will be less 
>than 50 or 30 Acorn Dealers left in whole of the UK and it is going deeper
>and deeper with Acorn, till there is *NO* school left and they all went to
>the *SHIT* PC Hardware and Software.

The whole thing stinks of shortsighted accountancy costcutting.  Something
along the lines of :

"We're making a loss on our Acorn personal computing sales.
Hmm, since we seem to sell most of them to education, let's try and cut
costs by getting rid of the middle man.

Oh dear, that means we'll lose virtually all of our dealers ?
Never mind, according to the balance sheets we make very little money by
selling through them - best get rid of 'em.

What, you say that will reduce our high street presence to zero and
remove any chance of selling the machines outside the education sector ?
Well, there's still the enthusiasts club - we can rely on the Clanoracks
to get us a few sales in the home computing market, and we've got a
great idea for increasing Acorn's penetration into the business market.

Advertising ?  Not quite .....

We think the business market is after Mac compatibility and we can give
them that by producting a badge engineered Mac on the same production
line as the Olivetti one.  This will turn profits around overnight !

What's that you say, Sam ?  You didn't spend ten years turning Acorn
back into a viable company with leading edge R&D, innovative products
and subsiduary companies at the forefront of microprocessor design and
online multimedia technology just to see it turn into yet another
clone maker milking the education market, disenfranchising it's
dealers and pissing off loyal customers of many years standing.

Well we're sorry you feel that way Sam, but after all, business
is business and we gotta do what the accountants at head office say.

You resign ?

I guess that's for the good of the company.  After all, the new look
Acorn is going to need a new look MD who's not going to hold any
lofty ideas about such trivia as R&D or operating system development.
It's going to need someone with a firm hand and an eye for the bottom
line - one of the boys, in fact."

Well, I don't know how close this purely hypothetical conversation is
to fact, but let's just say I've got a bad feeling about all of this.
Something decidedly Commodoreish seems to be going on - if you catch
my drift.  I still think the technology is great, but the corporate
shenanigans are starting to stink - the whole Amiga story all over
again ?  Discuss.

Chris.

P.S. note crosspostings and follow ups.  I thought this might be more
at home on the .advocacy groups.

--
"Bill, look, we understand that you're interested in selling
 us this operating system, but compare it with ours.  We can't
 possibly take such a retrograde step."