I’m already tired of hearing how PowerPoint is at fault in GM’s failure to act on defects in its cars.
This is a slide.
Conclusion: Don’t blame the tools. It’s not PowerPoint’s fault.
(Thanks for the inspiration, Ellen Finkelstein! “If you prefer stupidity, lies and coverups, I can’t help you at all.”) Here is a link to Ellen’s post.
WOW! A picture is worth a thousand words…
Poor communication, sloppy management, lack of caring…Perhaps these and more were responsible for GM’s failures. It sure wasn’t PowerPoint!
That PowerPoint is the blame is just plain stupid. I can’t even take the article seriously. It’s Poppycock! Corporations will always be out for profits and stockholders FIRST until we make it so painful that they will fix the error of their multiple transgressions.
Thank you, Echo. And Ellen. Instead of Death by PowerPoint, it should be death to extremely bad usage of PowerPoint and bad communication skills.
Using PowerPoint does not mean bad communication. Using PowerPoint badly can lead to bad communication. But, ultimately, it’s the communicator themselves that didn’t communicate!
Another example of how our “leaders” refuse to accept responsibility and choose to find someone or something (i.e. Powerpoint) to blame.
It is called failure of the communicator and/or communication in general! Not PowerPoint! People need to learn how to communicate…it means to share all the facts and information that was needed. That was the true failure at GM.
I would like to think that anyone reading that stupid article could read between the lines here… if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck… it’s probably a duck. They are liars… simple as that. Shame on WSJ for even posting that ridiculous article.
I certainly agree with the three previous comments, they must be kidding at GM!!!
Again people will blame the tool and not hold an actual person responsible for their negligence. This is the way of the world. How many times have you heard politicians of all ilk say, “I was not aware or I didn’t know” followed by whatever they are ingnorant of, when in reality it was obvious they did know by looking at the body language. CYA is the way of the future until we as individuals hold people notcorporations accountable. GM made a concious deciosion to pass the buck. Remember during this time GM also owned by the goverment. You figure it out.
This isn’t the first case, PowerPoint also got the blame for the crash of the Columbia shuttle.
“Neither the plain text of this bullet point nor its implications are crystal clear,” – I don’t see why is this PowerPoint’s fault.