Why Symantec needs a unified voice

Once an organization gets to a certain size, it becomes exceptionally important that organizations have a central message and that the central message is unified and focused. Otherwise, statements made by one area can diluate statements made by another area; it’s actually worse than not publishing the messages at all if they contradict – “net zero” (no effect) would be if contradictory messages just cancelled each other out – but that’s not what happens. Instead, disparate messages either leave readers scratching their heads wondering “WTF” (best case) or they can have other side effects like making the firm look hypocritical or self-serving. Here’s what I mean.

The other day, SYMC VP David Sykes went on record indicating that it’s “pointless to speculate about software that isn’t released yet” in reference to the debate about Vista’s new security features and potential threats to those features by EU regulators. Now, while I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Sykes that it’s not usually productive to speculate about software that’s not released yet, this message dilutes the efficacy of work being done in other areas of the firm. Specifically, Symantec has recently published concentrated research dealing with the security and performance of Windows Vista; they published a report entitled Windows Vista: Network Attack Surface Analysis as well as made statements to the press indicating that Vista is likely to be less stable/secure than XP. They’ve also gone on record by highlighting potential attacks against the yet-to-be-released product.

So, while Symantec’s pointed criticism to the press saying it’s unwise to speculate about the security of unreleased products would be valid on its own, it appears disingenuous at best (or hypocritical at worst) when viewed in light of public comments made by other areas of the firm. Worse yet, it obviates the investment made by Symantec in authoring and publishing their Vista research.

Totally unrelated to that, I found the little WTF guy in the picture on the internet a few months ago and thought it was absolutely hilarious; however, I can’t find out who drew it to give it attribution.