Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Rick Snyder lacks Nerdship

Rick Snyder seems to be the first candidate in the run for Michigan Governor to step to the plate with an avalanche of TV ads. His main commercial (including a spot during the Super Bowl) touts Rick as being a tough nerd, something Michigan needs. He goes on to list why he's a nerd, but fails to explain.

Based on his commercial, why to Rick Snyder, Nerd is merely a buzz word...
  • Read Fortune magazine when he was a kid. Nerds read Popular Science.
  • Touts being president of Gateway computers, however he was just an interim (just over a year). Wayne R. Inouye is given credit for the Gateway Computers early success, while Snyder was merely a bookmark. These days, Gateway is known for outsourcing everything off-shore and making crappy computers.
  • Nerds don't go after MBA & Law degrees, they go after Engineering
  • Lacks a Video Game Blog, unlike myself (though I prefer Geek).
Rick Snyder is big business, NOT a nerd.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did Rick Snyder have anything to do with outsourcing everything offshore?
(when he was head of Gateway)
Thanks.

Jeff said...

As president he did not. Since he was only an interim, he basically was one of the board members picked to keep the chair warm until Gateway they picked its new president.

Rick did return to being a Gateway Board member (Chairman 2005-2007) to oversee the acquisition of Gateway to Acer in 2007. Acer Computers is based out Taiwan. Meaning, Gateway is a subsidiary of Taiwan.

Anonymous said...

Hey, Anonymous -
Since you're obviously attempting to "poke holes" into Jeff's argument, let me enlighten you to the world of business: Whether you are an interim President, the official CEO of a company, or its Chairman of the Board Directors, s/he is completely and solely responsible for the direction of the company. Hence, Jeff is totally correct in inferring that Synder was responsible for Gateway’s decision to offshore-outsource its components. Perhaps you should go to college and learn about business before you make ignorant comments. ~CT/NY (aka, The Professor)

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Jeff.