Quatily Is Important

I just saw an interesting gaffe from the Romney campaign. I try to stay apolitical in my views, but there are some great learning points here.

Basically, in this age of new technology, candidates are trying out many new ways of reaching voters. In this case, the Romney campaign used an iPhone app that overlays a slogan on a picture. Only one of the slogans had “America” spelled as “Amercia”.

So, there is a big push to use the typo as fodder against the candidate. The truth is, though, that Governor Romney likely signed off on the idea, but probably never actually saw the work done by the developer who posted the app. It is a stretch to make the case that Romney does not know how to spell America.

Just a few points.

1. Toyota likes to focus on proven technology. I don’t completely agree with that. Sometimes, being a leader, especially in the modern world, takes innovation. I do, however, recommend testing that matches the risk. The less proven a technology is, the more scrutiny it should go through.
2. Every employee is a representative of your company. That developer certainly has made an impact on Romney’s image. Choose and train your team wisely. No customer contact is insignificant in this age of Twitter.

Oh, and by the way, I do know how to spell “quality”…