Using competitor products in the office

Basher · 2 Apr 2013 at 13:45

TheVoice said:
I imagine the encouragement is there in the form of free/discounted stuff, but that 'encouragement' shouldn't turn to policy unless it's a customer-facing role e.g. sales like you say.

Agreed. I just believe that most roles can be customer facing - particularly if you're bringing customers in to your offices ...

DiCe! · 2 Apr 2013 at 13:45

Macro said:
It would be more like going to Google and seeing how many people have BING as their default search engine

Surely NO ONE has BING as their default.... :cool:

estebanrey · 2 Apr 2013 at 13:46

Basher said:
The cleaner probably won't have a phone contract.

I think nearly everyone has a mobile phone nowadays. :confused:

Basher · 2 Apr 2013 at 13:49

estebanrey said:
I think nearly everyone has a mobile phone nowadays.

I meant they wouldn't have a subsidised one. The cleaner is unlikely to meet customers so I'd suggest that isn't as much of an issue.

Mr Jones · 2 Apr 2013 at 13:50

I work for Haribo and we all eat Haribos here. Doesn't mean we're restricted to just our own brand, I actually encourage everyone to try others and feedback, so we can compare and keep competitive.

Same is the case with using company's own brand vs competitor's electronic. Forcing everyone to conform for the sake of marketing image don't trump flexibility and competitiveness. I probably think like so as I work in R&D rather than Marketing.

estebanrey · 2 Apr 2013 at 13:55

Basher said:
I meant they wouldn't have a subsidised one. The cleaner is unlikely to meet customers so I'd suggest that isn't as much of an issue.

But this isn't about what the company subsidize, of course Nokia would only give it's staff Nokia phones, this extends to their personal buying choices and what they can personally own.

Westyfield2 · 2 Apr 2013 at 13:57

We make Lucozade, and can buy it cheap. One of my colleagues posted a photo to the work social network the other day with a can of Red Bull on their desk the other day :confused:

.
Personally, I much prefer our stuff and the fact that it's cheap is double win.

panyan · 2 Apr 2013 at 14:00

I understand a number of CEO's use competitor products because it can help diversify their ideas

MisChief · 2 Apr 2013 at 14:01

EliotG said:
What's wrong with Farnborough?

Nothing, I'm from Farnborough. Too many people on here who are from Farnborough

Westyfield2 said:
We make Lucozade, and can buy it cheap. One of my colleagues posted a photo to the work social network the other day with a can of Red Bull the other day.
Personally, I much prefer our stuff and the fact that it's cheap is double win.

YOU'RE MY COMPETITOR! :mad:

Well.... Kinda.....

Cherry lucozade is rank.

ikillbears · 2 Apr 2013 at 14:03

my old work place if you were wearing trainers and such it was preferable if you wore nike ( as we had 50% discount ) only really when the clients were in the building thought. We all had nokia phones as company phones but pretty much every one had an iphone as well ( Nokia were clients, but the phones were god awful )

aln · 2 Apr 2013 at 14:09

Mr_White said:
Just as much as Android can be compared to iOS.

Not so much. I'd buy a chromebook tomorrow if I could easily install a host of applications which do stuff.

The real question is do Nokia make good phones with a good OS? I assume she has an iPhone because "it's cool" but if she can articulate ways in which it actually serves her better, then it's probably better to have such people around to let you know where you're going wrong.

Basher · 2 Apr 2013 at 14:10

estebanrey said:
But this isn't about what the company subsidize, of course Nokia would only give it's staff Nokia phones, this extends to their personal buying choices and what they can personally own.

Yes. And I'm saying customer facing roles should be using the companies own products.

doiks14 · 2 Apr 2013 at 14:11

I think its good that employees are made aware of their competitors products

PMKeates · 2 Apr 2013 at 14:14

Firstly, people should be free to use the phone that they choose. Secondly, Nokia should use this opportunity to find out why she chose it, what she likes/dislikes as she begins to use it more, and use that information to their advantage.

Diagro · 2 Apr 2013 at 14:21

If I was working for Nokia and they actually had a phone that could rival the top Samsung phones then yea OK I wouldn't mind. But they suck so w/e

Robbo · 2 Apr 2013 at 14:23

Diagro said:
If I was working for Nokia and they actually had a phone that could rival the top Samsung phones then yea OK I wouldn't mind. But they suck so w/e

The Lumia 920 does rival the Galaxy S3... :confused:

Malt_Vinegar · 2 Apr 2013 at 14:24

We can use whatever we want at work for personal use, but get issued with the same brand as work phones. I happen to use the same manufacturer's phone for personal use anyway, but plenty of others in all other areas of the business use other manufacturers goods.

Spangles · 2 Apr 2013 at 14:25

If I was provided with an up to date mobile that coukd perform a high percentage of what my current handset can do for free, then yes!

Just makes sense. Esoecially if you have to pay nothing for useage.

sbi5ar · 2 Apr 2013 at 14:29

panyan said:
I understand a number of CEO's use competitor products because it can help diversify their ideas

I'm not so sure about this...

I could never imagine the Apple/Microsoft CEO with a competitors product. The damage it could do to a company would be irreversible in todays age (with instant news and the the internet not forgetting anything). However, chief engineers and software developers will have every every thing at their disposal to diversify their ideas. Some one was "iconic" as a CEO wouldn't though (I don't think anyway... happy to be proven wrong though)

Edit: To answer the OP. They can't force you to use their own product (unless it is for work purposes in which case they can only enforce it in side the workplace and you are then free to do as you wish outside).

fez · 2 Apr 2013 at 14:34

There have been a couple of stories about Bill Gates over the years. Apparently a few years ago all his kids really wanted ipads or ipods and he wouldn't get them any, they got zunes instead.