Diebold: You've Got to Accentuate The Negative

from the shoulda-throught-that-one-through dept

Judging by all the bad press and controversy surrounding Diebold's election services, you might think they'd want to play up that the company primarily makes ATM machines. In fact it seems just the opposite. The company recently promoted Thomas W. Swidarski former head of the elections division to be their new CEO, after the former's abrupt resignation. So why of all people would they promote him? Not only was he at the head of their most controversial division, but he's also considered to be inexperienced. The most optimistic answer is that he is very familiar with the problem they're having (little things, like breaking election law), but since the problems arose under him, why do they think he's the best one to solve them? This looks like a rushed decision, and one that will further tarnish the company's reputation.
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  • identicon
    Thomas, 3 Mar 2006 @ 10:42am

    Reputation?

    I think the management of Diebold has made it pretty clear that they don't give a rat's ass about their repuataion. As long as they remain connected with the ruling party and are in a position to keep them in power, why bother with somthing as trivial as your companies reputation?
    Even their ATM division doesn't deal directly with consumers, who would drive most loss of business due to a bad reputation.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      scavenger1, 11 Mar 2006 @ 7:41pm

      Re: Reputation?

      Diebold is a pretty sloppy, crooked company. They treat their employees like they own them, their management is only interested in passing the buck down to their techs because they do not want any responsibility and they LIE like Persian rugs. As a former employee, I can tell you they are the last people you would want handling any type of security. I left the company in '04 for a better job and have not looked back!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Dave, 3 Mar 2006 @ 10:45am

    Situation: Normal

    It's a company that's distinguished itself by its incompetence, stupidity, dishonesty, and unethical activities, so no, this isn't even slightly surprising. I hope they go down in flames, but I suppose that they've payed off enough politicians to keep going.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 3 Mar 2006 @ 11:55am

    No Subject Given

    Blah, blah, blah, whine, whine, whine

    "this looks like a rushed decision..."

    Look admit it, you know nothing about the guy, his qualifications and expertise. Have his performance appraisals suddendly been 'leaked'? Well then shutty

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Me, 4 Mar 2006 @ 8:40am

      Re: No Subject Given

      Obviously a Republican moron.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Sarojin, 4 Mar 2006 @ 8:54am

      Re: No Subject Given

      But you DO have all the facts and are therefore qualified to discredit anyone being critical?

      Do you have a relevant opinion or perspective on this which would make the discussion more interesting, or are you just whining about other people expressing ones that differ from yours?

      You seem to entirely miss the point of this site.

      As if a leaked appraisal would make it OK to be critical? How many links do you want about how faulty, unreliable, and unsecure these machines are? If he was in charge of that division, simple reason leads one to conclude that he's either corrupt and made sure they were hackable, or he's incompetent and couldn't make them work.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Fitzwaller, 5 Mar 2006 @ 12:24am

        the modern business model

        Business being what its been the last several years, I think the consumer has every justification to be critical when some corporate entity's behavior doesn't quite add up. If more people had gone to the trouble sooner, all those people working for the companies Enron took over wouldn't have lost their retirement programs, We'd see alot less consumer fraud as a result of lax or nonexistant oversight over consumer data, and I'm pretty sure the unemployment figures might be a tad lower as a result of fewer stupid corporate screwups. Now fricking let us criticize in peace!

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Don Gray, 3 Mar 2006 @ 12:50pm

    Maybe

    Because he knows where ALL the skeletons are?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    emichan, 3 Mar 2006 @ 1:40pm

    No Subject Given

    Oh no.. is promoting incompetency becoming a trend in this country?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    eskayp, 3 Mar 2006 @ 1:54pm

    A portent of Diebold's future

    Next step:
    Reconfigure name to "Die Bold!".
    Memo to voters:
    Up yours; WE count the votes, and it's none of your business, so buzz off.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Andrew, 3 Mar 2006 @ 7:46pm

    No Subject Given

    Maybe he's a fall guy. But not like Lee Majors.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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