Microsoft, Amazon, Shocks World With Alexa, Cortana. Houston Next?

Companies with arguably the most sophisticated logistics in the world, the top supply chain to feed demand for their life changing products, Amazon and Microsoft have joined each other at the only possible place: your brain. They should connect over Hurricane Harvey and Houston next.

 

But first, these business behemoths agreed to let Alexa and Cortana be good neighbors. I can hear Mr. Rogers now saying, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

 

 

In a world of hurt, this is a start to something bigger, like Hurricane Harvey and Houston, where Microsoft and Amazon will show the world how tech companies really help.

 

Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos up in Seattle are doing what Nike and Adidas can’t, or won’t, do, what Ford and Chevrolet, Mercedes and Lexus, Fiat and Toyota, won’t do. They’ve pledged to cooperate, to play nice, to integrate Alexa and Cortana into a good couple to talk to. Talk to Houston, too.

 

The tech giants, #1 and #3 on Forbes billionaire list of world’s richest people, are separated by Warren Buffet at #2. Added together their combined net worth is over $233 billion dollars, or $233,000,000,000, give or take the left over change that would make anyone lottery winner rich.

 

 

A New Microsoft and Amazon Worthiness

 

Today, August 30, 2017, their value isn’t measured in dollars and cents, but what sort of people they are. That they would even consider allowing two different voice assistants to co-exist seems like a big step in a hyper-competitive world. It’s a good sign for the little people, the rest of us.

 

Maybe we should have seen it coming with this quote from Mr. Bezos: “There are two kinds of companies, those that work to try to charge more and those that work to charge less. We will be the second.”

 

Add this from Mr. Gates and connect the dots: “If I’d had some set idea of a finish line, don’t you think I would have crossed it years ago?”

 

 

 

Here’s the picture I see, at least on the drawing board, and it’s one of a different commitment. Like the Nike ad from a few years back, “There Is No Finish Line,” The Gates-Buffett-Bezos group are the most formidable economic force in the world. These guys aren’t prospectors looking to strike it rich so they can sit back on their island and watch the world burn, or drown, or whatever rich guys do on their island compounds.

 

Instead, GBB grind every day.

 

They’re interested in life, the life they share with the rest of us. It may not be a life experience we can relate to, but through their good works, we all benefit. When they win, we win, the classic Win/Win, a tie no one mistakes for kissing their sister.

 

With infrastructure in place at gatesfoundation.org, Mr. Buffett is on board.

 

“Along with Bill and Melinda Gates, Warren Buffett is a foundation trustee, helping to shape our vision and develop strategies to address some of the world’s most challenging inequities.”

 

Is there anyplace outside of Houston, Texas that’s facing a more challenging inequity at the moment? An Alabama friend said the human suffering in Houston will dwarf what happened in New Orleans with Katrina in 2005.

 

This could be the perfect moment for knights in shining armor like The Billionaire Brigade to join the Cajun Navy heading to Texas. The little guys are on it, leading the charge. Let’s see the sort of cooperation, communication, and collaboration the big guys come up with.

 

 

An expected response is, “It’s too complicated to reach the needs of others in an open ended emergency.” Which is why I’m calling on the Billionaire Brigade. The people at Microsoft and Amazon have re-wired the entire globe in real time with next day delivery ordered over networks created by wizards. Not an un-sung bunch, or bashful group unaccustomed to stepping up with resources and insight.

In addition, if word of mouth is the best advertising, if reputation is the gold standard, think of the opportunity before Microsoft and Amazon. They can show the new guys like Mark Zuckerberg and facebook what activism looks like. Elon Musk is watching. Do if for the kids.

 

Let’s see them paint an American Masterpiece on a water soaked Houston canvas.