Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has put a pretty hefty reminder for Facebook employees to keep striving for relevancy right outside the front door. An aging Sun Microsystems sign, on the back side of the Facebook sign, is a well-placed message to them.
This fun factoid was pointed out in a recent Time profile of the social media juggernaut and Zuckerberg in the Dec. 15 issue. Lev Grossman writes:
Because of the limits of space and time, a lot of Silicon Valley companies don’t build new headquarters; they just take over the discarded offices of older firms, like hermit crabs. Facebook’s headquarters used to belong to Sun Microsystems, a onetime power-house of innovation that collapsed and was acquired by Oracle in 2009. When Facebook moved in, Zuckerberg made over the whole place, but he didn’t change the sign out front, he just turned it around and put Facebook on the other side. The old sign remains as a reminder of what happens when you take your eye off the ball.
So it’s the corporate equivalent of having a picture of an unhealthier, more plump you on the fridge to remind you not to eat ice cream at 3 a.m.
The full article is about how Zuckerberg plans to get every person on the planet online (aka take over the world and help sell everyone stuff they don’t need). Time also points out that a “brand-new campus, designed by Frank Gehry, natch, is under construction across the expressway.” No word yet on how he will subtly motivate his employees in those swank new offices.
