Media bristles at arrogant treatment from Jobs and PR team
Steve Jobs and the Apple PR team have been upsetting a lot of media attending MacWorld. I did not go to the show but I’m told that virtually no media access to Apple execs was made available.
Steve Jobs was reported by one person to have acted in a very rude manner towards the press. And Apple’s PR team is providing almost no staff to administer events. In one instance, Apple invited a large group of visiting journalists to a pre-MacWorld dinner and only one company representative was availale to deal with dozens of journalists. All requests to visit the Apple HQ in Cupertino were denied.
See, I told you before, that "Silicon Valley is Back, Baby." The first sign of the business cycle upturn is a marked increase in arrogant behavior by Steve Jobs.
I’ve been covering the valley scene for 20 years and I haven’t caught the dark side of Steve Jobs, but there are plenty of entertaining stories out there.
He seems to shares a trait with Bill Gates in that both cannot be controlled in anyway by their staffs; they have zero patience for people they size up for fools; they will walk out of interviews without any warning, and they can merciless in verbal attacks on others if they feel they are being criticized or not understood. It’s the 1600-pound gorilla syndrome, what are you going to do about it?
Even if he act's badly, you've got to give him his dues, however greudgingly he pulled off three big success stories: Apple twice and Pixar, and four if you count Next, which was bought by Apple in order to get jobs back into the CEO job. He took a buck a year salary and reinvented Apple into this premium brand ofthe computer sector.
The Digital Mercedes of the Internet age—if you want a Windows Chevy--walk around the corner and into the dreary warehouse store.
Or, walk into the art-museum-store-like-natural-light-filled Apple Store in San Francisco on Market Street, right opposite the Virgin Megastore. How quaintly 80s is the term “Megastore” I hear they still sell CDS in that store.
I sometime wonder which of these rock star CEOs, Branson or Jobs is going to make the bigger splash? (I'm not counting any errant hot air balloon rides.) Both are on a collision course of sorts, and both are master brand managers, know just how far they can push their brands into new markets.
