Posts Tagged ‘CEO mistakes’

Mark 2010 as the year that Apple, or rather its CEO Steve Jobs, slammed his “cool” status into the dumper.  It’s been rumored for years that Jobs has anger management issues, however his behavior over the past couple of months really lifts the curtain on the great and powerful Jobs.  It started with his “we’re not perfect” press conference in response to the antenna-gate problems with the new iPhones.  And the latest and possibly more damaging outburst was his response to a college student who was doing a project about the iPad and was trying to get some information directly from Apple.  When no one from the PR department responded, she went directly to Jobs.  The most widely reported responses from him were “Our goals do not include helping you get a good grade” and “Please leave us alone!”

In the spirit of full disclosure, earlier this year when my 8 year old Dell desk computer started dying I switched to an iMac, a big 27″ beauty.  My main justification was that I work with video all the time and Apple has terrific easy and time saving applications for downloading, editing, and sharing video.  But I must tell you, secretly I wanted to be part of the whole cool status of owning an Apple anything and being able to legitimately hang out at an Apple store!

Now as I see Steve Jobs publicly displaying his arrogance and contempt for people who love or are interested in his company and products, I can’t help but wonder how long will it be before the hackers and evil-doers put Apple in their sites, in the same way they have targeted Microsoft?  And how long before Apple evangelists start losing their undying loyalty?

I posed these questions to the friend who introduced me to Apple nation.  She has an iPod, iPhone, iMac, MacBook Air, and an iPad.  She’s a true Apple Woman and thinks as long as the cool products keep coming, Apple will be fine.

I think no amount of “cool” can mask arrogance and contempt for your customers or the public and if CEO’s continue to display it publicly, some day there will be a reckoning.  Ask Tony Hayward!