Architect of Apple's total-silence public relations policy leaves Apple has one of the simplest public relations policies in human history: keep everything secret until the CEO announces it. It worked for Steve Jobs and might well do so for Tim Cook, assuming that he's actually going to release a new product before fanbois all drop dead of boredom. Now the woman who erected Cupertino's wall …
As a general rule of thumb, EVPs and SVPs are as far as you can go if your strengths lie in operational capacities. One of the quicker ways to really screw up a company, and a person, is to put them in a strategic management role just because a slot opened up in the C-Suite.
It's not that those people are inferior, not at all. It simply means people have varying strengths and to ignore them is folly. People in those upper tier (s)VP roles often make just as much money, get the same perks and responsibilities as the C-levels. A lot of those people command as much control over a company as the highest level executives. Kind of like a regent or chief of staff.
In a geek appropriate example, James T. Kirk and Jean Luc Picard were both shitty admirals, but great captains. The simply didn't think strategically, but were top of field in tactical planning and actions.
"In a geek appropriate example, James T. Kirk and Jean Luc Picard were both shitty admirals, but great captains. The simply didn't think strategically, but were top of field in tactical planning and actions."
Quite apropriate to reference the source of Apple original designs:
http://www.t-gaap.com/2011/11/1/did-jobs-copy-star-trek
I had a Comms boss whose first reaction was always 'better to make no comment'. Even internally. Luckily, during one crisis, the manager of another team took on the job of issuing internal bulletins, which saved morale from tanking. My boss, when it filtered through that these bulletins were seen as Good by senior management, took the credit -- but never did learn that sometimes you actually have to communicate something to somebody, esp. if you have 'comms' in your job title.
It was a strange place to work.
In all seriousness, keeping information contained and controlled is unbelievably difficult. You can have all the policies and rules in the world, but unless you're going to chain the staff to their desks all your information walks out the door at quittin' time everyday.
Military's do a pretty good job of keeping stuff secret, but let's face it, unless you're under military attack most people don't give a shit about the military. But huge numbers of people worship iStuff and getting some early info can really improve a journalists future job prospects. So Apple doesn't have the luxury of being ignored, they're constantly being prodded.
Until about 2/3 of the way through dotcom v1 it was common for companies to keep secrets about upcoming products by lying their asses off and running interference for the truth. The practice was ultimately (mostly) squashed by angry shareholders who sued because they were misled. It sure was fun though.
Well, if he will write like a 5 year old, he deserves to br 'ripped'. Listen, bucko, I've been around here long enough (certainly longer than you - my username may be new to the site but I am not) to see the standards drop. Hamill is the lowest they've gotten. I'll, continue to rip on his articles while he continues to post them.
Wow, touchy. And the 'been around longer than you, bucko' is also old and very, very tired. Out of interest you can add around eight years to my username registration date, though of course I daresay you've still been here longer anyhow. Guess that makes you the man. Whatever. I would also add that you seem to have a genuine thirst for ad hominem. Good luck with that.
I care what J.H. thinks. Thus your statement is incorrect. In fact, I can name at least 250 (probably more, if I think about it) members of the VMware community alone that would consider themselves "fans" of J.H., including at least a dozen CEOs. I have been asked to arrange introductions come VMworld between J.H. and some of these folks, so I'm pretty sure that the apathy (or in your case outright hostility) is limited to a fairly narrow(minded) subset of the readership.
Edit: and just to make sure I get a nice Ad Hom in here to keep the average low...while J.H. may make the odd very human error in his writing, your ceaseless bellyaching has left me with only one inescapable conclusion regarding this whole issue: you, sir, are uncompromisingly inferior.
John Gruber is an evangelist, so he's going to get more from Apple. Your proxy has to know enough to avoid distorting your message.
El Reg on the other hand is just as likely to make fun of Apple as they are to sing their praises. With the notable exceptions of climate science and sustainable energy The Register does a good job of being fair, not skewed.
When these powerful people step down to spend more quality time with their loved ones, I always wonder if anyone actually asks the loved ones first?
I mean, if you've spent 18 hours a day for 20 years moving and shaking the world of big business, do they still even know who you are?
Last thing first. No, your family doesn't know who you are if you've been in senior management roles for long periods of time. Hell, your friends, peers and colleagues don't know who you are. It's nearly impossible to have an interesting non-business conversation with anyone.
I found out a guy I worked with for many years had a pretty impressive thing going on the side. When we traveled for work he liked to take photos of old, high end wallpaper and he would use those images to create historically correct wallpaper for doll houses. The guy was made of 95% gin and drive a $300k car, but at home he liked dollhouses and sells his wallpaper all over the works. Nearly seven years working with that guy and found out by accident.
At any rate, I used to think that was just part of the gig and just accepted it. But over a decade later I'm still not 100% certain I made the right choice(s). I missed a lot of good stuff. Oh well...
The 'spend more time with the family' line is generally code. Unless you know that persons family life is imploding or the guys wife or kids are dying or something equally awful and unfortunate, saying that means the headhunters and press are to leave you alone. Violating that unofficial rule is deeply frowned upon. Offending journalists and/or their employers will lose special access to other companies and executive headhunters have been run completely into the ground as doors were closed to them.
I'm not saying they aren't going to spend more time with their families, just that it's unnecessary to tell anyone other than your boss or possibly the Board why you're leaving. They announce it like this to be sure everyone gets the message.
It is not generally know that John Michell was originally venting to a friend over a pint at the pub before he wrote his famous missive Henry Cavendish:
I tell you, it's all bullshit and it's completely impenetrable. In fact, anything you throw at it sticks to it and simply becomes more bullshit. It's just like a black hole from which nothing escapes.
"Latterly, she span a dense, impenetrable web of bullshit around the i..."But surely you meant,
"Literally, she spun..."
I can't tell if this is a serious objection or some rather subtle attempt at a joke. If it's the former, then there's nothing wrong with "latterly", though "span" is presumably a typographical error for "spun".
Using "literally" to mean "figuratively", while common, is of course avoided by all people of good will, so your proposed change is worse than the original.
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