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Apple Attempts to Suppress Steve Jobs Profile Article

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Apr 12, 2001
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Macworld UK points out a feature article from The Sunday Times profiling Apple CEO Steve Jobs, noting that Apple attempted several times to discourage or block publication of the piece.
Apple hates personality stuff and press intrusion. "We want to discourage profiles," an Apple PR tells me stiffly, apparently unaware she is waving a sackful of red rags at a herd of bulls. Another PR rings the editor of this magazine to try to halt publication of this piece.
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The lengthy article provides a comprehensive look at Jobs' personal and professional life over the years, noting his failures and successes, from his recruitment of Pepsi CEO John Sculley that quickly resulted in Jobs being forced out of Apple to his reinvention of Apple upon his return with the iMac, the iPod, and the iPhone.

Focus is also placed on Jobs' "narcissistic" personality and his "control freak" tendencies that frustrate many of those who interact with him but also drive the product development that has won the company so many devoted fans.
Jobs is, in the words of the psychiatrist and scholar of leadership Michael Maccoby, "a productive narcissist". To Jobs, the world is an epiphenomenon, a side effect of the existence of Steve. Or rather, it is a pyramid with Jobs at the top, a few bright people just beneath him, and then the rest of us -- the "bozos". The customer bozo is not, to him, always right. In the early days it was said the Apple marketing department consisted of Jobs looking in his mirror and asking himself what he wanted. His customer-relations motto is from Henry Ford: "If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse." In a world driven by technology, only the technocrats know what we want and need.
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The piece also places emphasis on Jobs' health issues over the years, especially his recent medical leave of absence from Apple and liver transplant, and asks whether Apple will be able to continue its momentum once Jobs inevitably leaves the company at some point in the future. While Apple will almost certainly continue to pursue the same business plan and vision under new management, the question remains whether anyone other than Jobs can have the same presence and command the same level of respect that has defined Jobs and Apple over the years.

Article Link: Apple Attempts to Suppress Steve Jobs Profile Article
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2009/08/17/apple-attempts-to-suppress-steve-jobs-profile-article/
I wish Apple would not do stuff like that! It makes the company look like a bunch of whiny, bitchy school kids on the playground fighting over who's mom is the fattest!

D
 
Good read, but nothing new we didn't already know about the company and it's practices. However the author is wrong when he says that the battery on new MacBook's is "impossible" to replace. It's not that hard to replace at all.
 
so nothing really ground breaking here. we already know he's a narcissistic control freak that lately has had health issues. but for this forum, that's a given. general public maybe not. at anyrate, personal profile pieces bore me. little newsworthy ever comes out of them.
 
really?

I'm a little doubtful there was a concerted effort to stifle the publishing of this article.

It's no secret that Mr. Jobs has certain personality and health issues. This piece is just a rehash of what's been published previously.

Yawn.:apple:
 
I wonder how Apple "tries to discourage" profiles. My guess is a volley of lawsuits.

I could easily see Jobs as the dictator of a small nation--albeit a very fashionable one.
 
That article seems like its for the National Enquirer. But many people, for some reason, keep those types of publications in business...:rolleyes:
 
When I first found out Steve Jobs was a narcissist, my respect for him went down. I still respect his work and I am not saying he is not a genius. I think he needs to be this way (Not to much) to control and run a multi-billion dollar company.
 
The story was written with one goal in mind.... to sell newspapers. Newspapers used to report the news. Now, in their waning days, they are a mix of fact, fiction, rumor and innuendo. Particularly true in the UK.

Mark
 
I think 9to5mac put it best:

In the opinion of this commentator, that the report fails to examine any of the personal reflections Jobs shared during his famed Stanford University speech is a shame. Jobs came his closest yet to true self revelation during that speech. . . [link to Jobs' speech]

Why did Apple attempt to spike this report?

We’re hoping it was for fear of a negative slanted account, a fear the report fails to realise. We’re also hoping that Jobs has used some of his time during his recent health-focused months away from the company to get some work done toward publishing his own, fully-authorised bio. We’re of the opinion that - wherever you sit on the love/hate Apple fence - Jobs has proved himself a remarkable man, and as such he should make available his viewpoint on his life’s story. We think it could be an inspiration to the next agent of disruptive change.
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Here's to waiting to hear Jobs' side of the story. His book needs to come out soon.
 
my thoughts

Sometimes it takes a Narcissistic Dictator, to get things done. Steve Jobs, I commend you. And If I were a woman, I'd definitely want you to be my baby daddy. :cool :p
 
hmm, I wonder what happens to Apple when Steve does finally leave. There are pretty much 3 scenarios

1. Apple still does very well under the lead of Tim Cook, who has a similar form of leadership as jobs

2. 1996 all over again

3. Steve Jobs has cloned himself, maybe possible :D

I know without Steve Jobs obsession & dedication to get it just spot on Apple wouldn't be where it is today, making quality and beautiful products.
 
Okay, I haven't read the article so maybe there's more to it, but is "not wanting to encourage" personal profiles the same as "surpressing" them? IMHO, no. Just a way to sex up an otherwise dull topic.
 
I think it does take a narcissist to accomplish this. A normal person would have taken the ousting from Apple as rejection, but Steve clearly knew what he, and therefore "we," wanted. His motto from Henry Ford I think is clear evidence of what he considers himself. It has benefits and consequences to his "image," but he doesn't care what other people think, because what he thinks is all that matters to him. Be thankful he's applying his narcissism to making cool stuff instead of:
225px-Doomsday_device.png
 
Steve Jobs

I met Steve Jobs at Macworld a few years ago. I found him to be a very nice, even humble person, not the egomaniac they are trying to make him out to be. I told him we support him and his efforts to push great innovation. He was very gracious.

He may push hard, he may be a perfectionist, but look at what they accomplished!

Machead33:apple:
 
Hi,

I demand the administrators of this site remove this post immediately.

Steve
 
I think the Psychiatrist quoted needs his credentials examined. Steve Jobs is one of the easiest executives to talk to, but then again, he sure as hell isn't going to waste his time with the likes of Bryan Appleyard.

Hell, this famous journalist is so famous the name just doesn't ring a bell on this side of the pond.

Steve isn't going to waste his time with folks knowing he's got a fixed shelf life. Is this that difficult to figure out, or does Bryan need notoriety to push a book deal?
 
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