Jobs 'king of Silicon Valley', but India's not buying it

A new, unauthorised documentary of Apple CEO Steve Jobs offers a snapshot at the high priest behind the Cult of Mac and a glimpse at Silicon Valley’s culture and characters. The programme, Moguls, Mavericks and Empires , airs on Thursday night stateside, and according to the show’s creators, it features the “irrepressible, irascible, and iconic” Jobs as the “undisputed king of Silicon Valley.” “From his parents’ California garage he launched the personal computer revolution and built Apple into the most envied, and valuable, technology company in the world,” the show’s creators wrote. “From the Macintosh and the iPod, to iTunes and the iPhone, Jobs has personally presided over the creation of dozens of transformational devices, battling hostile corporate boards, cutthroat competitors, and serious illness while securing his legacy as one of the few who dared to ’think different’.” [caption id=“attachment_30630” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Part of his success is based on how “seductive” Jobs can be. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images”] [/caption] The show features interviews with John Sculley, a former Apple CEO, who offers details about the release of the first Macintosh computer in 1984. (Here’s one tidbit: Jobs reportedly told an engineer who had worked for 36 straight hours on the Macintosh Finder to “Go do it again and bring it back when it’s the best you can do.”) Guy Kawasaki, a former Apple employee, is also featured in the programme saying that there’s no doubt that Jobs calls the shots. “Apple is not a democracy," Kawasaki said. “There’s only one vote that matters.” In addition to his perfectionism and his strong leadership style, the programme explores Jobs’ superior marketing abilities, and his ability to revolutionise products and industries. As Kawasaki put it in the documentary, “Apple I, Apple II, Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, iPad — who can say they created six things like that? No one. No one in the world.” The documentary also addresses Apple’s financially winning approach. “For Steve Jobs to be able to sell products at such high prices, which is the key to Apple’s incredible profitability, Jobs needs to have that window of time where he’s in the spotlight, people are buzzing about his products,” noted Alan Deutschman, author of The Second Coming of Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs and his “movie-star eyes” Deutschman also said that “No one personifies Silicon Valley, its culture, its personality better than Steve Jobs.” And part of his success, Deutschman said in the documentary, is based on how “seductive” Jobs can be:

When you meet with him face-to-face, he has this extraordinary eye contact. He has these kind of movie-star eyes, and he locks eyes with you into this intense contact. And he says your name frequently, and he just has this magnetic charm and this tremendous enthusiasm for what he’s talking about. When he’s explaining technology and talking about the things his company is doing, he has this infectious enthusiasm and luminous intelligence and just this kind of personal magnetism and seductiveness. If he wants to charm and seduce you, he will succeed at charming and seducing you, no matter who are you are, whether you are a man or woman. He does have this star quality when he wants to use it.

India lukewarm But clearly, not everyone’s besotted by Jobs. The consultancy firm TLG Communications recently found Apple isn’t considered among the corporate “thought leadership” elite in India, though the company appeared at the top of similar surveys in the US and UK. According to the TLG study, Infosys Technologies and Tata Group were No. 1 and No. 2 respectively on the list of top corporate brands in India. Apple, meanwhile, clocked in at a lowly 40. What are your thoughts on Apple and Jobs? Why is there such little regard for the tech company and its CEO in India?