By Jonathan Rivett
BENIGN TO FIVE
Why do people still feel the need to do Steve Jobs-style presentations? Anywhere? At any time? Let alone during huge unveilings at the biggest companies in the world?
Apple chief executive officer Steve Jobs' presentation style is often copied by business leaders.Credit: Kimberly White
I saw Elon Musk tramping a stage and talking to slides the other day. ELON MUSK! He was demonstrating technology that could eliminate the need for fossil fuels in the United States within years. Why would he bother with PowerPoint? Or worry about gathering sycophants into a darkened viewing area so that they could douse him with approving whoops at obscenely regular intervals?
It astounds me that these captains of industry, who mention "innovation" as if they get a million dollars each time they use the word (which they probably do), refuse to be remotely imaginative when it comes to presenting.
And if these people really have to follow in The Great Fruit Eater's footsteps, at least they could do it in the style of 1980s-era Jobs, and not New Balance-skivvy-and-jeans Jobs. In 1984 he launched the first Macintosh computer wearing a bow tie, a blue double breasted blazer with brass buttons, quoting Bob Dylan and sounding uncannily like a young Luke Skywalker. That's not a joke.
But I'd ditch the Jobs shtick altogether and go with Dr Claw from Inspector Gadget.
That's right, if I were the head of a global megacorporation ... again ... I'd make presentations from my supersonic gothic death limousine. You'd never see my face; you'd only hear my demon-voice telling you how good our latest robots' gland updates were.
Via Skype or something. I dunno.
Jonathan Rivett has been CEO of a Silicon Valley tech giant on no less than four occasions. He writes at haught.com.au and theinkbureau.com.au.