Category: Steve Jobs Storytelling

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The Downside of Experience in Leadership

We tend to correlate experience with stronger leadership. The common Steve Jobs narrative swings from impetuous youth to lessons learned. It stands to reason that people who have been tested when things didn’t go according to plan expand their leadership game. Yet, there’s a downside to experience when it comes to leadership. We can gain …more

Tim Cook All-In with Building the Apple Brand Through Public Relations

Apple’s recent product introductions generated the expected media hoopla. I think the only publication that did not write about Apple’s announcement was “Miniature Donkey Talk Magazine” (yes, it exists). Apple under Steve Jobs essentially invented the show-biz event for introducing tech products. They know how to do this better than any company on the planet. …more

The Rare Instance When Words Like “Breakthrough” and “Revolutionary” Belong in a News Release

Hyperbole wrecks a news release. Words like “breakthrough” and “revolutionary” in a new release essentially say to the journalist, “Stop reading. This announcement is nothing more than corporate drivel with yet another claim of changing the world.” Yet, an exception occurred ten years ago when Apple distributed the news release with the Spartan headline, “Apple …more

Has Apple’s Media Coverage Suffered Under Tim Cook?

When Tim Cook took the reins of Apple after Steve Jobs passed away, I suggested that replacing the narrative cultivated by Mr. Jobs would be tougher than the product roadmap. More than understanding the classic arc and how to tease out drama in the Apple story, The tougher it was to know what was going …more

MIT’s Technology Review Reflects on Steve Jobs, the Storyteller

Many of the articles on the passing of Steve Jobs highlighted his Stanford commencement speech and his gift for storytelling. I raked the media coverage to see if anyone actually focused on his communications expertise. A few did with the best one ironically coming from MIT’s media property, Technology Review. David Zax penned a post …more

May Steve Jobs Rest in Peace

So many great stories and memories on Steve Jobs have been shared over the past 24 hours. As you would expect, Journal colunnist Walt Mossberg crafts a fitting tribute on Steve the person. My favorite visual goes back to his “kid days” when he landed on the cover of Time Magazine. Given Steve’s storytelling acuity, he …more

The Best Storytelling On Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs offers so many classic story angles, not the least being the prodigal son banished only to return the “homeland” to glory. As discussed last week, he knew how to cultivate Apple’s story in a way that had little to do with words. But what about the third-party storytelling on Mr. Jobs? I’ve culled through the …more

Replacing Narrative Cultivated By Steve Jobs Will Be Tougher Than The Product Roadmap

Everyone refers to Steve Jobs as the consummate showman. Not true. He is the consummate storyteller with “showmanship” just one way to accentuate a given story. Paul Theroux, in the recent issue of Newsweek, noted: “… while the computer world gained a supergeek, the literary world might have lost a powerful storyteller.” I don’t know about “the …more

Crisp Writing Shapes Steve Jobs’s Resignation Letter

Given Mr. Jobs’s communications acuity, it’s no surprise his resignation letter tells a crisp and understated story. Here’s the text of the letter in its entirety: To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community: I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and …more