I enjoyed watching Apple CEO’s Tim Cook’s appearance before the Senate.
You can watch it here
[youtube]http://youtu.be/s7H1Y6Nr3c4[/youtube]
Friend of Mac
I have been a user of Mac’s great products for over 15 years. Their products are not cheap. They are great value. They don’t give you the blue screen of death. And, if there is a problem, the staff fix it without being sods about it. They also have great sales staff, that is the ones who want to help you, answer what are likely to be stupid questions, and treat you with some decency and civility as you give them a lot of cash. Amazingly, very few stores do that for you. It’s like they want to repeat business. I am happy to keep doing that. I’ll do it as long as they provide a product that does the job I want it to do.
One Law for the Very Rich and One for the Rest of Us
I find their tax practices wrong, although know they are legal. It is like the very rich and large multinationals have designed a tax system that overwhelmingly helps them. The middle class get screwed paying 50% of their income to spend easy governments and the very rich pay 5%.
What To Do If They Are After You
Tim Cook would have known the US Senate were going to go for him. He deflected their attacks with grace and decency. Others in the same line of attack should mimic him. Few will.
Forbes look at how he did it. The article is well worth reading.
Know Your Audience
Tim Cook knew his audience. He spoke to them. He did not speak at them. He knew what they wanted to hear and he spoke to that. He looked into their hearts and minds and spoke to them.
How many company officials do that?
Knowing your audience is key to speaking in public. It is key to writing. It is the key to getting on in most things.
When speaking to government and politicians many companies and industries, strangely enough, forget about this. It is like a group of latin speakers start speaking to politicians and regulators in Latin and find it surprising that very few people understand a word they are saying. Indeed, they speak about themselves in their own words, often in a language that no one outside their industry understand, and seem to forget that they are speaking to a group of men and women who don’t understand them. Worse of all they don’t seem to care, and then get angry when with the politicians and regulators for not understanding them!
It does not have to be that way. It can change. But, that only happens if you want your audience to understand what you’re saying. As Tim Cook showed us, it can be done.