Once upon a time there was a marketing genius who sold much-coveted products at astronomical prices. He was of sound mind, that is, if you overlook his fashion sense, but he would strut around like a megalomaniac on a darkened stage, wearing his trademark black Issey Miyake turtleneck and jeans and showed off those products to a drooling, adoring audience who worshiped him as though he was God.
That man is dead and gone, but emulating him, there is no shortage of copycats, who also do their impressions of that great marketing man. These shameless imitators – many are just snake oil salesmen – would also pace all over a darkened stage and expound on the features of their latest gizmos.
Come on guys, there is only ONE Steve Jobs, for goodness sake.
It’s time corporate leaders start to come into their own and stop mimicking others.
Few companies can ever come close to being another Apple and there can never be another Steve Jobs!
If you claim to have produced the latest invention since sliced bread but have to be so unoriginal when touting and hawking your wares to the world, then where is that ingenuity and innovation that you want people to believe you possess?
Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery but imitation is imitation – there’s nothing clever or original about it.
In fact, the moment I witness yet another CEO showing off his latest product while walking about on yet another darkened stage, I am completely turned off; time to switch channels! Not only that, time to boycott those products!
Those who boast about how pioneering they are with ground-breaking products ought to have more unique and imaginative ways of introducing them other than modeling themselves after a dead man in black.