Apple Practices "Corporate Omerta": Times Article
Updated 1:45 PM PST, Mon, Aug 17, 2009
A weekend feature profile of Apple CEO Steve Jobs looked into his health, as well as the culture of secrecy that has cameras trained on employees.
So secretive that press agents for the company didn't want the article by Brian Appleyard of the London Times published. The article actually covered mostly familiar ground to those who follow the company.
"We're very protective of our boss," he was told.
In the Times article Appleyard calls life at Apple: "A cult of corporate omerta - the mafia code of silence - is ruthlessly enforced, with employees sacked for leaks and careless talk."
And that secrecy and aversion to the press apparently comes directly from the top:
Jobs doesn’t like being questioned. Despite his attempts to find serenity through Zen Buddhism, the agony of interviews can get to him. “Imagine what he’d be like,” said a reporter after emerging from a Jobs drubbing, “if he hadn’t studied Zen.”
Calls to the publisher hoping to quash the piece only manages to lend merit to the article's assertions that Apple's practices are like those of a cult or the mafia.
Jackson West still isn't convinced that Jobs hasn't been replaced by a robot.
Copyright NBC Local Media
First Published: Aug 17, 2009 12:55 PM PST
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