Shock me Mr Jobs, Shock me

Picking up on a theme I looked at the other night, I can’t help but be slightly disappointed that come 3GSM, no one, really, is going to be that interested in what Arun Sarin, Mr Vodafone, is going to have to say.

I mean, I’m sure it will be interesting and delivered in an eloquent, professional manner. However, the content will not be very exciting.

Is that a problem? Well. Yes. And of course, No.

Yes, because I like the theatre of Steve Jobs and Apple. I like the surprise, I like the delivery, I think it’s wickedly exciting. You know, I’m a geek. 😉

No, because, ultimately, the CEO is hired to supervise and run the company, right? Execute day to day operations on behalf of the board of directors and shareholders. Not prance about the stage with a … ‘One more thing….’ message up his or her sleeve.

I was sat this evening in Adam Street members bar with Oli Barret of Connected Capital (incidentally also a blogger at dailynetworker.co.uk – worth subscribing) and Tom Ball of Cognac (check out their big picture service, it’s wicked!). I say ‘members bar’ — because in reality both Oli and Tom were at pains to excuse the fact that despite them paying good cash for their memberships, the fact they were being dripped on by a hole in the ceiling was, er, unexpected. Except that Tom seemed to have been living with the drip for many a visit.

‘You don’t get that in the Waldorf,’ I commented. 😉

And it’s that experience, that parallel, that brought to mind, perhaps strangely, Arun Sarin vs Steve Jobs. You have to have a particularly geeky mind to daydream this way, but go with me.

I get all excited when Mr Jobs hits the stage, dances around and does those gorgeous one-word slides. I’m usually glued to the livebloggers out there recording every moment.

Enter Arun — and well, I immediately go into damp squid mode. What’s he going to say that’s going to change the industry right away? Jobs can — and often has — stick up a slide that, within minutes, has people tearing up business plans and formulating new ones. Looking at what Sarin will be saying at 3GSM? Well I often feel that being a Vodafone customer is kind of like belonging to a member’s club with a leak in the middle of the bar that seems to have been there for ages. You pay a lot of cash for a good quality service … and … well… it just doesn’t quite deliver.

In this context, I think I want Arun to sing and dance along just like Steve.

Fair enough, that probably wasn’t in his job description when he signed up!

So, I shall look forward to the Apple presentation today. 9th January. D-day. Ish.

iPhone? Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, Surprise me!