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The myth of the humble nerd tycoon

Readers prefer Montgomery Burns to Larry & Sergey

The Beardie One must be singled out for special treatment on account of his magical reputation for "customer service". I'm not sure if it was ever true, but look at it now:

Virgin Atlantic - Crappy Fucking Airline.

Virgin Trains - Crappy Fucking Railway.

Virgin Media - It's just Crappy Fucking NTL and Crappy Fucking Telewest with a new name, you aren't fooling us.

Virgin Records - It was just a Crappy Fucking Record Shop and now the beardie one has gone, having weaved no magic whatsoever over the music-buying experience, we've rebranded it "Zawi". That's so memorable, I had to Google it for the spelling.

Virgin Radio - Crappy Fucking Playlist, kill me now before I die of boredom.

I could go on, but the list of mediocre Virgin brands is too long. When will people wake up to his bullshit? At least with old-fashioned ruthless tycoons like Rupert Murdoch and Monty Burns you know where you stand.

Graham

and this gem -

I recall watching a documentary on the genesis of the Airbus A380 way back when it was still designware. One of the interviews was with Beardie himself stood at the bar in the smart bit of one of his 747s. Mid interview, the girl behind the bar handed him his Orange Juice. He excused himself to camera, turned around, thanked the girl for the drink, turned back to camera and resumed his comments with that trademark grin.

Not only was it one of the most blatant pieces of "look what a nice guy I am" I've ever seen, but the TV company had sycophantically left it in!

[ I'll bet there wasn't an empty sickbag on the plane]

Trouble is, most people seeing that won't have read the things said about him by ex-Virgin Atlantic staff and know what a "nice guy" he really is. I still wonder whether if the girl had forgotten to smile he'd have sacked her on camera.

The thing that winds me up about Google is that merely by saying that you have a "Do no evil" policy, you can apparently behave like Microsoft and try to take over the world but be loved for it. Go figure.

Presentation is everything. Substance means nothing. Google are fluffy kittens really. Branson is a saint. The Prius is made of recycled fairtrade coffee and runs on magic moonbeams and love.

TeeCee

And it's worked, hasn't it?

Colin offers an unrepeatable anecdote (thanks) and suggests - if you start the "I brought Branson's Lunch/Taxi/PhoneCall Club" you might get quite a few people wanting to join.

Jack has a theory -

Technology is scary stuff. We all fear what we don't understand and most of us, non-programmers, don't understand most of the systems we use.

The general stereo-type of a IT professional is also scary. They are seen to be apart form "normal" people, again we fear what we don't understand. Like I said, perception not reality. Worst of all, they know stuff we don't. Important stuff, like how our phones work.

Shock, horror, indignation... We are reliant on nerds! We are scared!

Nobody likes being scared. So what if we just all collectively pretend that these are cool guys who are not ruthless and cynical like Trump and Co, but nice boys. A little naive about business, a bit quirky, you know just regular guys like us who ride mountain bike to their mums house for apple pie on a Sunday. They ware woolly jerseys and have pony tails and drive their own cars.

Ahh, I'm feeling better already.

Yes - but it's all made up, Jack.

The bottom line (as it were) is that everything bad one wants to say about the political press can be said in spades for the business press. The business press needs the executives from the corporations to provide them with “exclusive” fodder for their columns. As such, unless the behavior involved is egregious (i.e., including conviction, jail term, and/or an underage sheep named “Boingo”) the business press is as soft and fawning as the lackeys who work for the corporate masters. There’s no cuddly CEO ethos – just a gutless business press afraid of losing access.

Frank

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