You may have heard of "regulatory capture," in which an industry successfully colonizes the regulatory agencies that are supposed to monitor its activities and protect the public good. I don't know if there's a similar term for what happens when a local government is so dependent on a single company that it becomes captured. But if you've ever wanted to see it in action, check out the way the starstruck Cupertino City Council worships at Steve Jobs' feet when he comes to present Apple's plan for a huge new complex:
You can't really blame them – if you're going to have a big company own your town, you probably can't do much better than Apple. As everyone laughs about repeatedly, Apple pays plenty of taxes (something tells me the schools in Cupertino don't lack for chalk). They're eco-conscious. They bring lots of "creative class" workers. And there's obviously lots of civic pride – Apple has made Cupertino, which would otherwise be a rather ordinary suburb, famous throughout the world.
But there's something else interesting here. Not that they'd ever do it, but if the Cupertino City Council wanted to, they could severely complicate this building project. So Jobs treats them like any audience, delivering a carefully planned and no doubt rehearsed presentation, much like he does when he's unveiling a new gadget. He starts with a story designed to hit them in their civic hearts, relating how as a 13-year-old boy, he called up Silicon Valley legend Bill Hewlett of Hewlett-Packard and wrangled himself a summer job. And it turns out that the property on which Apple will build its gigantic new project was recently purchased from none other than Hewlett-Packard. It's the ciiiiiircle of liiiiiife!
Then, using the presentation principles that have led admirers to write books with titles like The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, he walks them through the plans for the building, with arresting visuals and simple verbal messages repeated multiple times. By the time it's over, the City Council's only questions are whether he could explain again how awesome Apple is, and does he understand how much they love him.
And the building looks great, no doubt. I'm sure it will be good for Cupertino. But it's no accident that this guy has gotten where he is.
