Steve Jobs just passed away, we learned tonight. He changed the world through his creativity and his will. Compared to his competitors, though, he didn’t really try to change the world through politics.
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Under Jobs, Apple largely avoided the unseemly games of campaign contributions and lobbying.
Consider this extraordinary fact: despite being a $100-billion-a-year company in a rapidly changing industry, Apple never formed a political action committee.
Also, Apple spent less on lobbying than its competitors. See the chart above showing the 2010 lobbying expenditures of some computer companies you’ve heard of. Apple was far below major players like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and IBM.
This approach — minding their own business, literally — earned Apple the ire of government:
It is one of the few major technology companies not to have a political action committee….
Compared with other tech giants, Apple’s lobbying expenditures are small. In 2009, Apple spent only $1.5 million to lobby the federal government, less than Amazon, Yahoo and IBM. In 2009, Google, for example, spent $4 million, Microsoft $7 million and AT&T $15 million….
“They’ve been very focused on their own innovation, and they don’t have a history of coming to town to get their competitors regulated,” said Jonathan Zuck, president of the Association for Competitive Technology. “But they’re expanding into so many areas that they’re going to find themselves in other companies’ cross hairs, so they probably should be ready to play defense.”
To stay out of the politics game, relatively speaking, takes courage. It takes the courage that your own ideas can thrive in a market, without protective regulation or handouts. It also takes courage to tell politicians to buzz off.
Steve Jobs showed such courage. May God open the gates of heaven to his soul.
