Is Stephen Fry The New Jeremy Clarkson?

Loud, opinionated and rather fun Brit Jeremy Clarkson created a following of car nuts both sides of the Atlantic through the BBC show Top Gear. The popularity of the fast driving commentator and his co-hosts even resulted in the launch of a US version of the show. Now, we’re noticing the rise in popularity of another British voice – Stephen Fry. Instead of using TV, Fry, a well respected and hard-working actor and bon-vivant in the UK, is becoming a global web celebrity because of his opinions about tech gadgets on the web.

On his blog, Fry posts no-holds barred reviews of products and companies which have earned him large audiences and almost 32,000 Twitter readers. Here’s a quick extract of a recent post:

So there we were. They all left an open door through which Apple charged. And now, with unblushing fanfare they each attempt to bring something similar to market. This is good. Apple have shown that there is a huge demand for exciting, innovative, lovable and imaginative consumer devices. All the rivals have to do is to … is to what? To produce cut price lookalikes or truly to pioneer and innovate? Well, the latter is what they should do, but the former is what most of them will do of course, because these dumb firms never ever learn. They are afraid to be good. They will blame stockholders, consumers, anyone but themselves.

Don’t you sometimes long to be CEO of a company like Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Nokia or Microsoft? So that you can say to your coders, your designers, your development teams and your software architects: “Not Fucking Good Enough. I haven’t said ‘Wow’ yet. I haven’t gasped with pleasure, amusement or admiration once. Start again. Not Fucking Good Enough.”

And (forgive this ranting sidebar) how one would lay into the packaging department! “Nowhere near Fucking Good Enough. I’m not enjoying opening this. It’s clumsy, dumb and contemptuous. I’m in product-opening hell. Not Fucking Good Enough.”

Oh, yes Stephen. That’s all very well, but you try being a CEO in the real world of share prices and financial officers. Bullshit. Any CEO who hides behind his shareholders isn’t worthy of their job: I’ve met enough business leaders to know that the good ones lead, they don’t follow. Isn’t that kind of what ‘leader’ means? I seem to be straying. But it’s all relevant really and it all needs saying again and again. Managers, corporates, finance people, executives in tech companies – they all need to understand for the sake of their pride and happiness as much as their success, this simple rule: ‘That’ll do’ won’t do. ‘That’s good enough’ is never good enough.

Hurrah!

Communities Dominate Brands: New media, new media, Stephen Fry has 32,000 fans following him on Twitter