Why Silicon Valley — and the rest of us — need to listen to Satjiv Chahil

To people of a certain age in Silicon Valley, (i.e. elders), Satjiv Chahil, 72, is a familiar and recognized figure. That he is less known to younger techies is both unfortunate and telling.

Once you meet Chahil, you won’t forget him. He’s the charming, Indian-born American guy wearing a brightly colored turban — often with a matching blazer. Chahil loves documenting all the people he’s met (I think he invented the selfie, decades ago) and has a picture with everybody. One of my favorites is with Brazilian mega-novelist Paulo Coelho and German metal(ish) band Scorpions. (What?)

Much more than that though, the Zelig-like Chahil has been a mission-critical marketing executive at the biggest tech’s biggest companies — think Apple, IBM, HP and Xerox—at some of their most critical moments.

Even that is selling him short though. A "global intercultural and interdisciplinary innovator," as he’s been described, is probably closer. He’s also exactly what’s missing from Silicon Valley right now. Unlike the modus operandi of today’s technocrats, Chahil’s life’s work has been to make technology essential to the creative, moral, and fun-loving continuum of human existence.

Apple in its heyday exemplified some of this thinking, and it’s no coincidence Chahil worked there for nine years. The company was a home to many out-of-the box, non-technical minds like Regis McKenna and Lee Clow, designers Hartmut Esslinger and Jony Ive — and, you could argue, Steve Jobs himself.

“My first experience in Silicon Valley was in the early 80s when I moved there from the east coast,” Chahil recalls. “The mindset was so different. It was welcoming to people from all over the world and all fields of interest. It was long-haired, music-loving scientists who wanted to make the world a better place. Now it's people wanting to get rich quickly and manipulate the world.”

Please forgive the indulgence in good-old-days-ism, but it bears re-hearing because very little in American business or society is as important as Silicon Valley’s shifted priorities, aka, moral collapse. We’ll get into that some more, but first back to our protagonist.