A new profile explores how Apple CEO Tim Cook, with “cautious, cooperative and tactical” leadership, ended up being the Cupertino tech giant in the world’s largest company.
After the death of Steve Jobs in 2011, both Wall Street and Silicon Valley were worried about Apple’s future. But, nine years later, Apple’s revenue and profits have more than doubled and the company’s rating is higher than the GDP of Canada, Russia or Spain.
Those profits were made under Cook’s rod, which Jobs succeeded in August 2011. According to a profile in The Wall Street Journal, the past nine years have seen tech-executive reform Apple look more like itself.
Compared to Jobs’ pronounced commitment to design, Cook is described as much more methodical and focused on finances and social good. Although Apple under Cook has a “more relaxed workplace” environment than Apple under Jobs, employees said Cook is similarly “demanding and detail-oriented.”
The CEO’s attention to detail “causes subversives to enter meetings with grief.” And Cook’s precision has “recreated how Apple employees work and think,” the Journal adds.
“Middle managers today are screening staff for meetings with Mr. Cook to make sure they are knowledgeable. First-timers are advised not to speak.” It’s about protecting your team and protecting it. “You are not wasting his time,” said a longtime lieutenant. added, “people kept crying. “
Another time, Cook was annoyed that Apple was sending 25 computers to South Korea instead of Japan. Although some sources said it looked like a minor accident, Cook warned that “we are losing our business to excellence.”
The executive Apple rarely visits Apple’s design studio, which Jobs visited. At a meeting in 2012 to test an early prototype of Apple Watch, Cook was absent. Sources say such an absence among Jobs could not be unthinkable.
Also unlike Jobs, who thought Apple’s cash was best focused on research and development, Cook is much more willing to give money back to investors. In 2013, Cook had a three-hour dinner with Wall Street investor Carl Icahn that ended with dessert consisting of Apple logo cookies.
Colleagues and acquaintances associated with the Journal said Cook was a “humble workaholic with a unique commitment to Apple.” Even longtime colleagues rarely socialized with Cook, and former assistants said he did not often share personal events.
Apple declined to set up interviews with Cook as senior executives, but “helped arrange conversations with four callers who they said could speak in areas of interest to Mr. Cook such as environment, education and health.”
Of those four employees, one had never met Cook, and the others who spent a total of a few hours with the CEO.
The evidence of Apple’s shift may be in their products. The company has for the most part failed to release the kind of market-breaking products that Jobs was famous for.
Instead, Apple has dominated accessories that surround the iPhone – including the Apple Watch, AirPods and services like Apple Music. The Apple Watch has outsold all other watches in the world, while AirPods made up more than half of all the headphones sold in 2019.
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