How Will Tim Cook Lead Apple?
One of the first things Tim Cook did as Apple's new CEO was to reassure the company's employees that nothing was going to change now that his legendary predecessor, Steve Jobs, had resigned from active duty. This was, of course, true (though The Onion had a hilarious parallel-universe version of events that saw Cook moving printers to the center of Apple's strategy). But even if the culture and focus of Apple doesn't change, the man at the top has. Who is this man? And what kind of leader will he be for Apple?
A Beautifully Analytical Mind
A few years ago, Fortune profiled Cook, 50, as the most likely successor to Steve Jobs. He's a tireless worker, a brilliant corporate strategist, and a fitness nut. It's thanks mainly to Cook that Apple now has a tightly knit network of suppliers in Asia. One notable anecdote about Cook is that, as soon as he was tasked to fix Apple's supply problems, he called a meeting with his top people. He realized 30 minutes in that the company needed someone in China, looked directly at one of the team members and asked, "Why are you still here?" That person, Sabih Khan, left the building and got on the first flight to China, with no return date.
That get-it-done approach has clearly guided Cook over the last decade as Apple made massive changes (among them: getting into the mobile market, switching its MacBook microprocessors from IBM to Intel) and the company made it look easy. A lot of what Cook has done has allowed Apple to be very aggressive with iPad pricing, for example, leaving its tablet competitors with little room to stand out (kamikaze fire sales aside). Thanks to the company's enviable supply chain and its popular retail stores, Apple can sell them for (relatively) cheaply, while still reaping handsome profits.
"Tim Cook is the person who really runs Apple," says an ex-Apple employee who worked at the Cupertino campus, and spoke to PCMag on condition of anonymity. "He's very organized. Apple is such a seamless operation, and it's all Tim Cook."
Cook the Leader
Wall Street knows Cook well. Analysts have be talking to him during Apple earnings calls for years, and Cook has been handling all day-to-day CEO duties since January (and probably well before that), when Jobs first went on his most recent medical leave. When asked about what kind of CEO Cook will be, most analysts will give some variation of, "The company is in good hands," or if they're being more practical, "Buy." Goldman Sachs, in its report on the succession, said "Cook is the best possible person" for the job.
"There seems to be unanimity that he is an operational genius, he is an extremely effective manager and knows how to run the business extremely well," says Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research. "What he lacks—as does everyone else, to be honest—is Jobs' vision and product focus. So I expect that he will vest that responsibility with members of his leadership team."
Related Story Steve Jobs Resigns: Complete Coverage
The tech community is less familiar with Cook. He typically doesn't give, or even appear at, keynotes. He sat next to Jobs when the press grilled the Apple team about the iPhone 4 antenna issue last summer, but he was a forgettable presence. Cook handled the January launch announcement of the Verizon iPhone competently, though not with the same reality-distortion-field sermonizing that, love it or hate it, makes Jobs' appearances so memorable. He doesn't give interviews (Apple politely declined to make him available for this piece). Whether or not Cook takes center stage at the expected fall announcement of iPhone 5 will say a lot about his style as a CEO.
Even though Cook can't replace Jobs' presence, his words have a lot of clout. When asked about the iPad's competition in the market during an Apple earnings call in April, Cook called Android tablets "vapor"—alluding to the fact that no Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablets had appeared in the market at that point, despite a big showing in January at CES. The comment went viral. With a single word, Cook had aptly dismissed a promising rival with the casual superiority of someone who's in charge, and knows it.
Nonetheless, one of the most common things cited about Cook is that he's less emotional than Jobs, which appears to have served him well as an operations manager. His analytical mind was on full display to another ex-Apple employee, Michael Grothaus, who related a story about asking a Cook a question after an in-house presentation, which Cook answered with unexpected thoroughness. Grothaus describes him as, "one of those rare people who stop and think before speaking."
The Visionary Vacuum
While there's widespread confidence in Cook's ability to lead and execute, some are speculating that without Jobs' passion for product, he may not be able to achieve the same kind of industry-capsizing coups Jobs was known for. The future of Apple TV, for example, is highly dependent on deals with content providers, many of which Jobs spearheaded himself. (Rumor has it he made a surprise closed-door appearance during CES 2008 to personally appeal to NBC executives to return to iTunes. They did.) Although Cook is said to be a skilled negotiator, that kind of impassioned persuasion—the sharing of a vision—is something else.
"I like Tim Cook a lot, but I don't see him as that visionary guy," the anonymous Apple ex-employee said. "Someone within the organization will become the future visionary person. There are a lot of power struggles going on at Apple right now."
Of course, Jobs has said he'll continue to be involved in big decisions at Apple, and assuming that's not just talk, Cook has time to show the world he can effectively fill Jobs' sneaker-clad shoes, or hire someone else to take some of those walks. Ultimately, though, Cook must be prepared to endure the inevitable criticism and comparisons to Jobs when the next Apple screw-up comes.
"Given the extreme scrutiny of everything Apple does, I expect that any nit or perceived defect during [Cook's] reign will be attributed to Jobs' lack of input, whereas the same nit would have been ignored were Steve still in charge (think antennagate, MobileMe, the boom box product they made)," says Golvin.
Apple's product strategy for the next couple of years is no doubt in place, and in the short term, Cook's Apple will look very similar to Jobs'. Anyone hoping the transition could lead to Flash on iOS or less secrecy from Apple's Cupertino base can pretty much forget it.
Cook was just awarded a million shares or restricted Apple stock, worth almost $400 million, all but ensuring he'll stay in his role for the next ten years. That gives him a lot of time to shape the company, though Cook's mark on Apple is largely already made in its efficiency and market aggressiveness. In the coming months and years, though, Cook can't escape that he will now also be looked upon to inspire—both his own people and the buying public. And, following someone who made the practice an art, it will be a key part of how his performance as CEO will be measured.
One of the first things Tim Cook did as Apple's new CEO was to reassure the company's employees that nothing was going to change now that his legendary predecessor, Steve Jobs, had resigned from active duty. This was, of course, true (though The Onion had a hilarious parallel-universe version of events that saw Cook moving printers to the center of Apple's strategy). But even if the culture and focus of Apple doesn't change, the man at the top has. Who is this man? And what kind of leader will he be for Apple?
A Beautifully Analytical Mind
A few years ago, Fortune profiled Cook, 50, as the most likely successor to Steve Jobs. He's a tireless worker, a brilliant corporate strategist, and a fitness nut. It's thanks mainly to Cook that Apple now has a tightly knit network of suppliers in Asia. One notable anecdote about Cook is that, as soon as he was tasked to fix Apple's supply problems, he called a meeting with his top people. He realized 30 minutes in that the company needed someone in China, looked directly at one of the team members and asked, "Why are you still here?" That person, Sabih Khan, left the building and got on the first flight to China, with no return date.
That get-it-done approach has clearly guided Cook over the last decade as Apple made massive changes (among them: getting into the mobile market, switching its MacBook microprocessors from IBM to Intel) and the company made it look easy. A lot of what Cook has done has allowed Apple to be very aggressive with iPad pricing, for example, leaving its tablet competitors with little room to stand out (kamikaze fire sales aside). Thanks to the company's enviable supply chain and its popular retail stores, Apple can sell them for (relatively) cheaply, while still reaping handsome profits.
"Tim Cook is the person who really runs Apple," says an ex-Apple employee who worked at the Cupertino campus, and spoke to PCMag on condition of anonymity. "He's very organized. Apple is such a seamless operation, and it's all Tim Cook."
Cook the Leader
Wall Street knows Cook well. Analysts have be talking to him during Apple earnings calls for years, and Cook has been handling all day-to-day CEO duties since January (and probably well before that), when Jobs first went on his most recent medical leave. When asked about what kind of CEO Cook will be, most analysts will give some variation of, "The company is in good hands," or if they're being more practical, "Buy." Goldman Sachs, in its report on the succession, said "Cook is the best possible person" for the job.
"There seems to be unanimity that he is an operational genius, he is an extremely effective manager and knows how to run the business extremely well," says Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research. "What he lacks—as does everyone else, to be honest—is Jobs' vision and product focus. So I expect that he will vest that responsibility with members of his leadership team."
Related Story Steve Jobs Resigns: Complete Coverage
The tech community is less familiar with Cook. He typically doesn't give, or even appear at, keynotes. He sat next to Jobs when the press grilled the Apple team about the iPhone 4 antenna issue last summer, but he was a forgettable presence. Cook handled the January launch announcement of the Verizon iPhone competently, though not with the same reality-distortion-field sermonizing that, love it or hate it, makes Jobs' appearances so memorable. He doesn't give interviews (Apple politely declined to make him available for this piece). Whether or not Cook takes center stage at the expected fall announcement of iPhone 5 will say a lot about his style as a CEO.
Even though Cook can't replace Jobs' presence, his words have a lot of clout. When asked about the iPad's competition in the market during an Apple earnings call in April, Cook called Android tablets "vapor"—alluding to the fact that no Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablets had appeared in the market at that point, despite a big showing in January at CES. The comment went viral. With a single word, Cook had aptly dismissed a promising rival with the casual superiority of someone who's in charge, and knows it.
Nonetheless, one of the most common things cited about Cook is that he's less emotional than Jobs, which appears to have served him well as an operations manager. His analytical mind was on full display to another ex-Apple employee, Michael Grothaus, who related a story about asking a Cook a question after an in-house presentation, which Cook answered with unexpected thoroughness. Grothaus describes him as, "one of those rare people who stop and think before speaking."
The Visionary Vacuum
While there's widespread confidence in Cook's ability to lead and execute, some are speculating that without Jobs' passion for product, he may not be able to achieve the same kind of industry-capsizing coups Jobs was known for. The future of Apple TV, for example, is highly dependent on deals with content providers, many of which Jobs spearheaded himself. (Rumor has it he made a surprise closed-door appearance during CES 2008 to personally appeal to NBC executives to return to iTunes. They did.) Although Cook is said to be a skilled negotiator, that kind of impassioned persuasion—the sharing of a vision—is something else.
"I like Tim Cook a lot, but I don't see him as that visionary guy," the anonymous Apple ex-employee said. "Someone within the organization will become the future visionary person. There are a lot of power struggles going on at Apple right now."
Of course, Jobs has said he'll continue to be involved in big decisions at Apple, and assuming that's not just talk, Cook has time to show the world he can effectively fill Jobs' sneaker-clad shoes, or hire someone else to take some of those walks. Ultimately, though, Cook must be prepared to endure the inevitable criticism and comparisons to Jobs when the next Apple screw-up comes.
"Given the extreme scrutiny of everything Apple does, I expect that any nit or perceived defect during [Cook's] reign will be attributed to Jobs' lack of input, whereas the same nit would have been ignored were Steve still in charge (think antennagate, MobileMe, the boom box product they made)," says Golvin.
Apple's product strategy for the next couple of years is no doubt in place, and in the short term, Cook's Apple will look very similar to Jobs'. Anyone hoping the transition could lead to Flash on iOS or less secrecy from Apple's Cupertino base can pretty much forget it.
Cook was just awarded a million shares or restricted Apple stock, worth almost $400 million, all but ensuring he'll stay in his role for the next ten years. That gives him a lot of time to shape the company, though Cook's mark on Apple is largely already made in its efficiency and market aggressiveness. In the coming months and years, though, Cook can't escape that he will now also be looked upon to inspire—both his own people and the buying public. And, following someone who made the practice an art, it will be a key part of how his performance as CEO will be measured.
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