Author of Haunted Empire, Apple After Steve Jobs, Yukari Iwatani Kane discusses what she’s learned about Tim Cook, Apple’s evolving relationship with its suppliers, and whether or not she believes Apple has lost it’s way since Steve Jobs’ death.
“Shortly after Tim Cook succeeded Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple in August 2011, he told a confidant that he got up every morning reminding himself just to do the right thing—and not to think about what Steve would have done,” Yukari Iwatani Kane reports for The Wall Street Journal. “But Jobs’s ghost loomed everywhere after he died from pancreatic cancer two months later. Obituaries of Apple’s visionary founder blanketed the front pages of newspapers and websites. TV stations ran lengthy segments glorifying the changes he brought to the world.”
“Even as he took control of Apple’s empire, Cook couldn’t escape his boss’s shadow. How could anyone compete with a visionary so brilliant that not even death could make him go away?” Kane reports. “The next CEO didn’t have the quasi-religious authority that Jobs had radiated. Cook’s every decision would be examined by current and former employees and executives, investors, the media and Apple’s consumers. He would also have to contend with the sky-high expectations that Jobs had conditioned the public to have for Apple. Cook was a seasoned businessman and arguably a better manager than Jobs. He was organized, prepared and more realistic about the burdens of running a company of Apple’s size. But no one could beat Jobs at being Jobs—especially Cook, his polar opposite.”
“The succession was complicated by the fact that no one knew who Cook really was. The new CEO was a mystery. Some colleagues called him a blank slate. As far as anyone could tell, Cook had no close friends, never socialized and rarely talked about his personal life,” Kane reports. “To some, Cook was a machine; to others, he was riveting. He could strike terror in the hearts of his subordinates, but he could also motivate them to toil from dawn to midnight for just a word of praise. Those who interacted only passingly with Cook saw him as a gentle Southerner with an aura reminiscent of Mister Rogers. But he wasn’t approachable. Over the years, colleagues had tried to engage him in personal conversations, with little success. He worked out at a different gym than the one on Apple’s campus and didn’t fraternize outside of work.”
Much more in the full article here.
[Attribution: AppleInsider.]
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Cannot wait to see what the Cook naysayers on this website have to say about this. I imagine this story will catch them like 64 bit caught the rest of the smartphone industry: on their asses.
Gruber’s takedown of this “journalist” ‘s latest piece on Apple: http://daringfireball.net/2014/02/fitting_facts_to_the_narrative
They New Yorker (at least the online version) has really turned to crap over the years.
there is a reason why articles like this one never appear in the print version of the New Yorker.
It’s all wrong. He’s a riveting machine.
Nice article. While no one can ever be Steve Jobs again, Apple is in good hands with Cook.
Thanks. I now hear the Terminator 2 theme whenever I read Tim Cook articles. He’s a Machine, after all.
I rather liked the article. And if it is accurate as to Tim Cook’s style of doing business then Apple is in good hands. After reading his comment on the failed “profit driven” shareholder proposal and the questions pertaining to it, I believe there is a bit of SJ that rubbed off on Tim. I like it.
Profit is a result of sound business strategy and superb execution. If your only focus is profits, you will do all the wrong things.
If your focus is always end of quarter profit, you are already on the path to the bottom.
I was 25 years old when a 25-year-old Steve Jobs introduced the Mac.
My best friend programmed microcontroller chips like the 8051, which were computer chips that controlled industrial and commercial equipment. He programmed the chips used a PC running the CPM operating system, which was a DOS-like operating system and was abstruse beyond all comprehension. So when the Mac came out, it was stunningly amazing.
The Mac, in comparison to DOS and CPM, was literally awesome in that it induced awe when one used it.
Back in 1984, it seemed like pretty much everyone who headed up a microcomputer industry-related
” rel=”nofollow”>was “normal aged,” and nothing at all was unusual about that. “Silicon Valley” was a particular place in the USA that was changing the world and was a very unique thing.
I mourn the loss of Steve to this day.
I’ll never forget the first time I sat at a Mac. I was studying COBOL at the time and using an Apple ][ at home. It was the mind blowing thing I ever saw a computer do. I couldn’t believe it. So I saved my money and bought a Macintosh 512KE in November of ’84. Thanks to the Mac, I’ve had a great fun career I doubt I would have had without it. These days, I most do systems support and training for the creative industry. Thank god I stopped wasting my time on COBOL.
No matter what journalists write, Tim Cook knows you can stay up with the competition by following a religiously dictated past.
He is moving on to meet future needs of consumers and will do what he has to do to meet those challenges, just like Steve Jobs would do, though not in exactly the same way, just like Steve Jobs would have to do to adapt to new products and markets.
Darn typos.
I meant to say “Tim Cook knows you can not stay up with the competition…”
I wonder if she talked to Tim for the book?
eh.