“The significance of last week’s report that Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook is ‘actively seeking new directors’ to add to the company’s board cannot be overstated,” Mark Rogers writes for Forbes. “This is the moment when Cook can finally place his stamp on the technology giant, more than three years after Steve Jobs passed the torch to him before his death in 2011. But this is about more than Tim Cook, too. It is about the future of the company, because if ever there was a need for a boardroom shakeup, there is at Apple.”
“As Apple’s founder and chief visionary, Jobs viewed boards as an obstacle to innovation. Thus he surrounded himself in the boardroom with a brilliant but arguably passive group of directors who provided him with the leeway he felt he needed to build the company that Apple became,” Rogers writes. “The problem, of course, is that Cook adopted Jobs’ board, and such a strategy is no longer sufficient. Apple needs a board that will challenge Cook and his management team to remain competitive in a growing international market.”
“The question now facing Apple’s shareholders is whether Cook can embrace innovation in the boardroom the way Apple does in its products. Almost any board embarking on a director search can attest that there are no perfect candidates,” Rogers writes. “A ‘strong business background’ is almost always a given, but it is virtually impossible to check off all of the desired proficiencies on a nominating committee’s wish list.”
Nevertheless, if I were an Apple shareholder, I would want Tim Cook to address these five needs in his director search:
1) Female candidates
2) Selecting outside the directors’ club
3) International expertise
4) Technology background
5) Youth
Read more in the full article here.
Damn right they should change their board. When you are winning the race, when you are leading the pack then you should always change horses. Makes a lot of sense because Apple is making way too much money. I say if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
I say that a little maintenance is better than waiting until it is “broke” to fix it. The time to look for new talent is when you do not desperately need it. You can take your time and make the right choices. If Apple does not find the right people, then it doesn’t have to make any changes. But, if some great people are available, why not evolve the board?
The Board is fine. Except for Al Gore. Not sure why he was ever selected for Apple’s Board. Just don’t replace him with Jay Carney, OK?
Don’t you know….he invented the internet. 😉
You are right . Al Gore must be kicked out the board.
The obvious primary reason that Al Gore was chosen is foreign policy experience, in the same way that George Bush chose Dick Cheney as vice president.
No one person has all the skills.
As long as the directors discuss openly all the issues, then they are doing the first part of their job. The 2nd part is making the right decisions.
If there’s a specific action by the board of directors, then lets discuss that specific.
Foreign policy? That’s not “obvious” at all, especially as a reason he should remain on the current Board.
We was probably selected because (at that time) he was the most recent outgoing Vice President, Dem candidate for President, and a friend of Steve Jobs. I’m sure he had useful political “connections” 14 years ago…
Manbearpig.
Apple’s sole reason for existence is to develop technolgy to locate and eradicate Manbearpig.
Al Gore knows Manbearpig!
Its a Forbes article. Might as well be from the North Korean News Network.
Tim hears the growing number of voices calling for a new CEO to lead the company out of the condition of “ordinary” into which it has descended during his watch.
So, he wants to handpick his bosses to protect the most useless CEO in the world of free enterprise. AAPL holders should rise up and stop him now! Unlike the legions of pathetically loyal consumers who actually think anything Apple does is still wow, just wow; the owners of the company know their investment should be trading for a much, much higher price than the $100 currently being celebrated by the blind and clueless.
Man you are one tiring twit to listen to!
Seconded
“tiring twit” — nice one.
Read the name and pass it by, same with Ed and Cupertino Jo.
AAPL was in the $50-55 range (split-adjusted) when Tim Cook officially took over as CEO. And before he officially became CEO, he was acting as CEO for much of the time, as well as the COO who made Apple into the most efficient and profitable tech company in the world. AFTER he became CEO, Apple became the world’s most valuable publicly traded company.
Doubling your company’s stock price (and therefore market value), in about three years is “still wow.” The “blind and clueless” are those who ignore reality.
Sooooo “ordinary”, jay. Just the most successful company on the planet. That’s all.
You’ve explicitly said you think people here are fools. And most here think you’re an idiot. So please go away, or, at least, shut the fuck up.
Personally, I prefer a company that is making certain it has a stable future rather than pleasing the “sell-out-their-own-mother” suits on Wall Street. Nothing has done more damage to the USA than the short-term greed from modern stock trading.
Dumb fsck. First he thinks the b o d should manage the company, then….being run by a CEO shadowed by a whip wielding, board-sanctioned bully.
Old old school logic-free nonsense.
Did Tim mention a board room shake up? No, he did not.
So why make up crap and post it on the web. Nothing to see here people, move along.