“Apple CEO Tim Cook is a staunch advocate of corporations doing their part to help improve the world,” Benjamin Synder reports for CNBC. “Cook, who took the reins from the late Steve Jobs in 2011 and is one of America’s highest-paid chief executives, believes people should develop their morals and character and bring a spirit of helping others to the workplace.”
Synder reports, “Here are three issues Cook has taken on in an attempt to improve the world, both personally and professionally.”
• Equal rights: In 2014, Cook became the first CEO of a Fortune 500 company to come out as gay. In doing so, he promoted equal rights for all.
• The environment: In a recent interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, Cook talked about his company’s efforts to create jobs in the U.S. and also to help the planet… “We give back through our work in the environment, in running the company on renewable energy. We give back in job creation.”
• Privacy: “When I think of civil liberties, I think of the founding principles of the country,” said Cook. “The freedoms that are in the First Amendment. But also the fundamental right to privacy… at the end of the day, we’re going to fight the good fight not only for our customers but for the country.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote in October 2015:
Too many people do not realize how lucky we are that Tim Cook is CEO of Apple Inc. No matter what else Cook does, as long as he holds his ground on this issue [privacy via strong encryption], he’s one of the greatest CEOs in history. We need and are lucky to have a man with a strong backbone to stand up to this constant pressure from misguided government spies who’re hell bent on running roughshod over the U.S. Constitution and U.S. citizens’ rights.
No of these issues are the primary responsibility of CEO. Sounds like Tim should be a community activist, lawyer, law enforcement agent, or politician. You know, Timmy, maybe you do need a career change.
Actually, I disagree. The CEOs of tech companies are in a unique position to be PRECISELY the ones concerned with treating privacy issues ethically. I’m not crazy about some of his politicking, but Cook is absolutely unique, and CORRECT in this regard. The rest are all too greedy or realize that their entire business model would crumble if they respected the privacy rights of their users, and they choose their own bottom line every time (if we as individuals were permitted to profit off of our own data to the extent that corporations do, we could all retire). I am eminently grateful that he is exactly where he is. Don’t underestimate how critical that one single issue is in the 21st century.
You are confused. The reason Timmy can delegate the running of Apple and go off one his social crusades is because Jobs left a gold mine. when one has essentially infinite wealth, then of course one has the luxury of paying lip service to the values Jobs demonstrated while fellating the bankers on wall street.
Apple has grown into just another corporation. Its executives care only about profit and power. Nobody at apple is trying to empower their customers. Apple isn’t shielding its users from the data sucking vampires at google or facebook. Apple charges top dollar for products that are not always superior anymore. You may be convinced that Apple is more private and secure. Why can’t apple guarantee it in its user agreements? Could the real reason be that iAd and siri and the iCloud AWS and iCloud google servers are data mining just like every other tech company? Little Snitch will show you how often your Mac phones home when there is no reason for it to. So if apple cares so much about its userywhy are its Macs all junk? Why did apple have to gut the mac team? Hell apple can’t even make its own hardware to maintain a tech lead. Apple hires samsung and amazon to do the work Apple is now too lazy to do, all the while apple sits on enough cash to build anything it could possibly want.
Every CEO is focused on one thing, and that is money. Cook is no different, he just delegates and trots around the world attempting to tell everyone that apple still cares about the people and products. Nope. Apple is all about the money.
The Apple brand is to be the tech company that, above all others, is concerned with user privacy. Maintaining the brand is quite clearly the primary responsibility of Apple’s CEO.
Another aspect of the Apple brand—going back to the first Jobs era—is that it is on the cutting edge of protecting and advocating for equal rights for its employees. That enables them to recruit the best available people regardless of their race, religion, national origin, sex, and gender identification. Again, keeping your employees safe and happy is a primary responsibility of a CEO.
Finally, another aspect of the Apple brand is that the company cares for the environment. You may wish that the company preferred to burn tires and dump plastic in the river, but most of its customers prefer “green” over “greed.” In fact, Apple has demonstrated that a commitment to renewable energy and resources need not be much more expensive than the wasteful alternatives. Maintaining that aspect of the Apple brand is, again, precisely a primary responsibility of the company’s CEO.
Totally agree with you.
Look like the #1 thing that Tim Cock is doing to change the world is to make apple irrelevant. Sure, it is almost 800 billion company, that great for the investors, but what about Steve Job’s philosophy that apple was committed to makes the best products in the world? Macs are not being upgraded or have very insignificant upgrades, software is getting buggier, apple TV is falling behind. Apple/LG monitor are a fiasco… Yes, Tim is changing the world, to be money oriented and not quality oriented.
Privacy issues that affect a companies products that affect the end users experience is in the realm of Tim.
Beyond that, Tim can try and create a diverse company, which only means quotas of the right people, even if they are not the best for the job.
He can say that the companies environmental impact is as green as possible, nothing wrong with that.. But if he starts advocating that for those than cannot afford it, then he’s out of bounds.. That’s the biggest issue with green initiatives, they cost far more then others.. They are terrible on the return on investment, you can spend millions (or more), and not ever get the value back ever.. your always in the red.
I just vomited.
We all know you’re sick. Go to the hospital, pay with your credit card, and leave the forum before you infect the few sane people left.
“President Clinton who, unlike President Trump, was being investigated by the FBI, fired his Director of the FBI..”
..and the very next day the body of Vince Foster was found at Fort Marcy Park.
You mean MY Billy?????
Amazing. You can type while you work.
It really amazing that I can type while your sister is working my knob.
I wasn’t talking about or defending Clinton.
Who are you quoting?
We get it, you have an obsession about the Clintons, so everytime you see a keyboard you have to copy and paste non sequitur to air your hatred.
The USA hasn’t had a great president since Eisenhower. The difference is, I call it like it is. You are just a water boy for one of the two partisan corrupt political machines.
Donald Trump’s greatest adversary was not The Clot™ or the Democrats, it was the established Republicans, The Bush Crime Syndicate and the Yellow Stream Media…so, your “water boy for one of the two partisan corrupt political machines” is blatantly false.
Incidentally, both JFK and Reagan were great presidents.
JFK was not a great president. When he wasn’t womanizing and relying on nepotistic cabinent appointments, he dramatically escalated military entanglements in Vietnam and damn near started WW3 with an ill advised attack on Cuba. The few good things he did accomplish was to launch the peace corps and fund science and education and NASA.
Reagan was a horrible president. Even before he lost his mind, his judgement was horrible. Iran/Contra was treasonous and immoral. Funding central American warlords and engaging American troops was atrocious. And while you think he brought some exciting economic renewal to the world, the reality is that the world was already recovering from the OPEC embargo. Reagan’s tax manipulation (big cut / big increase / tiny cut) served only to unsettle the economy and hand his successor a recession. And to top it all off, he bloated the US debt greater than any president in peacetime ever.
Gorbechov and GHW Bush ended the cold war, not Reagan. Reagan just gets lots of credit for delivering nice trite speeches and dancing with Thatcher. You know, the British prime minister who killed the UK coal industry and set up free trade agreements with the EU in order to stimulate the London financial industry.
Your move chief.
you’re an idiot.
PS: You weren’t even alive when he was president, punk.
How pathetic. Little botty got totally Own3d…and that’s all you got?
Belly laugh or what!
Yes, gross stupidity and brain damage has that effect sometimes. Or maybe you overdosed on your medication?
The Lying Pipeline Timmy: “When I think of civil liberties, I think of the founding principles of the country,” said Cook. “The freedoms that are in the First Amendment.”
The Real Pipeline Timmy: “… the epidemic of false reports ‘is a big problem in a lot of the world’ and necessitates a CRACKDOWN BY THE AUTHORITIES and technology firms.”
“‘It has to be ingrained in the schools, it has to be ingrained in the public.” [caps mine]
kiss my äss, you goddamned phony.
Hey Bo-tox,
Cook may not be Steve Jobs but he is pretty good CEO with a social conscience. Not like yer Pres Drumf with the old lady orange poofy hair who only cares about white rich folks and himself of course.
what a cute poodle.
Deep.
Bet you thought long and hard on that one… sort of like you did when you voted.
I wish you and the poodle the very best.
Tim Cook may be trying to change the world through these forms of social advocacy, and he may succeed in a limited way, but much of this is beside the point. The real, and only, way a corporation changes the world is to create wealth and employment, which ideally extend the reach of social benefits to everyone. We could haggle over “ideally” but that would be tiresome.
At the root of Trump’s appeal (and of other populists) is the abandonment of the American Dream by Politics-As-Usual and Business-As-Usual. Corporate interests have come to utterly dominate both. As a result, what does “trickle-down” goes to cheaper foreign workers instead of to Americans whose factories were shuttered, whose farms were foreclosed, whose towns were impoverished. Many were down to their last card: the vote.
These problems were once regarded somewhat dismissively as “regional.” Trump’s famous electoral map proves that these “regional” problems had metastasised. There are too many of them now to pretend that the oligarchy is safe from the wrath of the forgotten. To these men of the 1-percent I say, shock the system now or retreat to your moon colony.
Here’s where Tim Cook is showing, if not vision, an appreciation of reality. By investing a billion dollars in advanced marketing—and wasting no time, doling out $200M to Corning—he has targeted the next area ripe for disruption: domestic jobs, the same jobs (or lack of) that helped elect Trump.
“Many were down to their last card: the vote.”
superb.
The last cards are bullets. Thankfully we’re not there yet, but history shows it’s just a matter of time.
The Second Amendment is the last resort to protect all the others.
Try vomiting again, only this time, try swallowing it.
like you do your boyfriends?
better he inhale it
Hopefully all over yourself
Here is how Cook could change the world in three ways:
release a 1) new desktop Mac 2) a new laptop Mac and 3) a new pro Mac.
Tim Cook’s messiah complex compels him to push product development to the back burner.
like I argued before what about the Moral lapse of neglecting Apple’s pro users for so long?
Apple marketed to pro users ( the photoshop shootouts against Windows machines, the ads, buying of FCP, Aperture etc all pro marketing strategies) and pros bought into the Apple eco system, some spending tens of thousands of dollars . Then they don’t update the Mac Pro (which you can’t upgrade the GPU like the previous Mac) since 2013. A new GPU like a GTX 1080 is 4 times faster than the Cylinder not to mention faster more core CPUs, subsystems in rival Windows machines used by our competitors.
This put the livelihoods of pro users, their staff, their families in jeopardy : if your business had 20 MPs you would be spending tens of thousands to switch to Windows which might not even be possible due to entrenched workflow, do you retrain staff etc? A big mess for many. Yet for YEARS complete neglect while Tim Cook made ‘Social Speeches’ outside until the mea culpa by a couple of SVPs a few weeks ago about the MP. And still at least a year more for new Mac… 2013 to earliest 2018 ! (they still don’t have the urgency.. )
So Mr Ethical, is that Ethical?
Are Apple ethics ONLY for OUTSIDERS (where you can get awards from the Kennedy foundation etc) and then for Apple CONSUMERS — like I said You Marketed To — the dollar comes first? (and I don’t even think MPs if they built the right tower would lose money, just make less than iPhones etc).
If Apple ( a BUSINESS corp. btw and not a social group like Green Peace) does not honour it’s customers whom like I said it marketed to, espousing social messages is hollow.
thinking about my post I have to indicate that personally I’m social liberal/ fiscal conservative (i.e. I have no issues with gays etc but I don’t want govt. to tax me anymore !) so I’m probably closer to Cook’s thinking on some stuff. My unhappiness is Cook’s blindspot when it comes to some of his customers like the high end Pros and being less laser focus on products than product fanatic Jobs. Besides the MP there are other products the Mini , entry level Macbook Air, the Apple TV ( they are still selling that Remote… ).
As I’ve listed before Jobs in his 10 years or so second term created a host of Macs from Orange Clamshell iBooks to Macbook Airs, Created iPod , iTunes, Retail Stores, Transition from OS9 to OSX (Unix), Power PC to Intel, iOS, iPhone, iPad, App Store etc etc. Look at Cook’s product gains, Cook if you count the interim CEO years is going on to like 8 years or so now, . 95% of Apple’s revenues today I estimate is from products Jobs masterminded.
i would have much less problem with Cook soapboxing (I actually agree with some posters here that today Social concern is a big issue among younger consumers and corporations have a social responsibiity ) if he ‘kept faith’ with some consumers like the Pros and have his products flowing quickly (from that ‘pipeline’ ) and top in class in every category.
Mr Cook, as an Apple shareholder and customer, I think you have your priorities all fucked up.
As a for profit corporation the primary purpose is to make money- and not by borrowing massive amounts in a tax dodge. If Trump can stay out of jail you might get your tax holiday, but do not hold your breath.
As Apple (formerly Apple Computer) the heritage says you should do whatever is necessary to put and keep the Macintosh at the top of the computing world. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that you give not a shit about anything but rental content and mobile devices. The two markets that Apple used to own- Creative and Education have been lost due to your incompetence. Google Chromebooks largely own education and Creative has migrated to Windows and LINUX.
As to your supposed interest in the environment- shorten your supply chain. Shipping shit all over the world instead of local production has a huge carbon footprint. So does flying finished product to the US on cargo jets.
“…If Trump can stay out of jail…”
on what charges?
Things are changing. The political left has become one big ouroboros of absurdity, hypocrisy, fear and hate. They are eating their own tail, and people are starting to see their psychosis for what it is.
In the meantime…
http://dailycaller.com/2017/05/10/how-the-trump-movement-is-killing-hollywood-the-media/
“The Daily Caller”… what a fucking joke.
Treason. Events that have unfolded in the last 6 months strongly hint that the Trump campaign and the Trump administration had dealings with foreign agents to affect the election outcome and leak classified info. Trump is in full cover-up mode now.
Assuming the idiot congressional republican leaders actually follow through with their investigation. Asswipe McConnell wouldn’t stand up for justice if it meant embarrassing his corrupt party, though, so it may take old timers like McCain to keep on the issue.
The beauty of the situation is that since Trump threw Comey under the bus, Comey now is entirely free to testify all that he knows before the forthcoming Congressional hearing. There can be no more political/career ramifications on Comey, so Trump has no more leverage to hide anything that Comey already dug up.
Kinda what you would expect from longtime Samsung user Trump.
My definition of treason would be a Secretary of State who abused her position to sell 20% of US uranium to a hostile government while her husband garnered $500k for a 20 minute speech in Moscow.
call me old-fashioned.
I have no argument regarding the Clintons.
Both Trump and Clinton are grifters. The differences are the Clintons got to the public trough faster and the Donald started with a bigger grub stake. Both have daughters married to the sons of convicted Banksters that have never earned a penny in their lives apart from trading on Daddy’s name.
…well, let me know when charges are filed against our beloved president…
That’s an entirely false story. http://www.snopes.com/hillary-clinton-uranium-russia-deal/
You clearly have no idea how absurd your conspiracy theories sounds to the rest of the world. False ideas like this are so easily debunked yet people like you don’t seem to understand basic media literacy and just repeat these lies.
lol, Snopes: Revisionist Central.
Interesting how you are never able to offer a reputable source of your own, but a very well researched source like Snopes isn’t acceptable to your partisan little peabrain.
well, I am flattered you are so interested, Mike…now go fück yourself.
Hang around. They are coming.
Donnie’s all mobbed up like every NYC Developer and every NJ Casino Operator.
…so you and Rachel Maddow say.
Trump is guilty of causing nation wide libtard apoplectic fits.
ain’t it great? 🙂
Cook is pushing homosexuality and atheism and collectivism. He and his ilk are not about ‘equality’ in any sane shape or form, and in fact suppresses free speech, supports brutal communist and Islamic theocracies that are completely anti-ethical to his proclaimed mission.
According to Alex Jones, the Illuminati are behind it all. This secret cult of Satanists and Jews has been behind every bad act since the 1700s. Look how the new French President-Elect showed his allegiance by making his victory speech before the pyramidal skylight at the Louvre Museum. I guess Tim Cook is in on it, too.
https://www.infowars.com/macron-gives-victory-speech-in-front-of-illuminati-pyramid/
https://www.infowars.com/trump-was-right-jewish-teen-arrested-for-bomb-threats-to-jewish-centers/
I did think it was noteworthy that globalist pig Macron played the EU’s stolen “Ode To Joy” instead of “La Marseillaise” at his acceptance speech. Doesn’t much matter anyway. France is doomed.
Collectivism? The most overpaid ceo in the world? Are you saying that because Timmy builds his hardware in communist china?
It’d be nice if he could change the world by changing the Mac Pro, the Mac Mini, making the iPad Pro less ridiculously expensive, increasing iCloud storage and making iTunes lighter and play well with Apple Music.
There. That’d change the world for millions. Don’t forget you run a tech company Tim.