“Did Apple’s (AAPL) board of directors make too quick of a decision when they effectively went all-in Tim Cook?” Rocco Pendola asks yet again for TheStreet. “Here we are, with AAPL waffling in the low-to-mid $400s… If the next six months or a year go by and things do not improve, we’ll look back on this and… it will not seem funny. What do I mean by ‘improve?'”
The one-note Pendola writes, “First, sentiment must improve. That’s what drives AAPL. Tim Cook presides over uncertainty that — fair or not, wrong or right — looms because he is not Steve Jobs. That’s why the stock is down…. It’s one thing to run a supply chain (or operate retail like Ron Johnson did in the shadow of Steve Jobs). It’s entirely another to be in the same class as Jobs… as a high-profile CEO.”
MacDailyNews Take: Why does Rocco hate Tim Cook so much that it’s all the insipid bastage can manage to write about? Stay tuned for the answer below…
Pendola writes, “And, at some point, Apple’s board will lose the confidence they must be starting to question. How could any board not given the circumstances? How can they look at Tim Cook and not second-guess their decision to make the symbolic move to grant the guy one of the biggest stock awards in the history of executive compensation? I’m sure he has a pretty sweet separation package as well.”
MacDailyNews Take: Ah, finally, after umpteen columns that can be summarized “Tim Cook is not Steve Jobs, so Apple is doomed,” there’s the answer:
Jealousy.
It’s not at all becoming, Rocco.
And, hey, Rocco, in the time it took you to read this far, Tim Cook made more than you’ll make in your entire lifetime. Have a nice day!
“Sure, Jobs wanted Cook to get the gig. But he didn’t make the decision to prematurely anoint Cook the guy for the next decade,” Mr. Monotone scribbles. “Symbolic or not, that was a bad move. And don’t be surprised if you start hearing talk about Apple reversing course much sooner than expected.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Tedious Rocco had better hope his life’s most fervent wish does not come true or he’ll have nothing to write about.
That said, Cook does have a problem – hopefully a temporary one – in that Apple’s shareholders’ patience is wearing thin. $705 to $430 in 6 months after reporting all-time record earnings will do that to you. No matter how good he is, if the stock price doesn’t rebound, he’ll be skating on thin ice sooner than later.
Tim Cook is the perfect man for this very difficult job. We can think of nobody better. There are only three issues we have with Cook so far:
• Marketing: Steve Jobs held a three-hour meeting every Wednesday afternoon with his top agency, marketing and communications people to approve each new commercial, print ad, web ad, and billboard. Does Tim Cook? If he does, does he have anything close to Jobs’ sensibilities in this area? Judging from Apple’s marketing since Steve left the building, he does not. Therefore, Cook needs to find a marketing guru to take Steve’s place, conduct these Wednesday meetings, and hold his marketing peoples’ feet to the fire until he/she is extremely satisfied.
• Presentations: Nowhere is it more obvious that Tim Cook is not Steve Jobs than on stage. Jony Ive needs to be convinced to take his passion live onto the stage. We saw him do it with extraordinary aplomb at Steve Jobs’ memorial. We see him do it in each new major product’s marketing video. Cook needs to cede the stage to the guy at Apple who is closest to having Steve’s vision, passion and presentation skills. Cook doesn’t strike us as having an overblown ego. He should step back. If Jony is reticent, he needs to be convinced. There is no rule that the CEO has to be the one presenting at Apple events. It is a total waste for Cook to keep trying so obviously hard to do something that is not his forte when Jony exists and is sitting right there backstage. We don’t hang on Cook’s every word (we just wonder why he’s overemphasizing some of them so much). We hung on Steve’s every word. We hang on Jony’s every word. It’s that simple. At the very least, have Tim MC the events, but make sure Jony is the one out there doing the reveals and gushing about the products. If Jony really loves Apple, and we’re sure he does, then he should demand the job. Step back, Tim, and focus on doing what you’re good at.
• Operations: With his newfound extra time having Jony doing the events like he should be, Cook will have time to mentor and oversee his operations guy, Jeff Williams, and make sure nothing like the total fsckup that happened last quarter happens ever again. Apple is too big and too rich to screw up things like iMac availability for Christmas shopping season. This isn’t 1996. Steve Jobs would have gone on a spree with an axe. Tim Cook, operations genius, is ultimately responsible for Apple blowing some 800,000 iMac sales in fiscal Q113 (holiday quarter). (Hopefully, he blew them into this quarter.) If Apple had those iMacs ready like they should have, not two months late, then they would have handily beaten the street in all respects and we wouldn’t be having this conversation today.
Fix these three things (the marketing issue being the most difficult as Steve was a genius) and, like we said, Tim Cook is the perfect man for the job.
Related articles:
Obviously, Apple’s autumn iMac launch was badly botched – March 19, 2013
Tim Cook’s doing fine, some Apple shareholders know nothing, but there are 3 things Cook needs to do – March 5, 2013
The curious case of Tim Cook, operations genius, and the missing iMacs – February 4, 2013
Tim Cook has to go. All he’s doing is riding Steve Jobs’ coattails. He is about as creative as a Samsung corporate spy, and about as entertaining to watch as a Mexican soap opera!
He has Zero ideas, Zero innovative skills, Zero presentation skills, Zero personality, and he’s about as intriguing to watch as drying paint.
The only thing he has brought us since he took command is a $45 iOS device adapter… thanks Tim!
Saying it’s time for him to go is like saying it’s time for Sarah Palin to read a book.
It’s all fine and good that many of the MDN faithful have so much patience with the timid Cook leadership. However, if Apple doesn’t offer — and actually deliver — exciting new hardware in 2013, then more investors will jump ship. The stock price is not entirely due to trader manipulation. Seldom have we seen so much Apple hardware and software go so long without updates.
At Cook’s obscene pay rate, he ought to be able to provide much more decisive, user-focused leadership. As it is, the “supply chain genius” hasn’t done well with supply chain, product introductions, or investors. What exactly does Cook do well???
Fact is Apple is becoming the mature company that no longer has continuous exponential growth which is totally unrealistic expectation. The maket it he body tt has to come to terms with this. To replace the CEO would do the exact opposite and revive the ping pong era of the previous post Jobs era. One thing is certain like before no one will satisfy these analysts so don’t play their destructive game because that is what many actually want, the ultimate destruction of the business.
Dunno if I’ve said this before, but the one person I always saw as a sort of mini-Steve, who was just as passionate about the products and had the presentation down to a t, was Scott Forrestall (sorry if I misspelled his name). Sure, Sir Jony has the passion and the presentation is great, but Scott has two things that Sir Ive doesn’t – Steve’s ideology and his attitude. Come on, you know it’s true. Scott and Steve were closer than you might think, in both idea and attitude. Both were said to have been hard to work with, both were proponents of skeuomorphism (which I don’t get why people have such a grudge against it. I think it makes the device that much more friendly), and both had that fire about them when they spoke. I hung on Scott’s every word just the same as I hung on Steve’s. I feel that Apple must take Scott back or risk eventually losing Steve’s influence. If Steve didn’t want Scott there, then why didn’t he fire Scott sooner?