“Tim Cook is doing a better job running Apple than the late Steve Jobs would,” Jeff Reeves writes for MarketWatch.
“I think most investors would agree that the two CEOs are quite different. And, on balance, Cook is the better man for the job today,” Reeves writes. “Here’s why: Cook cares about investor sentiment: In March, investing icon and ‘Mad Money’ host Jim Cramer got a surprise call from Tim Cook wishing him a happy 10-year anniversary. Could you imagine Steve Jobs calling up Cramer the showman? Even more telling was when Cook emailed Cramer in August to give a rare mid-quarter update of sorts, including a report that China sales were going strong. It’s hard to believe Jobs would care so much about this kind of investor-focused communication.”
“Cook cares about shareholders: It’s not all touchy-feely talk from Cook when it comes to advocating for investors, either. There’s also a strong history of dividends and buybacks, including more than $126 billion in capital returned to shareholders since the end of 2012. Jobs was famous for hoarding cash rather than distributing it because he wanted to reinvest in Apple’s growth,” Reeves writes. “It’s great that Jobs had the vision to create devices that so many people wanted, but making these high-quality gadgets and delivering them around the world, on time, is no small feat. It’s not an exaggeration to say that without a best-in-class supply chain, Apple’s image wouldn’t be quite so polished regardless of its innovative tech toys.”
“Cook isn’t afraid to admit mistakes, such as apologizing for a botched Apple Maps rollout in 2012,” Reeves writes. “This is not the same company with the same needs it had 10 years ago, and in many cases (including this one), a change of leadership allows for a new vision to take hold.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Even when the comparison to Jobs is favorable to him (rare), Tim Cook has a thankless job, but the hundreds of millions of dollars he gets for it certainly help to assuage the torment.
This is a futile exercise. There is no way to compare the two, not knowing how Steve would have grown or how he would have run the company had he not been preoccupied with not dying, or actually dying, for the last several years of his tenure. Jobs had certain strengths, vision, charisma, and marketing to quickly name just three of many, that Cook & Co, have struggled and continue to struggle with in Jobs’ absence.
There’s no way to say whether Apple would be better off today with X or Y as CEO. It’s just quixotic mental masturbation.