Since 2011, the face that stars in the presentations of new Apple devices is that of Tim Cook, an engineer who has been at the head of the company for a decade after having worked at Nike, IBM and Compaq.
Tim Cook, biography and career
Timothy Donald Cook was born in Alabama in 1960, studied industrial engineering at Auburn and an MBA at Duke. After going through the aforementioned companies, he began the career that led him to his current position at Apple. He joined the company in 1998, managing the global operations department with great success. In his role he helped achieve a significant increase in profit margins by reducing the number of dissatisfied customers.
Cook became Steve Jobs’ replacement. The first time was in 2005 and later, when Steve Jobs, founder of Apple along with Steve Wozniak, suffered a worsening of his health between 2010 and 2011, Cook temporarily replaced him as director of the company. After Jobs’ death, Cook was named CEO by Apple’s board of directors, a position he continues to hold today.
Everything indicates that Jobs had full confidence in Cook’s ability after his performance in the global operations, sales, after-sales service and hardware engineering departments of the Macintosh line.
Since taking his position as CEO of Apple, Cook has doubled both the company’s revenues and profits in addition to achieving a spectacular and historic multiplication of the company’s stock market value. In October 2011, when Steve Jobs died and Tim Cook took his place, Apple’s stock market value was $348 billion. Today it is 2.76 billion dollars. If then a share of the company was priced at around $13, today it is sold for $178.
How Tim Cook has transformed Apple
For many, Tim Cook was a reserved, methodical, almost boring person, determined to meet objectives and with an ambition marked by compliance with deadlines, dates and quantities. He has been compared to Steve Ballmer, who succeeded Bill Gates at the head of Microsoft before the current Satya Nadella, which led to the proclamation that with Cook “innovation is dead.”
In many ways Cook presents a profile diametrically opposed to the flashes of wit of the occasionally flamboyant Steve Jobs. He knew how to shine with his own light in his charismatic and motivating speeches. Also in his always exciting presentations with that “one more thing” (“one more thing”) which meant revealing an unexpected surprise.
Although there are some who find a certain reflection of Jobs in Cook: his obsessive perfectionism and his dedication to projects regardless of the hours. The result of this dedication was the achievement of stable stock flows of devices such as the iPod Nano, iPhone or iPad. In this way he reduced Apple’s stock inventory from months to days, with the consequent savings and the necessary adjustments to implement such dynamic stock management.
He was also one of those responsible for the important advances in the control of production costs. All of this, in combination with the good performance of the rest of the company, was decisive for the increase in profits that led Apple to its current position as one of the most valuable companies in the world.
Tim Cook’s team at Apple and main achievements
At the head of the company, Cook has surrounded himself with an outstanding team of executives who constitute the determining core. Historical names such as Scott Forstall, who did not overcome the failure that was the initial launch of a failed Apple Maps or Jony Ive (the father of most of the brand’s most iconic designs) have been giving way to others such as Craig Federighi (at head of iOS software engineering), Eddy Cue (head of Apple Maps and Siri) or Bob Mansfield (head of new product development).
Gradually, these changes have made Apple’s progress evolve upwards. Some believe that the dizzying era of relentless innovation with new generations of products launched every few years is long behind us.
But the truth is that Cook’s management has managed to place the iPhone as the best-selling phone model in the world. Apple is also the company with the highest stock market value on the entire planet. In addition, its Apple Store stores have become poles of attraction wherever they open.
Tim Cook’s pillars
People, strategy, execution. Those are the three pillars on which Cook has repeatedly explained that he bases his approach to his leadership style. His work days can start at 4:30 in the morning (the time he usually sends emails). They conclude Sunday nights with telephone meetings to prepare for the following week. Apple’s management under him has varied from that of Steve Jobs in such relevant aspects as reliable regularity and sustainable commitment.
It is undeniable that Cook’s previous tasks at Apple have forged him in a management style that is very mindful of planning, calendars, reliability… Also the ease in predicting “what will be next” with few surprises usually around the Product updates and availability. An absence of surprises that, beyond being considered boring, also provides the security of stability in the company’s progress.
Tim Cook Personality
The commitment to initiatives such as respect for the environment, health (physical, mental and emotional), gender identity or charitable causes have filled Tim Cook’s mandate. In part, they may be a reflection of his own personality.
Hermetic and very careful with his privacy, hardly any information about his personal life transcends. In 2014 he announced that he was gay, becoming the first CEO of a Fortune 500 company to do so.
Your enthusiasm for fitness, hiking or cycling as well as your concern for well-being and health may also have been especially relevant. The evolution of the Apple Watch as a fitness and sports tracking device may have been helped by Cook’s own personal preferences. Its positive values of health care and prevention, something in which sports practice is very relevant, are always present. For example, it is evident as a personal attitude in the presentations in which Cook himself announces the latest smart watch from the brand he directs.
Tim Cook, concerned about the environment and… what else?
That the carbon footprint produced by Apple devices during their manufacturing is reduced year after year is one of its obsessions. Along with the fact that its facilities only use 100% renewable energy or that the entire roof of Apple Park, the company’s spectacular headquarters in Cupertino, is a huge surface full of solar panels. These are just some of the achievements of the environmental policies carried out by Cook. But there is no room for fooling ourselves: some of these measures have an aspect that goes beyond environmental respect.
Thus, reducing the size of iPhone and Apple Watch packaging undeniably reduces waste and CO2 emissions, but it also helps to fit more devices in a container and reduce transportation costs, which also increases costs. benefits. Perhaps therein lies another hallmark of Cook’s personality. He is capable of achieving maximum efficiency and greatest profits without giving up respect for the environment and user satisfaction.
