He does almost everything differently than his predecessor Steve Jobs. And is still successful. And now one of the richest managers in the world.
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“One more thing” – this cult phrase from Apple’s superfather Steve Jobs should not be missing from a product presentation by his successor Tim Cook. Otherwise, Cook’s style doesn’t have much in common with Jobs’s.
Foto: David Paul Morris (Bloomberg)
Hardly any other CEO has the public face and management style as far apart as Tim Cook. Restrained, patient and with his slight southern accent, Cook is the opposite of other tech greats like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos. But behind the scenes, Apple boss Cook is relentless. He is a workaholic and 110 percent trimmed for success. He made Apple the most valuable company in economic history and made himself a billionaire.
The transition from the successful father to the successor often triggers a company crisis. General Electric, for example, sank into the deepest depths after cult manager Jack Welch gave up the leadership. And it took Microsoft almost 20 years to build on the success of Bill Gates.
“I had to find my own way, be the best version of myself.”
Tim Cook also met widespread suspicion in 2011 when he replaced the late Steve Jobs. “I knew I couldn’t copy it,” he once said, “I would have failed miserably. I had to find my own way, be the best version of myself. ” Although he built on the legacy of the company founder, he changed course in small steps, which Jobs would have avoided or even rejected.
Cook fully concentrated his energies on the development of a closed biotope around the iPhone, which should connect the customers inextricably with Apple. Unlike Jobs, he was rarely found in the design studios and spent more time with investors instead of engaging in discussions about new products. He followed the advice of hedge fund manager Carl Icahn to give more money to shareholders, which Jobs had always refused.
To date, Cook has paid out $ 475 billion in profits, more than quintupling its market value to nearly $ 2 trillion. On the board of directors, he replaced the product and marketing experts with finance experts.
Political tactician
Jobs shied away from politics and politicians. Unlike his competitors, he did not create a political action committee and engaged in minimal lobbying. Not so with Cook, a partisan and donor of the Democrats. He also has no trouble making friends with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner and thus securing direct access to the president. When Donald Trump falsely announced the construction of an Apple factory in Texas last year, Cook stood by and said nothing. That paid off when Trump introduced punitive tariffs on Chinese exports but exempted Apple from them.
It was Cook who began to outsource production to China as early as 2000 in order to benefit from the low wages. Then, in 2014, Cook achieved the big coup when he signed a cooperation agreement with China Mobile and won 700 million new iPhone customers. When asked about censorship and data abuse, Cook always emphasizes that the data is completely safe, and that Apple – like every other company – adheres to the respective laws of the country.
Not an innovative engineer
Cook’s reluctance, says ex-Apple HR manager Chris Deaver, arouses misconceptions. “Tim is like a processor. Time and patience are his best weapons, ”he told the Wall Street Journal. He knows the smallest details of the company and conducts his meetings with the sharpness of an interrogation. Employees are therefore prepared intensively when they meet the boss. “It’s about protecting the team and him. There is no time to waste. ”
But Cook is not an innovative engineer like Jobs, says John Burkey, former software developer at Apple and founder of a company for virtual assistants. Cook risk missing out on the next technological evolution. “Apple seems to be running at full speed. But with the exception
of hardware improvements, stagnation and hesitation spread. ” The strong demand for the iPhone still covers up such weaknesses for the time being.
Buffett benefits from Apple
Reliable, tactical and predictable. These are virtues that 89-year-old investor Warren Buffett values in 59-year-old Cook. After completely missing out on the soaring among Jobs, Buffett began buying Apple stock in 2016 after Cook made the iPhone a best seller in China.
The deal seemed well-belated after the surge in Apple stocks, but it paid off in full. Buffett made a profit of over 40 billion dollars with Apple since the low point this March and was able to hide massive losses with other holdings.
Cook joined Bill Gates and Warren Buffett’s initiative in 2015 to distribute all of his assets to charitable organizations; namely “in a systematic way”. Cook gave the first five million dollars in 2019 for unknown purposes. Jobs, on the other hand, did not have time for charitable tasks, he said. He bequeathed his fortune of over eight billion to his wife, Lauren Powell Jobs. It is now she who distributes the inheritance with both hands.
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