Reuters is today running a profile on Apple CEO Tim Cook. There’s of course the inevitable angle in there: stock down, no major new products launched, questions asked about whether Cook has what it takes. But what emerges is a picture of a man who knows he isn’t Steve Jobs and isn’t trying to be.
Yet who also doesn’t shy away from making big decisions in tough circumstances.
Insiders also said that Cook’s quiet demeanour shouldn’t be mistaken for lack of steel.
Cook soon issued a public apology to customers, fired Forstall, and handed responsibility for software design to Jony Ive, a Jobs soul-mate who had previously been in charge only of hardware design.
“The vision that Tim had to involve Jony and to essentially connect two very, very important Apple initiatives or areas of focus – that was a big decision on Tim’s part and he made it independently and very, very resolutely,” said Bob Iger, CEO of Walt Disney Co. and an Apple director …
Recruitment consultants who work with Apple gave mixed reports, one – a former Apple employee herself – saying that the people she knew liked Tim and were staying put, while another said they were “being inundated by LinkedIn messages and emails both by people who I never imagined would leave Apple.”
“He could skewer you with a sentence,” the person said. “He would say something along the lines of ‘I don’t think that’s good enough’ and that would be the end of it and you would just want to crawl into a hole and die.”
Bob Iger appears in no doubt about Cook’s leadership of the company.
It’s seemingly a view shared by Carl Icahn. As to whether other investors and analysts share his confidence, the fortunes of the iPhone 5S and 5C are clearly going to play a critical role, and we’ll get a view on that very soon.
I think he’s done so with a deft hand, a strong sense of himself. With that comes a real self-honesty that he is who he is, and not what the world expects him to be, or what Steve was. And I like that.
