Bloomberg Story Breaks Down Apple's Unrivaled Success Under Tim Cook's Leadership

[MacRumors]

Bloomberg has published an in-depth piece by journalists Austin Carr and Mark Gurman about the rise of Apple under Tim Cook's leadership, covering several attributes of the CEO that took over from Steve Jobs, including his diplomatic acumen, operational prowess, eye for detail, and manifest success in making Apple one of the biggest companies in the history of modern business.

The story touches on a number of topics in the recent history of Apple's meteoric rise under Cook's leadership, including the political sensitivities of outsourcing production to China, Cook's relationship with current and former U.S. presidents, his cost-conscious approach to new products, and the strategic difficulties of managing Apple's product diversification in a global-spanning supply chain.

Other highlights include:

• Steve Jobs' blunt response when President Obama asked him why Apple couldn't make the iPhone in the U.S.
• Tim Cook's unrelenting work ethic.
• Cook's unlikely friendship with President Trump, and Apple's silence in the face of falsehoods propagated by the former president about Apple production coming back to the U.S.
• Supply chain managers' alarm upon seeing the initial design of the 2013 "trashcan" Mac Pro.
• Internal pressure at Apple to decouple from China over censorship, human-rights violations, and criticism about labor conditions at mainland factories.
• Apple's continued success in the face of the global health crisis.
  Apple's fightback against claims of the company's "monopoly power" and its ongoing feud with big name software developers and social media platforms like Spotify, Epic Games, and Facebook.

For all the details, be sure to check out the full long read over on Bloomberg.

Article Link: Bloomberg Story Breaks Down Apple's Unrivaled Success Under Tim Cook's Leadership

 

[Romeo_Nightfall]

I donate you a „financial „

 

[Tech198]

first rule of leadership,, Blame everything on the guy before you.

 

[haruhiko]

first rule of leadership,, Blame everything on the guy before you.

Second rule: blame everything on China.

 

[Benjamid]

It is impressive what a great diplomat Cook is! It’s also insane how Apple recovered from its mid-decade slump (horrible keyboards, trash can mac, iPhone 6 design, initial reaction to watch etc). Thanks for that, Tim Cook.

On the other hand, Apple lost the A.I. race (to Amazon and Google). The lost the cloud race (to Amazon and Microsoft). They lost music to Spotify. They lost video to streaming above all to Netflix but also to Amazon. They lost home/virtual assistant to Amazon and Google.
They might lose app distribution to Epic or generally an open market. They have to ward of state regulations.

They are in the middle of a huge and ever changing battlefield. I have the uttermost respect for the intelligence and resilience people in that business must have!!!

 

[djcerla]

Most Apple’s “failures” according to MR dudes are the hits other companies would kill for.

 

[Tozovac]

Simpler answer: It’s all about the product, regardless of whoever’s in the corner (or round) office, and here the product(s) are still better than Windows & Android to enough people, despite awful decisions under his leadership: butterfly keyboard, the war on ports/thin-ness, design decisions to be different seemingly mostly just to be different, etc.

 

[Whathappened]

Simpler answer: It’s all about the product, regardless of whoever’s in the corner (or round) office, and here the product(s) are still better than Windows & Android to enough people, despite awful decisions under his leadership: butterfly keyboard, the war on ports/thin-ness, design decisions to be different seemingly mostly just to be different, etc.

You obviously don’t have a clue what you are talking about. As if the butterfly keyboard was something a ceo decides.. btw I had no problems with that keyboard and I love thin devices. Looks like many people feel the same or how do you explain all that record sales from Apple oder the years?
Look at all the failures Steve Jobs had in his lifetime.
You don’t need to like Tim but he made apple stronger than Steve could ever have dreamed of.

 

[svanstrom]

Second rule: blame everything on China.

Sometimes the thing getting blamed a lot deserves it (and more).

 

[threesixty360]

On there other hand, Apple lost the A.I. race (to Amazon and Google). The lost the cloud race (to Amazon and Microsoft). They lost music to Spotify. They lost video to streaming above all to Netflix but also to Amazon. They lost home/virtual assistant to Amazon and Google.

It's interesting that you use the word "lost". Like its a negative. I think if you look at Jobs' philosophy its always about focus. What you say "no" to is more important than what you say yes to.

The reason Apple versions of those services exist is to support the sale of Apple hardware mostly. The reason AWS/Spotify etc.. is to make money by being as globally dominant as possible. Very different things.

 

[Mike_Trivisonno]

I have been using Apple products for decades. An amazing American company that is the envy of the world. Good job Tim Apple. Give that guy a raise!

 

[NotTooLate]

Simpler answer: It’s all about the product, regardless of whoever’s in the corner (or round) office, and here the product(s) are still better than Windows & Android to enough people, despite awful decisions under his leadership: butterfly keyboard, the war on ports/thin-ness, design decisions to be different seemingly mostly just to be different, etc.

Real question here , how do you see a company as big as Apple running its day2day business ?
Do you envision a world where Tim Cook sits in his office and does a technical review of the butterfly keyboard , in which you expect him to find reliability issues ?

Do you think maybe a senior VP that makes 25M USD a year can be differed to such things (head of the engineering division for example ? I would guess it was WAY lower level manager that made the call to move to the new keyboard something like the head of Mac engineering , or even lower then that).

I am sure he is presented with new product concepts all the time that needs his approval but there is no way they run everything by him i.e changes to a keyboard or anything of that nature , there is not enough time in the day for that , he has bigger things to worry about.

Now , if there is a problem like they had with the butterfly keyboard reliability , in which the brand is getting hit and Apple needs to recall stuff and have a repair program + tons of negative publicity , I believe he gets involved , in that case the end result was changing the keyboard , so you should give him CREDIT for doing the right thing and not blame him.

Also if after a decade long running the company , those are the best "digs" you have , then he has done a remarkable job.

 

[Abazigal]

On there other hand, Apple lost the A.I. race (to Amazon and Google). The lost the cloud race (to Amazon and Microsoft). They lost music to Spotify. They lost video to streaming above all to Netflix but also to Amazon. They lost home/virtual assistant to Amazon and Google.

Smart speakers still haven’t taken off, much as the media tried to paint them as the next big thing after the iphone.

Google may be ahead in AI, but they still have yet to package it in a manner that makes sense for the end user. For example, it seems like we haven’t heard much of Google Duplex (the AI that was supposed to make calls for you) since it was announced.

Conversely, Siri may arguably be more limited but guess what? Thanks to the Apple Watch (of which Apple has sold a lot of), Apple is able to put its own smart assistant in front of more users (via the siri watch face), which in turn it gets used more.

Spotify has more subscribers, but I too can argue that Apple has the subscribers in the regions that count (ie: the more developed countries where Apple has a strong iPhone presence in, which in turn further entrenches its formidable ecosystem lead).

Likewise, streaming isn’t mutually exclusive. Unlike music, there is room for multiple video streaming subscriptions. So just because I am paying for netflix doesn’t mean I cannot subscribe to TV+ or Disney+, and again, Apple has the advantage with Apple One getting people to hop on board services they otherwise may not pay for on their own.

Actually, it seems the media likes to constantly paint Apple as being just one flop away from irrelevancy, because evidently, constantly talking about how Apple is winning is boring and doesn’t attract the clicks.

 

[Abazigal]

I have on numerous occasions in the past opined that different people are needed at different points in a company history.

It’s taken 10 long years to prove it, but it’s clear that Steve Jobs made the right move in handing the reins of Apple over to Tim Cook, who in reality was already overseeing most of a CEO’s traditional duties even when Steve Jobs was still around anyways.

Jobs was right for his era, but he would have been a disaster for the Cook era. Cook is amazing, and has been responsible for most of the achievements of Apple, though not the initial innovation and concept that Jobs provided. Cook has refined the culture and expanded it, and has done as fine a job as any CEO in American history, if not world business history.

He's Eisenhower, not Churchill.

And Apple is better off for it.

 

[44267547]

I’ve been an avid follower of Tim Cook right around the time he succeeded Steve Jobs and I think there’s only one word to really describe him, ‘Poised’. I mean, has he ever put Apple a position where they were financially unstable? Look at the growth of the products and services, it’s accrued records that were never near what Steve Jobs probably could’ve imagined this company is today.

I suspect Tim Cook has at least two years left with Apple at minimum, but I’m also confident that he will leave the company‘s future in a healthy state for whoever the next CEO might be, which in all likelihood, probably will be Jeff Williams.

 

[dwaltwhit]

It baffles me to watch people argue the successes of the most profitable company in the world. Apple makes a bazillion dollars a year and people are talking about butterfly keyboards and a mac pro from 8 years ago.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

And yet, there are still people that want to bring him down.

Yes, it’s not been plain sailing under TC - the company has been forced to learn from and backtrack on some decisions (ie Apple Watch Edition, loss focus on ‘pro’ Mac users, pushing some pricing boundaries) - but I think in the end they’ve pulled through well.

I would also argue that, for many of their industrial design errors, Jony Ive’s arrogance post-Jobs would have been to blame. This slump in focus is not coincidental prior to his eventual retirement - the company wouldn’t follow his direction.

A part of me is sad that Apple has lots it’s edge as the underdog and that it caters more to the upper-classes in certain categories, but their success in most of the industries they’ve entered has been incredible to see.

Also, the progress they’ve made when it comes to inclusion and openness is beyond what Apple was like when Apple was under Jobs.

 

[44267547]

It baffles me to watch people argue the successes of the most profitable company in the world. Apple makes a bazillion dollars a year and people are talking about butterfly keyboards and a mac pro from 8 years ago.

Right, these are the same people who can’t stand to see the success of Apple/Cook continue to grow. They will rant, stomp and whine to make it seem like Apple ‘can’t do anything right’, until these amazing quarterly reports are released, and debunks everything these haters claimed. It’s just noise you have to tune out, and even though there are valid criticisms about Apple, there are people here who will talk about a problem with the iPhone 10 years ago who are so fixated on their hatred towards Apple, it affects there personal life. It’s bizarre really.

 

[Pangalactic]

I think Tim Cook did an amazing job. Of course, there have been numerous failures along the way, but also breakthrough products like the AirPods or the Apple Watch that completely took over their respective markets.

Moreover, Apple has retained its reputation with being user friendly and a focus on privacy. Compare that to where most other megacorporations ended up: Facebook is on the brink of being split into parts with a terrible reputation, Google is approximately in the same boat. Microsoft is actually doing better now, but it still has a long way to go. And Apple still has the best ecosystem out of all the phone producers in the world.

As for Tim Cook vs Steve Jobs, the truth is - a person can be taught to be a great CEO (and even that takes a lot of talent apart from learned skills), but no one can be taught to be a great visionary leader. Steve was a one-of-a-kind person that cannot be replicated, and so I'm glad Apple got such a great CEO afterwards.

 

[addictive]

Tim Cook has been an incredible CEO for Apple, he has grown the company vastly, it has gone from strength to strength. He isn't the visionary genius that Steve Jobs was - but then almost no other CEO is - perhaps Elon Musk is most similar to Jobs but he's unique among CEOs. Cook as a traditional CEO is one of the best in the corporate world.

Apple is always ahead of it's competitors, I can't wait to see what the company can do with it's own silicon and successors to the M1.

 

[cfdlab]

The mac has been a disaster under him. Only this year it may see some recovery. He thinks an ipad is a computer, maybe it will be one day, but definitely not now. The iosification of mac has happened under him. If he can claim success he must also own up to the failures of the mac. The buck stops with him.

 

[e-coli]

Apple lost the A.I. race (to Amazon and Google).

Apple is the single largest AI company on planet earth by scale of deployment. Every iOS device is executing AI across a range of services. Every A-series chip and the new Apple M-series silicon is architecturally designed for AI applications. Not sure who you think Apple has lost AI to, but Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Amazon all consider Apple to be a dominant player in that market. They just don’t directly monetize it for institutional use or standalone products.

 

[Scottsoapbox]

Most Apple’s “failures” according to MR dudes are the hits other companies would kill for.

Massive scale, market power, and cash reserves make it easy to beat smaller companies.

Near monopoly power works regardless of the CEO or product.

 

[jayducharme]

The article is paywalled. But I do admire how far Cook has taken the company. I'd think there are only so many innovations a company can make, and yet gradually Apple seems to keep on innovating.

 

[Digital Dude]

Whenever I purchase a product or service from a company, I don't think about their financial success. If a product works for me, then I buy it. However, I do care about how I may be treated as a customer. Under Steve Jobs, I enjoyed a much better relationship whenever I needed help. Under the current CEO, I don't feel that way at all.