That reflects how Cook’s imprint on Apple has often been described - making it more systematic, more transparent, more team-oriented, more humble. And while he’s quick to trumpet Apple, he is also unassuming, quickly noting, after saying his job can be “lonely,” that “I’m not looking for any sympathy. Though he has favorite phrases - many things are “deep,” and Apple’s mission is always its “North Star” - he eschews the jargon many CEOs use. “I know this sounds probably bizarre at this point,” he said, “but I had convinced myself that he would bounce.”Ĭook, 55, chooses his words carefully, taking long pauses and speaking with a slight Alabama drawl. He was at his most spirited when talking about privacy and the long-term future of Apple and the iPhone - calling Apple’s big presence in the smartphone industry “a privilege, not a problem” - and quieted considerably when talking about Jobs’s memory. He touched on succession planning and the importance of grooming internal candidates. He fiercely defended Apple’s tax policies. He spoke in candid terms about the mistakes he’s made on the way, such as his first hire to run Apple’s retail stores (“that was clearly a screw-up”). In two sprawling and highly self-reflective interviews - one in his office and another by phone just before he left for vacation in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks - Cook described why the visibility of the job has been “shocking,” how he’s learned to deal with the scrutiny, and who he’s turned to for advice at pivotal moments (Warren Buffett, on his decision to return cash to shareholders, and Anderson Cooper about publicly disclosing he is gay). Just after Apple disclosed those results, Cook sat down with The Washington Post to discuss his first five years in one of Corporate America’s most glaring spotlights. It was Apple’s second straight quarterly drop in sales after 13 years of growth. In its most recent quarter, iPhone sales fell 23 percent from a year ago, contributing to a 14.6 percent drop in overall revenue. Just the tally on iPhone sales, almost $141 billion over the past four quarters, is more than the annual sales figures of Cisco, Disney and Nike - combined.īut the iPhone has also been a source of recent disappointment, too. It led the company to soaring valuations and accounted for nearly two-thirds of Apple’s revenue in the past year. That’s because the iPhone, launched by Jobs, has been the biggest driver of Apple’s massive growth during Cook’s tenure. It is fitting that these two milestones arrive so close together. “It feels like it was yesterday in some respects.” “It’s been a blur in a lot of ways,” says Cook, who had filled in for Jobs during medical leaves. That celebratory milestone - Cook laughs when asked by a reporter if he’ll stop counting, as McDonald’s did with its hamburgers - aptly coincides with another big moment for the technology giant’s chief executive.Ī few weeks later, Cook would mark the fifth anniversary of what has been the most closely watched transition of power in corporate history: On Aug. 24, 2011, just six weeks before his death, Apple’s iconic founder, Steve Jobs, permanently handed his chief operating officer the reins. and Jackie Robinson, a rose gold iPhone 6s sits in its original box.Įarlier that morning, Cook had stood in front of employees at Apple headquarters and held up the phone, which a staffer had hand-delivered from a store in Beijing to commemorate a notable occasion: Apple had sold its billionth iPhone. On a sleek white coffee table in Apple CEO Tim Cook’s fourth-floor office in late July, beneath framed posters of Robert F. Apple’s CEO talks iPhones, AI, privacy, civil rights, missteps, China, taxes, Steve Jobs - and steers right past the car rumors
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