He closed a lot of Apple factories
In 1998, Tim Cook joined Apple as senior vice president for worldwide operations, after meeting Steve Jobs. Cook shut down warehouses and factories and replaced them with contract manufacturers, which lead to a decrease in Apple's inventory from months to days. The move guaranteed a stable supply to the iPod Nano, iPhone and iPad. Tim's actions were greatly recognized as it brought huge profits to the company, leading to his promotion as lead operations in January 2007.
Steve and Tim had a strong partnership that saved Apple
Due to Jobs' progressing illness, he eventually resigned as CEO and named Tim Cook as the new chief executive officer of Apple on August 2011. Steve died six weeks later due to complications of pancreatic cancer. According to Forbes contributor Robin Ferracone, Steve and Tim had built a strong partnership which saved the company from it's downward spiral of $5 billion in losses from 1995 to 1998, and brought it to $100 billion in revenue in 2012. After becoming CEO, Cook wanted to build a much more united Apple Inc., which meant he weeded out people with disagreeable personalities, even those that Steve Jobs tolerated.
He wakes up at 3:45 in the morning
In an interview with an Australian media company, Cook explained that mornings are free of distractions, therefore he can control it better than the rest of the day. The Apple CEO wakes up at 3:45 in the morning, and spends the next hour reading emails from Apple users. Cook commented that although he is unable to read hundreds of customer emails in the wee hours of the morning, he does read an extraordinary number of them, keeping his hands on the pulse of what customers are feeling. At 5 in the morning, Tim goes to the gym for one hour, and also enjoys other fitness activities, such as hiking and cycling on some days.
He offered his liver to Steve Jobs
Sharing a rare blood type, Tim Cook offered a portion of his liver to Steve and got yelled out by him saying "I'll never let you do that". In 2009, Steve Jobs' health got worse from his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in 2005, and was waiting for a liver transplant. Cook regularly visited Steve at home and really wanted to help, to the extent of having his own blood tested to find out if he was a suitable donor. According to Tim, Steve Jobs had only yelled at him four or five times during the 13 years of their friendship, and this was one of them.
He followed his gut and joined Apple
Before working at Apple, Cook worked at IBM for 12 years and served as the director of the North American fulfilment. A few years later, Tim served as the chief operating officer in the reseller division of Intelligent Electronics, and worked separately as vice president for corporate materials at Compaq in 1997. After working six months at the company, Tim Cook left after being hired by Steve Jobs. According to Cook, rational consideration of cost and benefits lined up in Compaq's favour but still left and joined Apple, after less than 5 minutes of talking to Steve Jobs at his initial interview and realizing Apple was a once in a lifetime opportunity.
He wants to make iPhones cheaper
Tim Cook is known to have a democratic leadership style which focuses on maintaining a good and positive relationship with the company's employees, making them feel appreciated and motivated. The tech CEO has been passionate about middle-income and low-income earners and wanted the company to make Apple products more affordable. Prior to Tim's reign at Apple, Steve Jobs cultivated an expensive brand image and made people think it was impossible to own an iPhone or an iPad. Since 2017, Cook has lead the company into shedding the expensive brand image created by Steve Jobs, and promise affordability in the years to come.
He has a lot of trust in his own team
Cook is more trusting to other people around him at Apple, which significantly contributed to his success and influential status. The Apple CEO has a team of very intelligent, well-qualified top executives at Apple, who aids in decision making instead of letting Cook shoulder all the responsibility, like most CEOs. Tim allows these people to take the lead and recognizes their innovative and brilliant ideas, from years of work experience. The result of this trust and partnership has helped Cook to build Apple into the company that it is today, one that makes the highest sales worldwide.
Steve Jobs vs Tim Cook
While Steve Jobs believed in creating "Insanely Great Products" and would put his heart and soul into making them, Tim Cook was more worried about the needs of employees working for Apple, and the improvement of it's work culture. Whereas Steve Jobs would focus on creating new killer products and services, Tim Cook focused on simply upgrading their existing product line, instead of creating new ones. According to Apple employees, Steve became the "wartime CEO" that he needed to be when he returned to Apple and was appreciated for the extraordinary guts and aggression he showed to save Apple from the brink of bankruptcy. Tim Cook on the other hand, has always been calm and composed, and has shifted the company over the years to it's gentler version, totally opposite to Steve Jobs' rebellious culture within Apple.
Under Cook, Apple gave privacy back to people
Steve Jobs predicted years before that issues on privacy would soon proliferate the tech space, and has geared the company to fight for people's privacy. In December 2020, Apple launched it's iOS 14 operating system that establishes a permission request from customers, before tracking users. Cook believes that people should have the choice over the data that is being collected from them, and how these are used. This meant that Apple would not be able to share people's data, unless they approved of it, which has brought back control of privacy back to Apple users.
Tim Cook is Apple's most humble servant
Tim Cook is recognized at the company as Apple's most humble servant. Tim took the stage, but certainly not the spotlight, as he looked comfortable in jeans, a button-down shirt, and his trademark Nike runners. Tim Cook was born in Mobile, Alabama, United States to father Donald, who was a shipyard worker, and mother Geraldine who worked at a pharmacy. As of today, Cook lives in a modest home in Palo Alto, California close to Apple headquarters, and simply spends his few vacations on hiking and cycling.
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