Dismissed as 'not a product guy,' the outgoing CEO proved that supply-chain mastery could take Apple to new heights
Tim Cook steps down as Apple CEO on Sept. 1.
Tim Cook was no stranger to Apple's earnings calls even before he was asked to temporarily hold down the CEO post for an ailing Steve Jobs.
Still, the company's first earnings call of 2009 was unconventional. Wall Street immediately addressed the elephant in the room with the first analyst question: Would Apple (AAPL) run differently under Cook, and was he ready to take the helm permanently if Jobs couldn't return?
Cook sidestepped the inquiry. "We don't settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit when we're wrong and the courage to change," he responded. "And I think regardless of who is in what job, those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do extremely well."
Those words would later become known as part of the "Cook Doctrine," a blueprint for Apple's values and strategy.
Today, the numbers speak for themselves. Cook led Apple to become the first company to cross $1 trillion in market capitalization, then $2 trillion and $3 trillion. Since the beginning of his tenure, shares of Apple have rallied over 2,200%, the company has sold over 3 billion iPhones and it's returned nearly $900 billion to shareholders in the form of stock buybacks.
In his 28 years at Apple - 15 of those as CEO - Cook has outlasted the tenure of Jobs, the company's defining co-founder. And while Cook has gone to great lengths to preserve the core values of Apple, the company he passes on to Apple's hardware chief, John Ternus, next week is uniquely Cook's own.
'Not a product guy'
Cook is a quiet and reserved man. When he does speak, his words carry a faint Southern twang from his upbringing in Alabama. A supply-chain mastermind, he is more likely to be touring manufacturing plants than spending time in Apple's design studio.
So it's no surprise that Cook has borne constant criticism since the beginning of his CEO stint for lacking the charisma and vision of Jobs. Jobs himself described Cook as "not a product guy," and skeptics have complained he plays it too safe.
Cook has embraced these traits as strengths rather than weaknesses. In 1998, he left his vice president role at Compaq Computer - the world's largest PC maker at the time - to join a nearly bankrupt Apple. He immediately went to work clearing warehouses of unsold inventory and trimming down Apple's list of suppliers.
As CEO, Cook has expanded beyond forecasting demand to orchestrating smooth integration throughout Apple's growing empire of products and services. A self-described "workaholic," Cook famously wakes up at 4 a.m. to read customer and employee emails, then hits the gym and badges into Apple Park when he's not traveling for diplomatic meetings or supply-chain audits. He's known for hosting grueling hours-long meetings where he asks endless follow-up questions.
Neither Cook nor Apple representatives returned MarketWatch requests for comment.
Cook's way of running things "was different than Steve, who was not a collaborator," said Todd Dailey, who worked at Apple for over 20 years, ultimately as a leader in the executive briefing program.
Cook's personality was on full display when Dailey set up a technical demo for a senior government official involving the Vcommunicator, a late-2000s-era iPod Touch with specialized real-time translation software. Standing alone together in the room, Cook turned to him. "So Todd, what are we showing today?" he asked.
"I don't think Tim had ever addressed me by name," Dailey, now an independent consultant, told MarketWatch. "I was showing a gadget that was an arm-mounted iPod Touch with a speaker. It had a translation app that would let a service member press a button, and it would say a phrase in whatever language was chosen. It was actually quite useful in Iraq, I was told."
Dailey explained the demo, and Cook paused in what Dailey described as a "terrifying" moment of thought. Finally came the verdict: "That's good, but remember to always show and explain the Apple product first," Cook said. Despite the Vcommunicator's third-party translation software or attachments, the underlying Apple platform was still first priority. "It was a lesson I didn't forget," Dailey said.
A team player, Cook knew when to step back and delegate reponsibilities. In 2015, he promoted Jony Ive - the designer behind iconic products like the iPhone, Macbook and iPad - to the role of chief design officer, giving Ive autonomy over much of the product development process. While Apple's head of silicon design, Johny Srouji, worked on developing a custom M1 chip, Cook worked behind the scenes to secure manufacturing deals with Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM).
When Apple expanded into domains beyond its native expertise, Cook selectively brought in external talent. He hired former Google (GOOGL) (GOOG) executive John Giannandrea in 2018 to lead Apple's artificial-intelligence efforts. As Apple sought to grow its smartwatch product in 2015, Cook recruited former Burberry (UK:BRBY) $(BURBY)$ CEO Angela Ahrendts as senior vice president of retail. That year, Mike Rockwell also joined Apple from Dolby Labs $(DLB)$ to head development of what would become the Vision Pro.
"As far I know, Mike Rockwell was given full freedom to pretty much make whatever project he wanted," Elizabeth Dorman, a former application-prototyping intern on the early visionOS team, told MarketWatch. "Now the team has thousands of people, but it started off as a group of just a few dozen."
During her time at Apple, Dorman helped build a form-factor prototype for one of Cook's routine check-ins with the team. "From what I heard, he had a poker face during the demo," said Dorman, now the co-founder and CEO of AI-device startup Era. "He's cautious about how he reacts. ... He doesn't want people getting ideas on whether something is good or bad because he understands others have better product sense."
The 'nice CEO'
While Jobs favored theatrical flair and his iconic black turtleneck, Cook keeps more of an everyman profile. His wristwear of choice is unsurprisingly the Apple Watch, which Cook says has helped him lose 30 pounds.
He is often seen sporting jeans and a pair of Nikes $(NKE)$, having sat on the sportswear giant's board of directors since 2005. Sneakers are the one area where Cook occasionally flaunts his taste: Posing in a photoshoot for Apple's official announcement of his retirement, he whipped out a pair of ultrarare Air Jordans designed in collaboration with hip-hop artist Travis Scott.
And unlike Jobs, who famously flew into fits of rage when displeased, Cook maintains a much more approachable personality. He is known as the "nice CEO," Dorman said: "You're not going to be screamed at."
After Jobs eliminated the company's philanthropic initiatives to cut costs, Cook revived corporate giving programs and expanded environmental targets. For the past decade, Apple has backed the National Park Foundation through annual Apple Pay fundraising collaborations - no doubt driven by Cook's love of national parks. And in 2014, he penned a Bloomberg Businessweek essay coming out as gay, becoming the first Fortune 500 CEO to do so.
Cook's fondness for his alma mater Auburn University, where he earned a degree in industrial engineering, periodically brings him back to campus for special events or football games. Former Apple engineer Adrian Eves first encountered Cook there in 2017, when the CEO returned to host a talk about diversity and inclusion.
"They were like, 'He's not available for any questions,'" recalled Eves, a longtime Apple fan and an Auburn engineering student at the time. "I've always been a goody-goody, but for once I decided to break the rule and I went down there. I didn't ask him a question technically, so I guess the rule was honored. I just said, 'Thank you for everything you've done to help others,' and he was very kind to me in reply."
In 2021, Eves moved from Alabama to California to join Apple as an iOS accessibility engineer. Apple has prioritized accessibility features for decades, with features such as the gesture-based screen reader VoiceOver and eye-tracking navigation. "I did a lot with VoiceOver, fixing bugs on it and helping it integrate with other apps," Eves said. Today, he is an independent Apple platforms developer and the creator of migraine-tracking app Auralog.
Cook is regularly spotted walking the halls of Apple Park or grabbing lunch at one of Apple's Caffè Mac cafeterias. Although Apple operates on a three-day hybrid schedule, "I go into the office four days a week," Cook shared on an episode of the "Table Manners" podcast last year. "Then on Friday, I typically work from home because nobody's in the office, and it's depressing when there's nobody there."
Eves worked a few floors below Cook in the same building. "He was very much out and about. If you saw Tim Cook during the day, it wasn't uncommon and it wasn't a huge deal," Eves told MarketWatch. "I saw him in the Caffè Macs all the time. He likes the same table."
Also: Apple has gotten too predictable. Can its next CEO bring back the element of surprise?
A mixed legacy
"I hope that people say I was a good and decent man," Cook said on CBS earlier this month, as he toured a newly opened Houston manufacturing facility. "But I think other people describe your legacy. It's not for you to describe."
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