Nobody can deny new Apple CEO Tim Cook is a business wunderkind. While co-founder Steve Jobs was out on temporary sick-leave (now made permanent), Cook repeatedly churned out record sales and profit. But some believe Cook will need help getting the ‘vision thing’ that was second-nature for Jobs.
Although one former Apple employee sees Tim Cook as “the person who really runs Apple,” the ex-Cupertino worker believes Apple staff don’t see Cook as “that visionary guy” able to fill Jobs’ shoes. Because Apple’s envious profits depend on offering gorgeously-designed products for which fans will readily pay premium prices, the “vision thing” is important to the bottom line. Which makes it all the more important that the former CEO wants to stick around as a member of Apple’s board.
“I’ve been fortunate to be able to go and see [Steve Jobs] and he’s been willing to show me the future a couple times,” Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff told PCMag. Benioff made waves last week when he revealed he had given Jobs the App Store trademark out of gratitude for advice Apple’s now ex-CEO had given him in the past.
I agree with the 2008 Fortune profile of Cook that he’ll need advisors to help fill in the gap. If Jobs had Cook, who will be Cook’s go-to person?
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
22 responses to “Does Tim Cook Need Help With Steve Jobs’ ‘Vision Thing’?”
“If Jobs had Cook, who will be Cook’s go-to person?” That’s easy: Mr Ive.
“If Jobs had Cook, who will be Cook’s go-to person?” That’s easy: Mr Ive.
Nope. Ive is a design guy. Not a detail guy. Cook was a detail guy. That’s what his job was.
He’ll likely do it for him for a little bit while they look for a good detail guy to come to the team.
As for this claim by an ex employee who could have been the dish guy in the Cafe, whatever. Jobs stayed on the Board and was elected Chairman because it’s tradition and there was no valid reason not to follow it (happens all the time at all kinds of companies). He had enough faith to put Cook in charge 3 times and this time leave him in charge. Let it at that would ya. Stop trying to make drama. Oh wait, Apple drama gets hits and CoM is really another hit whore site posing as a news blog. So no they won’t likely leave it alone.
Huh? You misunderstand the question. If Cook is mainly a detail guy, who will be his go-to guy for advice on the ‘vision thing’? Yes, easy: Jony Ive. With some input from Schiller and Forstall.
Forstall and Ive will play that role
My question is will Tim Cook answer customer emails sent to [email protected]?
I’ll never forget the personal response from Steve Jobs himself when I shot an email off to him at [email protected] and to my surprised actually to get a response back from Steve stating that he would arrange to have my MacBook Pro on the fritz replaced with a new one? One day later a new MacBook was in the mail. Two days later I had it and have had no problems since.
Where’s the evidence that Jonny Ive is anything more than a designer? Vision and design and detail are separate functions. Jobs had the vision, with a strong streak of design, and great attention to detail. What evidence is there that Ive or Cook have the ‘vision’ thing?
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i cant believe this!! me and my sister just got two i-pads for $42.77 each and a $50 amazon card for $9. the stores want to keep this a secret and they dont tell you. go here BIDSNEW .COM
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I think of it this way – Jobs was the rock-star, the visionary singer-songwriter with a talented back-up band i.e. Bob Dylan and the Band.
The new Apple will be more like The Beatles, U2, Coldplay etc. – a band where each member contributes and brings something to the mix, but where – arguably – none of the band members are stars in their own right but only in the context of the band.
We don’t have evidence that they don’t either. But the fact that SJ tapped Cook to take over gives you a pretty good a priori probability.
The comment was ‘if Jobs had Cook who will Cook go to’. classic SAT question.
Jobs is to Cook as Cook is to ????? Cook was the detail guy for Job’s vision. if Cook is supposed to be Jobs then he’s the new vision guy in need of a detail guy. The suggest was Ive but Ive isn’t about details the way that Cook was for Jobs.
And you forget, as have many that Steve isn’t dead and isn’t gone from Apple.
So if Cook needs help with ‘the vision thing’ he’ll go have a coffee with Steve.