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Tim Cook Faced an 'Insurrection' Following Announcement of Bob Mansfield's Retirement

citi

citi

macrumors 65816
May 2, 2006
1,363
508
Simi Valley, CA
This isn't about money, it's about keeping all of your talent happy. If it really was that bad, you do whatever you have to, to keep your talent in house. The last thing you want is 3 or 4 senior HARDWARE guys going to google/samsung/Nokia.

Business 101 folks
 
NAG

NAG

macrumors 68030
Aug 6, 2003
2,821
0
/usr/local/apps/nag
If this is indeed an extended transition period it doesn't seem that weird. I'm still curious as to why he was leaving as this doesn't address it at all.
 
Northgrove

Northgrove

macrumors 65816
Aug 3, 2010
1,149
437
So another decision Tim Cook has been forced to backtrack on? Lacking EPEAT certifications causing a storm, Maps causing a storm, and now this, only an internal storm for a change. I'm surprised it took an insurrection from Apple employees in order for him to realize what he should have known in advance. This is really his job. I feel that Cook is still adjusting to his new position and isn't quite as "smooth" as I hope he will be in the future.

Anyway, having a transition period certainly makes sense and is common in this business.
 
sweetbrat

sweetbrat

macrumors 65816
Jun 17, 2009
1,443
1
Redford, MI
kjs862 said:
Things with Apple haven't sit right with me lately.
Click to expand...

I don't see how thins points to anything bad for Apple. Someone wanted to retire; his former employees didn't feel the replacement was ready, so they talked to management about it. Management decided to make an offer the retiring person to keep him on board for a while until a transition was worked out. This isn't something that's unique to Apple...though the amount of cash involved likely is.

There's a lot of times in the corporate world where someone decides to leave, is offered a substantial pay increase and decides to stay. I think in this case it was less about keeping Mansfield and more about keeping the people that had been working under him. To keep those employees, they needed to keep Mansfield around for a while. What's the big deal?
 
aliensporebomb

aliensporebomb

macrumors 68000
Jun 19, 2005
1,907
332
Minneapolis, MN, USA, Urth
Yeah

I always liked the guy - he always seemed like "yeah, I might not be the cutest or the tallest but I have a brain the size of a planet".

Down to earth. 2 million a month? Couldn't happen to a nicer guy!
 
69650

69650

Suspended
Mar 23, 2006
3,367
1,876
England
Steve Jobs was so successful because he was a hard task master. He wasn't your friend or your confident, he was the boss. He would shout and scream, bully people and fire them at the drop of a hat. Tim Cook is learning the hard way that it's tough at the top.
 
Rogifan

Rogifan

macrumors Penryn
Nov 14, 2011
24,137
31,195
Seems to me the bigger question is will Riccio be up to the job? If they're paying Mansfield top dollar to stay on the complaints had to be pretty loud and legit. I wonder what exactly the concerns with Riccio were/are?
 
Small White Car

Small White Car

macrumors G4
Aug 29, 2006
10,966
1,463
Washington DC
iBreatheApple said:
Sucks that people's personal lives and decisions get exploited like this. It's nobody's business.
Click to expand...

This is an article about who is reporting to whom within a publicly-traded company.

What part of that is their "personal lives?"

Had it talked about what Bob wanted to do at home when he left Apple, then sure. But I don't see that anywhere in there.
 
J

JAT

macrumors 603
Dec 31, 2001
6,473
124
Mpls, MN
Northgrove said:
So another decision Tim Cook has been forced to backtrack on?
Click to expand...
He wasn't fired by Cook, he was leaving on his own.

I guess if I was in my mid-50s, wanted to retire, and they offered $24m/yr to halfway work.....I'd say yes, too.
 
CindyRed

CindyRed

macrumors member
May 26, 2011
77
0
Still have faith

Tim Cook's actions show that he's listening to the important members of his engineering team, the life blood of Apple. It goes to show you that there's an enormous difference between the "Jobless" years of John Sculley's Apple and the "Jobless" era of Tim Cook's Apple.
 
StoneJack

StoneJack

macrumors 68020
Dec 19, 2009
2,433
1,527
This is not his salary, this is a payment for consulting services and good consultants are extremely pricey (try to hire a usual legal firm for consulting and you will understand what it means).
 
S

shulerg

macrumors regular
Nov 18, 2009
142
4
What I'd like to know is: was Riccio being apprenticed for the lead role by Mansfield over the past few years? If not, why? Regardless, seems like good outcome to keep him on.
 
N

Navdakilla

macrumors 65816
Feb 3, 2011
1,100
13
Canada
Sounds like there is trouble abrewing in the Apple world. Not good for a guy like me who owns ONLY apple products
 
jennyp

jennyp

macrumors 6502a
Oct 27, 2007
632
274
two million a month .. yeah thanks for the grey smudges on my imac bob
 
kjs862

kjs862

macrumors 65816
Jan 21, 2004
1,297
24
sweetbrat said:
I don't see how thins points to anything bad for Apple. Someone wanted to retire; his former employees didn't feel the replacement was ready, so they talked to management about it. Management decided to make an offer the retiring person to keep him on board for a while until a transition was worked out. This isn't something that's unique to Apple...though the amount of cash involved likely is.

There's a lot of times in the corporate world where someone decides to leave, is offered a substantial pay increase and decides to stay. I think in this case it was less about keeping Mansfield and more about keeping the people that had been working under him. To keep those employees, they needed to keep Mansfield around for a while. What's the big deal?
Click to expand...

Things just don't sit right, just my feeling.
 
nagromme

nagromme

macrumors G5
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
Tiger8 said:
Why? All smart companies do that for their most valuable employees; they can't stop anyone from quitting or retiring, but what they can do is keep them as advisors or consultants onboard.
Click to expand...

You’re forgetting: Apple has "just recently” begun a “downward spiral” every month since 1984. Apple is always just now teetering on the brink of doom and always will be (to some). Every product they release will always be worse than the one before, every mistake will be some entirely new class of blunder that could never have been made before, and every innovation will be trivial (even though everyone will copy it). A steady downward trend that has never stopped and never will :p
 
IJ Reilly

IJ Reilly

macrumors P6
Jul 16, 2002
17,909
1,496
Palookaville
citi said:
This isn't about money, it's about keeping all of your talent happy. If it really was that bad, you do whatever you have to, to keep your talent in house. The last thing you want is 3 or 4 senior HARDWARE guys going to google/samsung/Nokia.

Business 101 folks
Click to expand...

Whenever someone says, "it's not about the money," it's about the money.

Life 101, folks.
 
M

moorezilla

macrumors newbie
Feb 23, 2011
3
0
lol... 2 million a month and still no new MacMini? What a waste... get a hardware guy who will give the little desktop some love.
 
KdParker

KdParker

macrumors 601
Oct 1, 2010
4,793
998
Everywhere
Sora said:
Can't say this is the "beginning of the end", but it surely isn't business as usual. Things are definitely changing - who knows if it's for the better or worse.
Click to expand...

Everything changes. It looks like there is some whinning by the execs/engineers who thought someone else should have gotten the job.

So, Cook is just buying time until he can figure out the best way to transition the job.

----------
citi said:
This isn't about money, it's about keeping all of your talent happy. If it really was that bad, you do whatever you have to, to keep your talent in house. The last thing you want is 3 or 4 senior HARDWARE guys going to google/samsung/Nokia.

Business 101 folks
Click to expand...

Agreed....this is exactly how I see what is going on.
 
T

tdream

macrumors 65816
Jan 15, 2009
1,094
42
citi said:
This isn't about money, it's about keeping all of your talent happy. If it really was that bad, you do whatever you have to, to keep your talent in house. The last thing you want is 3 or 4 senior HARDWARE guys going to google/samsung/Nokia.

Business 101 folks
Click to expand...

If it wasn't about money then why did he come back?
 
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