Tim Cook Named 'CEO of the Year' by CNN

[MacRumors]

CNN has named Tim Cook as "CEO of the Year" for 2014, pointing towards a hefty rise in stock price and some record-breaking product launches as the main reasons behind the award. Cook sits in first place ahead of a number of other high-profile CEOs, including John Chen of BlackBerry, Mary Barra of GM, and Meg Whitman of HP.

Though CNN mainly points to Apple being the "apple of Wall Street's eye again," with its stock up 40 percent this year, individual factors contributing to the rising stock price are taken into account as well.

CNN argues Cook did "an amazing job" this year, ushering the company through major events such as the successful launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, as well as the growing ubiquity of Apple Pay. The crescendo of excitement surrounding the Apple Watch's launch in early 2015 is also cited as a big win for the Apple CEO.

Cook has arguably the toughest CEO job in America. He's had to convince skeptics that Apple can still innovate after the death of Steve Jobs. He's proven all the naysayers wrong.

CNN's CEO of the Year isn't the only award Cook will walk away with this year. Earlier in December, he received the Financial Time's "Person of the Year" award, which cited similar reasons for the award, namely proving Apple can succeed in the wake of Steve Jobs' passing and his infusion of new and fresh ideas into the company. Cook was also nominated for TIME's 2014 "Person of the Year" award, but ultimately lost out to the Ebola Fighters.

Article Link: Tim Cook Named 'CEO of the Year' by CNN

 

[PowerBook-G5]

This is great for him! But that picture, though.

Also, I didn't realize that the Ebola Fighters (who sound like a musical group the way they wrote it) won the "Person of the Year" spot. I believe that they were more important in 2014 than most others on the list, such as Taylor Swift.

 

[MacVista]

For soldering RAM to motherboards and making Apple HW disposable

 

[steve333]

Well, the company is certainly making money but the OS is a disaster and he managed to piss off thousands of people with the Mac Mini soldered RAM and pathetic 'upgrade'.
Hope he gets his act together

 

[technopimp]

For soldering RAM to motherboards and making Apple HW disposable

All about that profit margin. But if I wanted to pile on,

Aggressively pushing software releases that weren't ready or tested

Pushing his own personal agenda on behalf of the company

"THINNER IS BETTER"

 

[enthusiastic]

He looks like he is in some battlefield in that picture. Put on camo instead of the suit and you have call of duty!

 

[peteullo]

'CEO of the Year' - OK.

'Person of the Year' - Whoah, take it easy!

 

[Tubamajuba]

For soldering RAM to motherboards and making Apple HW disposable

Well, the company is certainly making money but the OS is a disaster and he managed to piss off thousands of people with the Mac Mini soldered RAM and pathetic 'upgrade'.
Hope he gets his act together

All about that profit margin. But if I wanted to pile on,

Aggressively pushing software releases that weren't ready or tested

Pushing his own personal agenda on behalf of the company

"THINNER IS BETTER"

This exemplifies how out of touch MacRumors users are with the rest of the world.

Keep them coming.

 

[Arran]

Tough crowd.

 

[tigres]

iPhone 6,+ win
iPhone 6 plus +win
applepay, +win
iPad Air 2 +win
iMac 5k +win

iOS 8 -Fail
Yosemite, -problematic
Mac Mini -fail
iCloud -fail
iCloud drive -fail
iPad Mini 3 -fail
No Apple TV updates -fail
iPhotos (or lack thereof) -fail

 

[ChazSch]

iPhone 6,+ win
iPhone 6 plus +win
Apple Pay, +win
iPad Air 2 +win
Announcing Apple Watch +WIN
iOS 8 +WIN

Yosemite, -problematic Neutral

Mac Mini -fail
iCloud -fail
iCloud drive -fail
iPad Mini 3 -fail
No Apple TV updates -fail
iPhotos (or lack thereof) -fail

give the guy some time...did you want it ALL fixed in one fiscal year? Come on, be realistic

----------

Well, the company is certainly making money but the OS is a disaster and he managed to piss off thousands of people with the Mac Mini soldered RAM and pathetic 'upgrade'.
Hope he gets his act together

I had absolutely NO problems with the iOS. Again, I installed throughout iTunes...not one problem. I love its functionality.

 

[steve333]

This exemplifies how out of touch MacRumors users are with the rest of the world.

Keep them coming.

The rest of the world? Really/ More people buy iPhones than Apple computers. I assure you people who buy computers won't disagree with the statement that their machines are not up to snuff and are over priced for what they offer

give the guy some time...did you want it ALL fixed in one fiscal year? Come on, be realistic

----------



I had absolutely NO problems with the iOS. Again, I installed throughout iTunes...not one problem. I love its functionality.

Mac OSX, not iOS. Yosemite is a disaster

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

Well earned.

 

[Tubamajuba]

The rest of the world? Really/ More people buy iPhones than Apple computers. I assure you people who buy computers won't disagree with the statement that their machines are not up to snuff and are over priced for what they offer

The number one complaint about Macs among the general population is that they're overpriced. Which I disagree with, but it's a very valid statement- we all make our own decisions about what our money is worth, and many people just don't need to buy a Mac to be satisfied with their computer.

Almost nobody cares about expandability, on the other hand. It's just a non-issue for most people, especially in the context of something like a "CEO of the Year award." Me personally, I like being able to add RAM and easily reconfigure internal storage options. But I don't represent the majority, by any means.

 

[Daalseth]

He looks like he is in some battlefield in that picture. Put on camo instead of the suit and you have call of duty!

It's better than the previous face on picture that looked like a Ryan Stiles mug shot.

iPhone 6,+ win
iPhone 6 plus +win
applepay, +win
iPad Air 2 +win

iOS 8 -Fail
Yosemite, -problematic
Mac Mini -fail
iCloud -fail
iCloud drive -fail
iPad Mini 3 -fail
No Apple TV updates -fail
iPhotos (or lack thereof) -fail

I'd pretty much agree with this list. Software especially has been quite iffy. Not just big things like iOS 8.0.1. iTunes is a disaster that they said on TMO "Should be withdrawn". Photos is approaching vaporware status. The list goes on and on but the over whelming impression I get is that software QC is asleep at the switch.

 

[kagharaht]

Shame it's CNN. It's just another gossip, celebrity and title whoring blog site. Perhaps it was a News Site with real Journalist Integrity at one point, but these days, its close to being another TMZ.

 

[jscottrakozy]

Big Whoop...

For soldering RAM to motherboards and making Apple HW disposable

Well, the company is certainly making money but the OS is a disaster and he managed to piss off thousands of people with the Mac Mini soldered RAM and pathetic 'upgrade'.
Hope he gets his act together

iPhone 6,+ win
iPhone 6 plus +win
applepay, +win
iPad Air 2 +win

iOS 8 -Fail
Yosemite, -problematic
Mac Mini -fail
iCloud -fail
iCloud drive -fail
iPad Mini 3 -fail
No Apple TV updates -fail
iPhotos (or lack thereof) -fail

I dunno about you guys, I'm completely contempt with what I have and it does everything I need it to do. I don't need a Mac Mini so why should I care? I don't need the latest and great iPad, so why should I care? I don't need an Apple TV, so why do I care? iPhotos? Really, Buddy Louise? Grab Lightroom or something that'll actually make your photos look better. Yosemite is completely fine with no hiccups (except Spotlight...I wish they could return that back up to the upper right corner instead of searching right in the middle of the screen). Soldering RAM onto Macs? Big whoop, get over yourself. Yeah I was upset at first and then I was like,"who cares...my iMac does everything I need it to do from Logic Pro X to Final Cut Pro to Adobe After Effects to Lightroom to Photoshop to everything under the sun without any hiccups..."

Seriously, guys...as if complaining on a forum is going to make everything better. Do you ABSOLUTELY need the latest and greatest thing right now? Are you guys sooooooo upset that we don't have the latest Apple TV OR the latest iPad that we think ought to be so incredibly awesome at this point or that Apple isn't doing every single itty thing you guys want them to do? I'm going to assume that the ones complaining about this whole thing are the minority die-hard apple fans as oppose to the the vast majority of people that just want an iPhone just because or they want an iPad just because or an Apple TV just because. I don't they're REALLY disappointed with RAM being soldered on to the motherboard or that the new iPad Mini 3 was not much of an upgrade from last year. They just want it....just because haha!

Anyway, I'll let you guys vent and attack and all that jazz, but put yourself in the shoes of Tim Cook and accomplish everything he did this year...I betcha none of you guys could do that...because you're all here on this forum complaining, haha! Anyway, I'm done. NOW ATTACK!

 

[Tallgrass]

Well earned.

I agree. Tim was running Apple for sometime before Steve's passing.

 

[spectrumfox]

Why do I get the uncomfortable suspicion that one of the reasons why he was awarded this was because he came out publically?

 

[hlfway2anywhere]

Yosemite is a disaster

Can you elaborate on this? Because my experience with Yosemite is that it's been the most stable OS X release i've used since Snow Leopard.

Why do I get the uncomfortable suspicion that one of the reasons why he was awarded this was because he came out publically?

Why does that matter or cause you an "uncomfortable" suspicion?

 

[Piggie]

The number one complaint about Macs among the general population is that they're overpriced. Which I disagree with, but it's a very valid statement- we all make our own decisions about what our money is worth, and many people just don't need to buy a Mac to be satisfied with their computer.

Almost nobody cares about expandability, on the other hand. It's just a non-issue for most people, especially in the context of something like a "CEO of the Year award." Me personally, I like being able to add RAM and easily reconfigure internal storage options. But I don't represent the majority, by any means.

For the record, I don't consider Mac's overpriced for the quality of the product.

What I don't like, and what stops me buying a Mac is lack of "Choice"
That IS APPLE these days.

Apple decide what you need, what you should be using, and how you should use it.
Unless they ever change this, I cannot see myself buying a Mac.

To be brutally honest, the only time I could see myself buying a Mac is when I'm a lot lot LOT older, and have just given up bothering, and want someone else to make all the choices for me, but I'm no where near that point now.

What I want, is what many want, and what Apple won't make, and may well never ever make as it goes 100% against their "Apple knows best" policy, and that's a "Proper" desktop Mac computer, that I can fit my own memory, SSD's, and most importantly graphics cards into.

Millions of real loyal loving Apple users would jump on such a machine, but Apple probably will never make it, as Apple has realised the big money is in the mass market of customers who don't really know much about computers and just wants a very nice looking box that just works.

Of course, there is a BIG market for that.

I just find it such a great shame Apple now sticks 2 fingers up at any real computer users, and all those people that Actually made Apple a company in the 1st place.

Apple has left those loyal fans with nothing
And that's a great and sad shame

 

[ctyrider]

For soldering RAM to motherboards and making Apple HW disposable

Well, the company is certainly making money but the OS is a disaster and he managed to piss off thousands of people with the Mac Mini soldered RAM and pathetic 'upgrade'.

Aggressively pushing software releases that weren't ready or tested

Pushing his own personal agenda on behalf of the company

"THINNER IS BETTER"

Wah.. Wah.. Wah..

Pathetic crowd

 

[mercuryjones]

But, how could he be CEO of the Year, if he gave out such a terrible Christmas bonus? /s
Seriously, I say congrats and well deserved.
Also, there are some bitter people in this thread. Merry Christmas, one and all.

 

[spectrumfox]

Wah.. Wah.. Wah..

Pathetic crowd

So we're not allowed to criticize someone whom we don't feel is necessarily deserving of this award because of the shortcomings of their company?

 

[hlfway2anywhere]

What I don't like, and what stops me buying a Mac is lack of "Choice"
That IS APPLE these days.

That IS APPLE since the 1980s.

So we're not allowed to criticize someone whom we don't feel is necessarily deserving of this award because of the shortcomings of their company?

Which company's CEO would you nominate?