There are 300,000,000 Americans. You really don't think that 1 in 10,000 (conservatively) has the potential to do what he does?
I think his point is that with the right training and experience and put in the same job there are plenty of people just as smart, diligent and organized as Cook. I suspect that is true statement, but the assumptions aren't really fair. Where could those 100,000 people get the training and experience that Cook has? How could they prove to the Apple Board that they have the same or better skills than Cook? Since they can't do either, they really aren't competition for Cook. But I think the general point is true on some sort of theoretical level. The same could not be said, for example about an elite basketball player like Lebron James. We know that there aren't thousands of people out there with his size and speed, so we know he cannot easily be replaced. But CEOs, yes it seems their pay is a little high in comparison to what they seem to bring to the table.
But who knows, perhaps Cook has some special set of skills that are less common than 0.1%. I think Jobs had skills like that.
Everything I know about Tim Cook reveals he's earned it.
Despite the image as painted by Apple, of his "warm & fuzzy" relationship with Jobs, insiders I know within Apple share about how he too, has been the target of many of Jobs relatively juvenile & vicious attacks. Therefore Cook has certainly paid his dues, and proven how tough he is.
I don't think anyone deserves that much money. Now matter how good of a job they do, or what they do. It's simply too much for one person.
It's more difficult, sure.. but it isn't several orders of magnitude more difficult. I have to admit the way people like you deify the work of people like Cook is fairly amusing... what they do isn't all that difficult; you just need to be intelligent, diligent, and well-versed in your area of expertise.
There are hundreds of thousands (likely millions) of Americans who could do what Tim does.
I don't think anyone deserves that much money. Now matter how good of a job they do, or what they do. It's simply too much for one person.
It's not the level of difficulty it takes to perform a task, it's how valuable your work is for a company.
Steve, Tim, and Jon Ives created tremendous value, billions and billions of dollars of value from their work. Not just any village idiot can run a company and turn profits like that - very few do.
As is well documented in the news today, a lot of CEO's turn huge personal profits like that while lowering the value of the company they run - while at Apple the leaders have turned massive company profits and been rewarded for the work they provide.
Not just the hours of the day, or the difficulty of the task. It's not something that just anybody can do. Look at all the failing businesses in your community
-- No, I haven't read all 6 pages and your other replies, and I'm sure you've addressed what I've said above...
$400 M over ten years... roughly $40 mil per year ... if (under condition) he stays the long haul.
It may sound like alot but consider this:
1) what happens if Apple offered him less, say $25 mil per year in options, and he says, uh, no thanks, I think I'll join Google.
2) let's assume Tim is best person for the job, and they can find someone else that's 90% as good for at a lower cost... what's the implication of that 10% performance decrease on AAPL and overall shareholder value. AAPL is a $300B+ company that is making profit $1B every 10 days (and growing).
They are paying relatively a bit more each year, to ensure that $300B cash cow performs optimally.
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Can you name a better system? I'm completely against Corpatism but pure capitalism works better than any other system to help the poor and equalize the classes. Apple has benefited millions by creating an industry for developers, retailers, accessory manufacturers, etc. And all of these millions including Apple employees pay their taxes. But I would argue that their efforts have done more for the economy than any taxes that they have paid so that the government can help the poor. We should encourage more Apples to be created and more wealth to be created for everyone. The trick is ensure that it is true capitalism that benefits society and not steals from it like many crony capitalists do.
really? Can toy mention three persons from all of those millions?
yes which is why our collective finances are in great condition and we as a nation are prospering from our fiscal wisdom and we arent experiencing a ballooning deficit with no way out this side of a complete civilizational reboot..... wait.... aww crap.
cheers tim. well done.
Or let's put it this way.
No one in this world really succeeds based on hard work alone. You also need a lot of luck and the right opportunities (and be at the right place at the right time).
Tim has all these. The other 10,000 Americans purportedly capable of doing his job don't. That's why he is getting $100m, and the rest aren't. Simple as that.