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Apple COO Tim Cook as Possible Steve Jobs Replacement?
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Each of my examples were examples of vision. Motivation? The guy is an ass, read ANY Apple book.
I think he's a great public figure, good in interviews, on TV, he's a marketing tool.
With due respect, many are left scratching their heads because most people do not have the capacity to understand visionary decisions. I see it time and time again on here, people blaming apple for an apparent bad decision that in reality is calculated, visionary and forward thinking beyond the comprehension of the majority .
Yet, people want to work for him. He attracts talent. Likeability is not necessarily a prerequisite for getting things done. I doubt anyone else would have turned the company around to the degree that he has; some people forget what Apple was like at its lowest point.
This really is a silly thread - sillier than usual...
Someone tried to equate COO (an Ops guy) with being just below network/server guys.
The COO is responsible for ALL the business operations of a company and has nothing to do with keeping the networking running for petes sake.
The CEO is to all intents a figurehead role.
You look at some of these replies and its as if Steve Jobs is your personal friend and you feel affronted that someone could actually be ready to replace him.
Does anyone here understand the concept that Apple is a business??? Will Microsoft go under and stop innovating (yes they do) because Gates is retiring?? Come on grow up people.
Someone tried to equate COO (an Ops guy) with being just below network/server guys.
The COO is responsible for ALL the business operations of a company and has nothing to do with keeping the networking running for petes sake.
The CEO is to all intents a figurehead role.
You look at some of these replies and its as if Steve Jobs is your personal friend and you feel affronted that someone could actually be ready to replace him.
Does anyone here understand the concept that Apple is a business??? Will Microsoft go under and stop innovating (yes they do) because Gates is retiring?? Come on grow up people.
Agreed, Uncle Gil was a disaster as was Scully. You bring up a good point,he attracts talent but it's because he's the ONLY public figure at Apple. Marketing Marketing Marketing.
Steve Jobs is to Apple what Mickey Mouse is to Disney.
Steve Jobs is to Apple what Mickey Mouse is to Disney.
I was with you up to this point. Setting aside the debatable question of whether Microsoft was ever innovative, there's no question that under Gates they were as hard-driving and successful as any corporation in history. Can the same be said with Ballmer in charge?
Leadership matters.
Not so fast - yet..... Although it is rev A
. I was in Best Buy picking up a new camera and saw that one had an Apple section, so you know I just had to stop and look at the new macbooks. There was a college girl and her parents we trying to talk her into buying a mac laptop. She never used one in her life and was very windows savvy. so of course, me being an I/T person and always wanting to help someone I stopped and talked to them for 10 min. to my embarrassment, I had to demo on the white one (the store was crowded and there were no best bey assoc around - not they they really know technology anyway, because of their geek squad, most roll their eyes when I mention Apple).... Anyway, the new macbook that was on display (and yes I know how display computers are beat on).
1. Track pad has the unresponseness at times.
2. Expose would not work with the 4 finger swipe, nor the button on the key board.
2. Two-finger click would not work.
4. I did not have any apps open and going into system preferences beachballed.
I am not sure what to make of the new display. Looked crisp and sharp, did not notice the mirroring glossy effect as some glossy screens have. But the fingerprint smudges were annoying.
I told her best value for her money would be to go to macmall.com and pick up an older white with higher CPU, Memory and hard drive. as fas a switching - it only takes a day or two to get used to some things; but it is very easy. I also gave her the apple switer 101 and the macosxhints website to go to.
Hopefully Cook can work on quality more and stop these rev A issues. Based on what saw at best buy, I may wait a year before getting a newer MBP.
It is impossible to replace Steve seamlessly. Jobs vision and uncompromising pursuit of perfection are what make good Apple products 'insanely great.'
To those of you who call him a tyrant or say he is too difficult to work for: If your boss doesn't make demands of you and set high expectations, then his approval means nothing to you. How hard are you going to work to improve something beyond merely good enough?
I'm less worried about Apple's immediate post-Jobs direction, as everyone is in place with the same goal today and that won't fall apart overnight. What it will be like 5 or 10 years on is another thing.
To those of you who call him a tyrant or say he is too difficult to work for: If your boss doesn't make demands of you and set high expectations, then his approval means nothing to you. How hard are you going to work to improve something beyond merely good enough?
I'm less worried about Apple's immediate post-Jobs direction, as everyone is in place with the same goal today and that won't fall apart overnight. What it will be like 5 or 10 years on is another thing.
With all do respect. I have worked with a few CEO's who were totally disconnected from what went on inside of the company and made sme blunderish decisions and remarks. We spent more time pulling him out of the fire. I also worked for a few CIO's who did not know the first thing about computers (they were more CFO's and had their MBA's in that). Another mistake. then there is the COO, CIO, and CEO who each to not see eye to eye on what is best for the company so much needed decisions were stalled and visionary and scalability went out the window. Thus why one company I worked at was still using 1970's mainframes, office 97, and had to upgrade to the obsolute Macomedia MX 2004 studio before they could work with adobe on upgrading and implementing what they needed from the latest Cold Fusion.
All 3 people need to agree, have vision, and be concerned with the nuts and bolts. Otherwise you will just be going round and round. Been there, done that, worked for 2 years on a system that failed while the other 2/3 were writing a system to eventual replace that one. the new system? 3 1/2 years into the project and at a 75% completion and being the be all/end all the company needed was scrapped due to a new CIO coming in and saying - we are not an I/T company and we are cutting the I/T budget. the company's new data center is sitting empty, and they are still using 1970's technology and 1980's equipement they buy used for clinical trials.
Business environments and modern society in general are crap breeding grounds for producing visionary humans.
IMO there are two main problems:
1) Survival of the Fittest. Many CEO's rise to the top by screwing over the next jerk, their minds are tuned in a way that has sod all to do with the product they are selling, and similarities to primitive cave men (Ballmer). They almost all lack vision.
2) Specialized Education. society demands education with ever narrowing specialization. The problem is that some of the mankind's greatest minds are rendered incapable of grasping the big picture. Our brightest end up trapped viewing the world from a 1d perspective.
There are a few more contributing factors but that will do for the current discussion.
Cutting a long story short, very few by the time we become adults are capable of true vision due to the nature of society itself.
To be blunt, most businesses employ hundreds of 1d humans ruled by a few cave men.
IMO there are two main problems:
1) Survival of the Fittest. Many CEO's rise to the top by screwing over the next jerk, their minds are tuned in a way that has sod all to do with the product they are selling, and similarities to primitive cave men (Ballmer). They almost all lack vision.
2) Specialized Education. society demands education with ever narrowing specialization. The problem is that some of the mankind's greatest minds are rendered incapable of grasping the big picture. Our brightest end up trapped viewing the world from a 1d perspective.
There are a few more contributing factors but that will do for the current discussion.
Cutting a long story short, very few by the time we become adults are capable of true vision due to the nature of society itself.
To be blunt, most businesses employ hundreds of 1d humans ruled by a few cave men.
I think whatever happens Steve is going to find it hard to train them to keep them going quite the same way; like we might see more -customisability- and maybe less whole hog transitions à la the current no button trackpad, no MB firewire and glassy displays all around.
However, while I don't like what that says for the hardware, I think it could benefit OS X.
However, while I don't like what that says for the hardware, I think it could benefit OS X
.
Sure these people were behind and or in charge, of these products. Or contributions. Even some of their ideas. All of this ultimately and at some point filters through Steve Jobs. Nothing is done or is released unless it passes Steve's OK
Thats how it was in the beginning and thats how it is now.
To say Steve's roll is overrated. Is a big and gross understatement. Steve has a uncanny ability to know when a product is just right. He works very closely with all the products, from start to finish. Many of which are his ideas. Or ideas that were conceived out of collaboration. With himself and some of the above, said names.
Marketing you don't think he plays a important and needed roll in this.
He is a huge part of Apples marketability. He knows what Apple can and cant do. He is the reason that the media, and public. Get so jacked up over any thing that Apple does.
He also has the uncanny ability to get it right.
If you haven't noticed. Many times, even before a new product is officially released. You will have countless business, and marketing experts. Bashing Apples products or idea's. Saying it's a bad decision, or a mistake. A few examples would be the g4 imac, the iTunes music store, The iPhone. all of which has gone on to do far better than anyone had expected.
When he steps down or is no longer with Apple. Apple will have a huge void to fill. Will it still be a innovator, sure. Will it continue to grow and branch out with new ideas and products, of course. It just wont due it. With the same caliber and regularity as it does with Steve Jobs at the helm.
If you watch House, it's like that. Whilst there are books about how he's not very friendly (hard to say, since I doubt many/any here have met him for any length of time), professionally he's one of the best.
Steve Jobs has vision, and can really pick successes. He didn't just do it twice with Apple, he did it with Pixar and NeXT. There's a great story about how the guys who created the Segway worked strings to get a meeting with him. They didn't want him to invest or anything, they just wanted his blessing that it was a good product and a potential hit. He really hit them hard with a laundry list of complaints. Those guys had some pretty serious investors, so a lot of successful people thought it would take off. Jobs was right; it was a monumental flop.
He did the same with Pixar. He bought some small graphics company from George Lucas, and ended up selling it to Disney, becoming the largest single shareholder at Disney in the process. He did it with NeXT, creating a machine that was well ahead of its time, eventually selling it to Apple, again, for a lot of money. The NeXT system was so ahead of its time that it's still at work even today as the core of MacOS.
And, of course, he started Apple. Apple was on the road to success until Sculley came along. It's possible Microsoft would never have reached the success that they have if Jobs had been left in charge. Since coming back to Apple, he singled out digital music as a market for Apple, and they almost instantly dominated it and have continued to do so. They started the iTunes store, which was the most liberal legal digital music store of its day, and recently took the #1 music retailer spot. He singled out mobile phones as a market, and identified the direction the iPhone should go in. In two years, they've become the #2 smartphone manufacturer, and became the hottest selling phone this quarter. He also identified Retail as an area for Apple to move in to, where they are the fastest growing retail chain of any kind, worldwide. The Stores have been a massive success, introducing new people to the Mac and keeping customer service expectations high.
The guy has vision. Nobody can deny that. Steve Jobs is the Warren Buffet of the technology industry.
Whilst you're right about those being problems, I don't think that's the overwhelming problem. The problem is that companies are being run by marketing people, not engineers.
Ballmer is a marketing guy. He's not interested in what makes the best product, he's interested in putting bullet points on posters.
Apple is run by engineers. Everything is product-focused, and has to make sense. Engineers are logical, sensible people after all (I'm biased, I'm an engineer). Even the marketing is logical and sensible.
Nowhere is this clearer than with the next generation of operating systems. Microsoft is focusing on cramming as many features in to their slides as they can, whereas Apple is concentrating on doing a good job and making a good product. Even Bill Gates was led to think like a marketing guy, now famously saying that better products aren't a reason to buy. People want new; new features, new interfaces, new whatever. That's a marketing way of thinking.
Apple products always make sense. That's why they made the iPhone a touchscreen (not because it looks cool). On a small device, space is at a premium. You need input devices that you can get rid of to create more space. All the iPhone applications are designed to use space wisely. On WinMo phones, the touchscreen feels like a novelty - on an iPhone, it's essential.
There are loads of examples of how Apple products are designed first and foremost with common sense and logic that I won't go in to. Just look at any Jobs keynote, and listen to how he explains the new feature. It's always from a logical standpoint. It's always about why it's the best option. Every aspect is carefully scrutinised to make sure it's sensible. Microsoft don't do that. They'll tell you that you've got this new taskbar with arranges everything differently, but they don't tell you why that's better, or why it's the logical thing to do. They'll just hope the glitz captures you, and that you just go with it because it's new.
No to Cook as CEO
If and when Steve leaves, it would be a huge mistake to move Cook from COO to a fully impowered CEO. He is a business man, a numbers guy and has performed brilliantly. But that is why Apple is profitable, not why it is brilliant. For brilliance, you need vision and that will not come from a bottom line guy like Cook.
I would suggest Jonathon Ive with Phil Shiller (sp?) as a close second. Ive has both the creative vision and the necessary charisma to carry Apple in a post Jobs era. Phil has vision, but lacks charisma.
If and when Steve leaves, it would be a huge mistake to move Cook from COO to a fully impowered CEO. He is a business man, a numbers guy and has performed brilliantly. But that is why Apple is profitable, not why it is brilliant. For brilliance, you need vision and that will not come from a bottom line guy like Cook.
I would suggest Jonathon Ive with Phil Shiller (sp?) as a close second. Ive has both the creative vision and the necessary charisma to carry Apple in a post Jobs era. Phil has vision, but lacks charisma.