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Tim Cook Named to Duke University's Board of Trustees on Six-Year Term

Benjamin Frost said:
I won't listen to Tim Cook discuss ethical leadership, as his idea of ethical is not paying musicians for three months.

Someone please sack the man.
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That was a publicity stunt and everyone knows it.

Step 1: Have news outlets report that artists won't be paid during the trial period (which no company could get away with, frankly)

Step 2: Have Taylor Swift write an open letter saying "I love Apple, but it's not too late to make things right"

Step 3: In less than 18 hours, announce that Apple will pay artists during the trial period and along with a higher than average royalty, and appear as the good guys.

Step 4: Have Taylor Swift announce that she'll happily put her latest album on Apple Music, making Apple one of only 2 streaming services that have it.
 
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I'm glad Tim is enjoying the celebrity of his position. From an intellectual position, Duke puting him on the board with so few personal achievements at Apple as CEO other than being CEO is questionable. Apple's earnings continue to be dominated by a product not his brain child and his own brain childs have mostly been stumbles not run-a-way hits. But from a business and recruiting perspective he has a s-load of $ and he likes to donate and his name looks substantial on the marquee so makes him a good mark.
 
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Rogifan said:
Really so the role of the CEO is to make sure the trains run on time? Do you think that's all Satya Nadella is doing at Microsoft, or Larry Page at Google?
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Well, if you want to simplify it ... yes, mainly. Of course they do lots of other stuff, as does TC. But the implication I got from your post is that you were comparing TC's role to Jobs', and I thought we've evolved beyond that here.

Let's just get a little perspective.

In 2011 when TC took over, we had MacBook Pros that cost ~£1500, with 4GB RAM and a standard HDD, OS X Lion, which crippled older machines and ran horribly on newer systems, a massive backlash from the wait for the new iPhone 4S, and an even bigger backlash at its lackluster update (compared to the wealth of exciting rumours, of course), genuine concern over Apple's future, location tracking controversy, more stuff about Flash not being on iOS devices, and Android gaining significant traction.

Now we've got ultra-thin MacBook Pros with significantly more power, SSDs with read/write speeds that exceed that of 2xSATA SSDs in RAID, a much better OS and an even better update on the horizon, a company with a clear direction, and generally cheaper and more affordable products. Yeah there's a lot of bad stuff as well, but Apple is worth more than twice as much now. It's an unprecedented jump in fortunes, and Tim Cook has managed it exceptionally well.

He's also more open with Apple's pipeline and stance on controversial issues. This was a very big criticism of the Apple of old.

It's not perfect by any means; there's a lot I wish was changed and a lot Apple could do with their capital to make the bottom-line products worth buying. But boy am I glad we're in the Apple of 2015. If you could see the products now from 2011, I really don't think you'd make a similar comment. It's only because we've been slowly riding/watching the product curve that its true impact hasn't really hit.
 
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Chupa Chupa said:
I'm glad Tim is enjoying the celebrity of his position. From an intellectual position, Duke puting him on the board with so few personal achievements at Apple as CEO other than being CEO is questionable. Apple's earnings continue to be dominated by a product not his brain child and his own brain childs have mostly been stumbles not run-a-way hits. But from a business and recruiting perspective he has a s-load of $ and he likes to donate and his name looks substantial on the marquee so makes him a good mark.
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What brainchild's were Cook's and have stumbled? If you're referring to Watch isn't it a bit early to call it a stumble. iPod didn't become a runaway hit until iTunes Store and especially iTunes on Windows (which Jobs originally opposed). And one could argue that iPhone didn't really take off until iPhone 4 when it came to Verizon.
 
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keysofanxiety said:
Well, if you want to simplify it ... yes, mainly. Of course they do lots of other stuff, as does TC. But the implication I got from your post is that you were comparing TC's role to Jobs', and I thought we've evolved beyond that here.

Let's just get a little perspective.

In 2011 when TC took over, we had MacBook Pros that cost ~£1500, with 4GB RAM and a standard HDD, OS X Lion, which crippled older machines and ran horribly on newer systems, a massive backlash from the wait for the new iPhone 4S, and an even bigger backlash at its lackluster update (compared to the wealth of exciting rumours, of course), genuine concern over Apple's future, location tracking controversy, more stuff about Flash not being on iOS devices, and Android gaining significant traction.

Now we've got ultra-thin MacBook Pros with significantly more power, SSDs with read/write speeds that exceed that of 2xSATA SSDs in RAID, a much better OS and an even better update on the horizon, a company with a clear direction, and generally cheaper and more affordable products. Yeah there's a lot of bad stuff as well, but Apple is worth more than twice as much now. It's an unprecedented jump in fortunes, and Tim Cook has managed it exceptionally well.

He's also more open with Apple's pipeline and stance on controversial issues. This was a very big criticism of the Apple of old.

It's not perfect by any means; there's a lot I wish was changed and a lot Apple could do with their capital to make the bottom-line products worth buying. But boy am I glad we're in the Apple of 2015. If you could see the products now from 2011, I really don't think you'd make a similar comment. It's only because we've been slowly riding/watching the product curve that its true impact hasn't really hit.
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I don't disagree with any of this. And I think there is a lot of good that is happening on Tim's watch. But it seems like more and more his passions are around social issues and the environment. Compare his Alabama commencement speech to the one he gave this year at GW. The Alabama speech was basically devoid of politics. The GW speech was almost the complete opposite. I guess I'd like to see the same fire and passion when it comes to products.
 
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Rogifan said:
I don't disagree with any of this. And I think there is a lot of good that is happening on Tim's watch. But it seems like more and more his passions are around social issues and the environment. Compare his Alabama commencement speech to the one he gave this year at GW. The Alabama speech was basically devoid of politics. The GW speech was almost the complete opposite. I guess I'd like to see the same fire and passion when it comes to products.
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Oh that's fair enough, I can definitely appreciate that. Nonetheless he's just not a designer or an engineer. He doesn't really get a jolly out of slightly quicker Flash storage, and he's certainly more passionate about making an environmental/social difference.

Don't worry, though! There are plenty of Apple employees who are plenty passionate about the products - I do agree with you about not showing much enthusiasm about new updates, but I'd rather he stuck with what he actually is passionate about, rather than putting on a fake mask of passion when it comes to product updates. I think the latter option would make me cringe more.
 
dannyyankou said:
That was a publicity stunt and everyone knows it.

Step 1: Have news outlets report that artists won't be paid during the trial period (which no company could get away with, frankly)

Step 2: Have Taylor Swift write an open letter saying "I love Apple, but it's not too late to make things right"

Step 3: In less than 18 hours, announce that Apple will pay artists during the trial period and along with a higher than average royalty, and appear as the good guys.

Step 4: Have Taylor Swift announce that she'll happily put her latest album on Apple Music, making Apple one of only 2 streaming services that have it.
Click to expand...

The Taylor Swift part may have been orchestrated with PR in mind, as clearly Apple had already decided to change the policy by the time Swift wrote the open letter. The original policy decision clearly was NOT part of a PR stunt.
 
keysofanxiety said:
I had a little bet with myself about what Apple hate the first comment would bring. I'm pretty pleased to note that your comment was both completely unrelated to the article, and completely incorrect (as Apple did mention they are paying musicians during the free trial).
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At least he is a consistent hatemonger. He spends hours everyday on MR hating on Apple. It's kind of sad.
 
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Gasu E. said:
At least he is a consistent hatemonger. He spends hours everyday on MR hating on Apple. It's kind of sad.
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Oh my; just checked the profile. You're right. I'm all for a little Apple bashing, though investing this much time and emotion into disliking everything about a company (and posting about it), really is the epitome of first-world problems.
 
Can we focus on the selfie photo for a second, please. I assume that kid asked Cook for a selfie and Cook agreed, but refused to take the phone from the kid (maybe it was a Samsung). At which point the kid had to take a selfie from the back row, thus creating one of the most awkward selfies of all time.

Several takeaways here: 1) The person in the front should always hold the camera, 2) Tim should never tuck his chin like that, 3) Duke sucks.
 
This is a disturbing practice at colleges and universities: the Board of Trustees is usually stocked with business people. That's great I guess if the only purpose of a college is to make money. But the trustees can be asked to weigh in on educational matters for which they often have little or no qualifications.
 
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Rogifan said:
What brainchild's were Cook's and have stumbled? If you're referring to Watch isn't it a bit early to call it a stumble. iPod didn't become a runaway hit until iTunes Store and especially iTunes on Windows (which Jobs originally opposed). And one could argue that iPhone didn't really take off until iPhone 4 when it came to Verizon.
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Maps. The very limited availability of the Retina iMac when released which put a hole in that years Q1 earnings. The very public John Browett debacle and the mishandling of Bob Mansfield's "retirement," then "unretirement." And finally, yes, the watch. A stumble is a stumble not a face plant fall. It means something didn't go as smooth as it should have. Do you honestly believe the AW launch was smooth with the awkward way customers had to preview it? Couldn't buy it in the store for months. Couldn't be delivered to online customers who bought 2 minutes after the online store opened for weeks after launch. Look at the front page regarding AW sales and tell me that isn't what you honestly think is a stumble.

On the whole Cook hasn't had any clear major victories. That is my point. If he has please let me know. Happy to be corrected.
 
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There is a reason Steve Jobs kept his key players from being on boards of other organuzations.

Focus. For Apple to be strong and the best everyone should be focused.

Tim, Jony and Eddie are starting to enjoy celebrity status a little too much.
 
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Amplelink said:
You really have to wonder at some point if he's spreading his energy around too much. Isn't he on the board of Nike too? Not to make Steve comparisons, but it seemed like Steve was always laser focused on Apple. Tim seems to be using Apple to build himself.
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Steve was the CEO of Pixar and Apple at the same time, and joined the Disney Board of Directors when Disney aquired Pixar.

Lots of company CEOs sit on the boards of other companies.
 
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Q-Dog said:
Steve was the CEO of Pixar and Apple at the same time, and joined the Disney Board of Directors when Disney aquired Pixar.

Lots of company CEOs sit on the boards of other companies.
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False comparison. Steve helped build pixar into an animation power house, and it was aquired by Disney. There is a reason why he played a role in both organizations.

Tim is just stroking his ego while his own Apple projects are in disarray. He should be 100% focused until iOS actually works like it's supposed to, Apple watch isn't a launch mess, and silly projects like the Macbook stop happening.

It's customer experience first. Steve knew that. Tim not so much.

Remember Steve spoke about putting all their wood behind a few great arrows. The Apple catalog has ballooned up dramatically since Steve died and we are starting to see quality and experience dip as a result. Thanks, Tim.
 
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