Apple CEO Tim Cook often sits with random employees at lunch - Page 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by hypercommunist 

 

Hey Herm, I liked your quip, but what's the problem in pointing out that Cook is gay?  From hanging out on this site for a long time, it seems like the CEOs, including their personal lives, are of interest...

 

Anyway I hear Cook likes asian guys :b

Oh, I don't care if someone points out that he's gay (has he ever actually come out and said it publicly).

It's the idea of taking a short quip that was meant to amuse and tearing it apart piece by piece by piece. Hell, if I wanted to I could tear his critique apart piece by piece by piece (ie. just because he's gay doesn't mean Tim wouldn't notice if a gal is hot or not)... but any amount of humour is absolutely lost by then.

My remark was meant to be funny... it wasn't meant to be taken too literally.

Lesson learned.

Quote:

Originally Posted by charlituna 


Tim Cook has never stated his sexuality and it is his private business.
As a moderator one would expect you to have a bit more respect

That didn't bother me... I did like the "I Teresa" auto correct, though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by charlituna 


Tim Cook has never stated his sexuality and it is his private business.
As a moderator one would expect you to have a bit more respect

It is well known that TC is gay. Here is a great article on the subject... well, more about why geeks just don't care whether he is or not. (Its a great article on geeks, by a geek)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/29/tim-cook-gay-it

Quote:

Originally Posted by paxman 

It is well known that TC is gay. Here is a great article on the subject... well, more about why geeks just don't care whether he is or not. (Its a great article on geeks, by a geek)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/29/tim-cook-gay-it

I liked the part in the article where Tim actually stated in the interview that he is gay.

Oh, wait...

Quote:

Originally Posted by SolipsismX 

In a way that's cool and Cook seems like a nice guy but if I'm at lunch shooting the shit with fellow co-workers whom I likely consider friends and perhaps blowing off some steam about this or that and surely taking a break, having the CEO come sit with me for the duration of my lunch might not be the best thing.

Do you eat lunch only once or twice in your life?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maestro64 

One thing Jobs knows that no other CEO and possible Cook do not seem to know, --- DO NOT ALLOW WALL STREET TO TELL YOU HOW TO RUN YOUR BUSINESS - They have no clue what the are doing as we have seen and they have destroyed this country with their short sight views. This is why Steve did not talks to analysis and wall street unless he had too. The only reason he did is he was legally obligate to do so since they a publicly trade company. If Cook begins listening to and doing what the Wall Street types want, Apple is fall back to where it was. Wall Street only worries about making Money this quarter and if they can screw up a company in the short haul and allow them to short the sock they will. I good to hear he hangs with the everyday person, but keep in mind he had already put in a layer of management between him and the creative crazy types that Jobs knew how to deal with on a daily basis. All these nice things may not be good for Apple.

I realize it was just a typo... of which I make many, but I really did like, "short the sock".

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffDM 


First, has that been confirmed? People get a little touchy about it, that's one thing I don't know if it should be discussed unless they're actually open about it.

From Reuters:

Don't Ignore Tim Cook's Sexuality

Quote:

Originally Posted by yensid98 

From Reuters:

Don't Ignore Tim Cook's Sexuality

That's the second linked article with an interview with Tim stating he is gay.

Oh, wait...

Quote:

Originally Posted by msimpson 

 

the word around the Apple campus is that he really never listens to what the people he is eating lunch with have to say, he is just doing it to steal their french fries.  

And if Tim catches wind that someone is unhappy and are doing things in an attempt to get fired, he sits next to them everyday and smashes their cookies to piss them off so they end up quitting.....just so Apple doesn't have to pay into their unemployment insurance. 

Tim Cook seems like a nice guy and seems to have marshalled the approval of his employees, co-workers, investors, shareholders, and customers.  Sounds good so far.

Well, I think it important for a CEO not to alienate the employees of the company.  But it depends on how he handles certain things.  For instance, is he fishing for compliments and accolades and positive comments, or is he fishing for any problems that the employee has? Or is he just keeping the conversation to get to the know the employee on a personal level just to make sure people consider him just like anyone else within the company.  Most of the people in upper management that I have worked aren't very honest with their employees that I have found.  They usually are kind of paranoid about keeping their job so if they find someone that has a problem with how things are done, CEOs don't always want to hear it, let alone fix it.  And instead of THANKING the employee for bringing up a problem within the company AND FIXING it, they do the opposite and don't fix the problem and then make the employee's life miserable for speaking up.

ALL companies have problems.  People make mistakes or things can be done differently to improve the way they do business to either save money, reduce errors, increase sales, etc.  And the CEOs and other members of upper management either don't always see these problems or even know how to fix them.  But CEOs and upper management should always be in the mode of ALWAYS trying to find ways to improve the business, reduce errors, eliminate potential lawsuits, increase sales, increase productivity, etc.

Well, I certainly hope Tim Cook is one of those CEOs that wants to fix problems, improve things, and ultimately take care of those that need to be taken care of, and thanking those that bring issues up that can be rectified.  IT'S ACTUALLY THEIR JOB.

Here's what Jony Ive said the other day regarding the possible decline of Apple due to Steve's death: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/9283706/Jonathan-Ive-interview-simplicity-isnt-simple.html

"We're developing products in exactly the same way that we were two years ago, five years ago, ten years ago. It's not that there are a few of us working in the same way: there is a large group of us working in the same way."
 

He also said this about his team in particular:

"One of the things that is particularly precious about working at Apple is that many of us on the design team have worked together for 15-plus years and there's a wonderful thing about learning as a group. A fundamental part of that is making mistakes together. There's no learning without trying lots of ideas and failing lots of times."

Of course I wouldn't expect him to say anything other than what he did.  But what the media seems to forget (or it doesn't fit their meme) is most of management and employees in key positions (like design and software) have been with Apple for a long time.  Ive has been there 20 years and some members of his design team have been there that long if not longer.  Eddy Cue is a 23+ year veteran.  Cook, Schiller, Forstall, Mansfield are 14/15+ years.  You can't tell me that a combination of those guys can't equal (or come close to) Steve.

He has to also have a vision for the future of the company.  i think Tim seems more like he is well suited to manage the company, which he has been doing as COO for many years, while Steve was more of the visionary and deal maker for strategic deals.  It's a hard job regardless.  Also, CEOs are the spokesperson for the company, which Steve was a master at.

Obviously, Tim was thrown into this position and he has big shoes to fill in some areas.  Even if Steve left some guidelines for the next 5 years, they are still only what Steve thought, and sometimes it may pan out to either be the right direction or the wrong direction and it is Tim Cook's role to either implement them if they are good or not implement them if they turn out not to be good as time goes on.

Apple has always been in a difficult position in the past at gaining acceptance in the market because they weren't a Windows-based computer company.  It's kind of difficult to change the minds of people that have already bought into one way of doing things, even though your way might be better. Apple still has challenges in gaining acceptance. They have done a lot, but still have an uphill battle.

I really hope that Tim can keep Apple in the driver's seat, but then again Microsoft and this Android is always going to be an annoyance.  The bottom line, Apple is on a roll and if they keep up the constant improvement mentality and always stay ahead, they'll do fine.  I just hope they don't do any major mistakes along the way.

Quote:

Originally Posted by WardC 

I think most people agree that Tim is likable and a really great fellow all-around. I haven't heard much negative about him at all, I think he's very admired by the Apple community and seen as a positive influence at Apple.

They would? I don't have anything agains't him but how would you possibly have any idea what he is really like?

Awkward...
 

Oh no, Apple is doomed.  Steve's way is the only way to do things.  How dare Tim Cook do anything differently from Steve.  Anybody who does things differently from Steve will fail.

Are we supposed to care that Tim occasionally sits down to have lunch with random employees? Slightly less cynical, I do care a great deal about the comments Max Paley made in the Fortune piece on Tim and Apple. Things like this: "I've been told that any meeting of significance is now always populated by project management and global-supply management ... When I was there, engineering decided what we wanted, and it was the job of product management and supply management to go get it. It shows a shift in priority." sound very concerning.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mgsarch 

Are we supposed to care that Tim occasionally sits down to have lunch with random employees? Slightly less cynical, I do care a great deal about the comments Max Paley made in the Fortune piece on Tim and Apple. Things like this: "I've been told that any meeting of significance is now always populated by project management and global-supply management ... When I was there, engineering decided what we wanted, and it was the job of product management and supply management to go get it. It shows a shift in priority." sound very concerning.

So why did Steve pick Tim to replace him then?

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Originally Posted by Rogifan 

So why did Steve pick Tim to replace him then?

Whim.

[j/k]

As to why Steve picked Tim, remains to be seen.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mgsarch 
As to why Steve picked Tim, remains to be seen.

Hardly. He's a master of getting deals made.

Random employees? You mean Apple just hires random people?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Relefunt 
Random employees? You mean Apple just hires random people?

He only sits with employees who don't conform to social norms and do different things each day.

Methodical employees don't interest him.