Tim Cook talks about Steve Jobs thinking differently, Apple product philosophy
Apple CEO Tim Cook praised co-founder Steve Jobs in a recent interview for Bloomberg, including his vision for how the iPhone producer should be operated and Cook's interactions with him, as well as covering the company's views on subjects like privacy and civil liberties.
In the interview for the David Rubenstein Show, recorded in May, Cook talked about Jobs' views on collaboration and the working environment, including how the co-founder influenced the design and construction of Apple Park, the company's new Cupertino headquarters.
"Steve had the vision that the workplace should facilitate people working together having these common areas that people could work together and run into each other without planning on doing it," Cook advised. "The level of ideas and creativity and innovation that would come out of that would be phenomenal."
On meeting Steve Jobs, Cook noted how Jobs decided on directions that Apple would move towards that were "extraordinarily different than conventional wisdom" that was usually selected by other firms. "Many people were abandoning the consumer market because it was a blood bath. Steve was doing the exact opposite. He was doubling down on the consumer at the time everyone else, the conventional wisdom said go put your money in storage and servers.' "
"Talking with him, and the type of questions he asked, were also different. I did, literally before I left, was thinking 'I hope he offers me a job, because I really want to do this.' "
Cook also discussed Apple's current decision-making process that seemingly ignores short-term gains in favor of more distant goals, insisting "We run Apple for the long term."
"It's always struck me as bizarre that there's a fixation on how many units are sold in a 90-day period," said Cook. "We're making decisions that are multi-year kinds of decisions. We make it very clear that we don't want to run the company for people who want to make a quick buck."
The interview also touched on Apple's philosophy regarding privacy, with Cook insisting it was viewed as "a fundamental human right." Calling it as important as "some of the other civil liberties that make Americans what they are," Cook notes it is becoming a bigger issue for people over time.
"Our tact on this is we take a minimum amount of data from customers... only that which we need to provide a great service," added Cook. "Then, we work really hard to protect it with encryption and so forth."
In the interview for the David Rubenstein Show, recorded in May, Cook talked about Jobs' views on collaboration and the working environment, including how the co-founder influenced the design and construction of Apple Park, the company's new Cupertino headquarters.
"Steve had the vision that the workplace should facilitate people working together having these common areas that people could work together and run into each other without planning on doing it," Cook advised. "The level of ideas and creativity and innovation that would come out of that would be phenomenal."
On meeting Steve Jobs, Cook noted how Jobs decided on directions that Apple would move towards that were "extraordinarily different than conventional wisdom" that was usually selected by other firms. "Many people were abandoning the consumer market because it was a blood bath. Steve was doing the exact opposite. He was doubling down on the consumer at the time everyone else, the conventional wisdom said go put your money in storage and servers.' "
"Talking with him, and the type of questions he asked, were also different. I did, literally before I left, was thinking 'I hope he offers me a job, because I really want to do this.' "
Cook also discussed Apple's current decision-making process that seemingly ignores short-term gains in favor of more distant goals, insisting "We run Apple for the long term."
"It's always struck me as bizarre that there's a fixation on how many units are sold in a 90-day period," said Cook. "We're making decisions that are multi-year kinds of decisions. We make it very clear that we don't want to run the company for people who want to make a quick buck."
The interview also touched on Apple's philosophy regarding privacy, with Cook insisting it was viewed as "a fundamental human right." Calling it as important as "some of the other civil liberties that make Americans what they are," Cook notes it is becoming a bigger issue for people over time.
"Our tact on this is we take a minimum amount of data from customers... only that which we need to provide a great service," added Cook. "Then, we work really hard to protect it with encryption and so forth."
Comments
And with a much quieter bang, Apple’s management repurchases shares. The world is what it is. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to figure out how to profit.
The more Jobs like character, a potential threat, was sacked about five years ago. Not that would have worked either.
Some of what he described of Cook is indeed operations, which is why he was COO. But running and managing the org is indeed the CEO’s wheelhouse.
The problem is more that Apple is on the public 'markets' and they are more akin to Vegas than investment, these days.
Wouldn't that be more CEO vs COO? I generally think of things like vision and leadership being more a CEO thing than operations. Both are pretty important.
But, my main issue with whoever is running things... what are Apple's core values? Are they still building the best products and user-experience (over other priorities like profits or being fashionable)? If so, then great. It hasn't seemed that way.
That's a fair point. I guess what I want is someone who will carry on the priorities Jobs set forth for the company (i.e.: building the best stuff and UX being job 1), and then allowing (and saying no to) the creativity that was certainly there under Jobs as well as now. It certainly won't be exactly the same or turn out like it would if Jobs were still at the helm, but I just don't want them to turn into HP, IBM, etc.
I've run my own business and paid quite a bit of attention to the entrepreneurial genre, and there is a huge difference between companies that focus on the business (spreadsheets, pie-charts, popularity, fashion, profits, bottom-line, etc.) and those that focus on the customer and just making the best darn products and services they can. With a bit of guidance (which Tim is perfect to provide!) the profits, popularity, etc. will flow from doing the 'best product' thing. That's what I saw happening under Jobs.
However, if you get mired down into trying to force the profits and popularity by fine-tuning the spreadsheets, pie-charts, popularity (PR, marketing) and lose focus on that 'best product' stuff... you often end up not producing the best products and everything else that results suffers. You might not go out of business. You might even be pretty successful for a time. But you'll ultimately fail to be what you could have been.