Tim Cook talks about Steve Jobs thinking differently, Apple product philosophy

Posted:
in General Discussion edited June 2018
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."
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 22
    I loved Apple even more. Thank you Appleinsider guys /girls to provide this video.
    edited June 2018 perpetual3watto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 22
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member
    I know some will think differently for one reason or another, but I still honestly think Tim Cook is the best possible CEO out there for today's Apple, which is different from the Apple of the Steve Jobs era. Its just a different world out there today. In some ways, he's actually better than Steve Jobs. Yes, he's not an innovator like Steve was (not a product guy), but damn he knows how to run Apple. Just because Apple isn't releasing something you want right now doesn't mean they aren't working on it and it doesn't mean that if Steve were here it would be out by now.
    radarthekatmike egglestonStrangeDaysroundaboutnowJWSCfastasleepwatto_cobrajony0
  • Reply 3 of 22
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    macxpress said:
    I know some will think differently for one reason or another, but I still honestly think Tim Cook is the best possible CEO out there for today's Apple, which is different from the Apple of the Steve Jobs era. Its just a different world out there today. In some ways, he's actually better than Steve Jobs. Yes, he's not an innovator like Steve was (not a product guy), but damn he knows how to run Apple. Just because Apple isn't releasing something you want right now doesn't mean they aren't working on it and it doesn't mean that if Steve were here it would be out by now.
    I think it's inarguable that Apple couldn't have grown as fast or as well as they did under Steve Jobs without Tim Cook being on Jobs team.
    radarthekatfruitstandninjafastasleeplamboaudi4watto_cobrajony0
  • Reply 4 of 22
    widmarkwidmark Posts: 37member
    Steve was such a curator of design and function with the ability to push his desires through Apple in a timely way.  Tim doesn’t even pretend he has those skills, but he is a supply chain genius, which Steve wasn’t.  They were a great combo and no disrespect to Tim, but Steve’s skills are the more irreplaceable.  Tim would prob agree.
    [Deleted User]watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 22
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    "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.”
    And this, dear reader, is why Wall Street detests Apple. Capitalism runs purely on fear and greed. How have you made me money TODAY? Why else do you think the rumor mill can manipulate AAPL as easily as it can? Print a rumor that Apple has lowered manufacturing requests and, BANG, AAPL drops.
    SoliglynhJWSClamboaudi4watto_cobrajony0
  • Reply 6 of 22
    radarthekatradarthekat Posts: 3,842moderator
    lkrupp said:
    "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.”
    And this, dear reader, is why Wall Street detests Apple. Capitalism runs purely on fear and greed. How have you made me money TODAY? Why else do you think the rumor mill can manipulate AAPL as easily as it can? Print a rumor that Apple has lowered manufacturing requests and, BANG, AAPL drops.
    “...and, BANG, AAPL drops.”

    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.  
    2old4funJWSCmuthuk_vanalingamjony0watto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 22
    entropysentropys Posts: 4,152member
    macxpress said:
    I know some will think differently for one reason or another, but I still honestly think Tim Cook is the best possible CEO out there for today's Apple, which is different from the Apple of the Steve Jobs era. Its just a different world out there today. In some ways, he's actually better than Steve Jobs. Yes, he's not an innovator like Steve was (not a product guy), but damn he knows how to run Apple. Just because Apple isn't releasing something you want right now doesn't mean they aren't working on it and it doesn't mean that if Steve were here it would be out by now.
    What you are describing about Cook seems to me to be the guy who should be in charge of systems and operations, not the whole shebang.  

    The more Jobs like character, a potential threat, was sacked about five years ago. Not that would have worked either. 
    edited June 2018
  • Reply 8 of 22
    nhtnht Posts: 4,522member
    entropys said:
    macxpress said:
    I know some will think differently for one reason or another, but I still honestly think Tim Cook is the best possible CEO out there for today's Apple, which is different from the Apple of the Steve Jobs era. Its just a different world out there today. In some ways, he's actually better than Steve Jobs. Yes, he's not an innovator like Steve was (not a product guy), but damn he knows how to run Apple. Just because Apple isn't releasing something you want right now doesn't mean they aren't working on it and it doesn't mean that if Steve were here it would be out by now.
    What you are describing about Cook seems to me to be the guy who should be in charge of systems and operations, not the whole shebang.  
    Steve disagreed 
    StrangeDaysmacxpressdewmewatto_cobrajony0
  • Reply 9 of 22
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,834member
    widmark said:
    Steve was such a curator of design and function with the ability to push his desires through Apple in a timely way.  Tim doesn’t even pretend he has those skills, but he is a supply chain genius, which Steve wasn’t.  They were a great combo and no disrespect to Tim, but Steve’s skills are the more irreplaceable.  Tim would prob agree.
    The skills you’ve identified in Jobs are not typical of the CEO and his responsibilities. In this way, Cook was serving as the CEO even while Jobs had the title of CEO. Cook’s skills are essential to running a very successful company, while product designers are a hirable role that work within an org or team.
    jony0watto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 22
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,834member

    entropys said:
    macxpress said:
    I know some will think differently for one reason or another, but I still honestly think Tim Cook is the best possible CEO out there for today's Apple, which is different from the Apple of the Steve Jobs era. Its just a different world out there today. In some ways, he's actually better than Steve Jobs. Yes, he's not an innovator like Steve was (not a product guy), but damn he knows how to run Apple. Just because Apple isn't releasing something you want right now doesn't mean they aren't working on it and it doesn't mean that if Steve were here it would be out by now.
    What you are describing about Cook seems to me to be the guy who should be in charge of systems and operations, not the whole shebang.  
    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. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 11 of 22
    cgWerkscgWerks Posts: 2,952member
    lkrupp said:
    And this, dear reader, is why Wall Street detests Apple. Capitalism runs purely on fear and greed. How have you made me money TODAY? Why else do you think the rumor mill can manipulate AAPL as easily as it can? Print a rumor that Apple has lowered manufacturing requests and, BANG, AAPL drops.
    What does Capitalism have to do with Wall Street or short-term thought? Capitalism is an economics system.
    The problem is more that Apple is on the public 'markets' and they are more akin to Vegas than investment, these days.

    StrangeDays said:
    The skills you’ve identified in Jobs are not typical of the CEO and his responsibilities. In this way, Cook was serving as the CEO even while Jobs had the title of CEO. Cook’s skills are essential to running a very successful company, while product designers are a hirable role that work within an org or team.
    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.
  • Reply 12 of 22
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member
    widmark said:
    Steve was such a curator of design and function with the ability to push his desires through Apple in a timely way.  Tim doesn’t even pretend he has those skills, but he is a supply chain genius, which Steve wasn’t.  They were a great combo and no disrespect to Tim, but Steve’s skills are the more irreplaceable.  Tim would prob agree.
    The skills you’ve identified in Jobs are not typical of the CEO and his responsibilities. In this way, Cook was serving as the CEO even while Jobs had the title of CEO. Cook’s skills are essential to running a very successful company, while product designers are a hirable role that work within an org or team.
    Yeah this is kinda what I was getting at. Steve was really just the visionary, but not necessarily a true CEO. What he did was not the norm of any CEO of any company. 
  • Reply 13 of 22
    cgWerkscgWerks Posts: 2,952member
    macxpress said:
    Yeah this is kinda what I was getting at. Steve was really just the visionary, but not necessarily a true CEO. What he did was not the norm of any CEO of any company. 
    As far as that is true, I'd say it is unfortunately true.
  • Reply 14 of 22
    foggyhillfoggyhill Posts: 4,767member
    widmark said:
    Steve was such a curator of design and function with the ability to push his desires through Apple in a timely way.  Tim doesn’t even pretend he has those skills, but he is a supply chain genius, which Steve wasn’t.  They were a great combo and no disrespect to Tim, but Steve’s skills are the more irreplaceable.  Tim would prob agree.
    The skills you’ve identified in Jobs are not typical of the CEO and his responsibilities. In this way, Cook was serving as the CEO even while Jobs had the title of CEO. Cook’s skills are essential to running a very successful company, while product designers are a hirable role that work within an org or team.
    Cook's shared the CEO functions since probably the early 2000s,. Jobs once he knew he had someone he could thrust was more interested in Product Management (He created/managed product lines and determined how they were sold), Marketing and Communications.

    Of course, he had strategic role in deciding what products should be pursued and that's the CEO part he was interested in.

    The nitty gritty of daily engineering or operations didn't interest him much. He mostly insured that his view of the market got to fruition; keeping the big picture of (the product and what it can do for people) in view thus preventing people from getting lost in the details.

    Creating product that made people's life's better was his goal. The tech or steps that led to this were of lesser importance. He certainly wasn't a gearhead :-).
    cgWerkswatto_cobra
  • Reply 15 of 22
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    lkrupp said:
    And this, dear reader, is why Wall Street detests Apple. Keynesian consumerism runs purely on fear and greed. How have you made me money TODAY? Why else do you think the rumor mill can manipulate AAPL as easily as it can? Print a rumor that Apple has lowered manufacturing requests and, BANG, AAPL drops.
    Fixed that.
    cgWerkswatto_cobra
  • Reply 16 of 22
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member
    Another thing about Tim is, he understands the values at Apple that have been built over time. Those who want Tim out be very careful of what you ask for. If Tim left there's no guarantee Apple would hire someone internally and if that was true, you could get some bozo in there who think they're the next Steve Jobs and totally ruins the culture built there as well as the visions and values. Apple could get a Steve Ballmer type CEO. You may think that will never happen, but its very possible that something like that could happen. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 17 of 22
    AppleZuluAppleZulu Posts: 1,989member
    Here’s the catch-22 for all the Cult of Steve folks. Jobs was a singular and unique individual, visionary and company leader. It’s that uniqueness that made Jobs who he was, and how he made Apple what it became under his tenure. Now that Jobs is dead, many people want to throw shade at Tim Cook for ‘not being Steve Jobs.’ Of course he’s not Steve Jobs. The only person who could be Jobs is Jobs, and Jobs is dead. Now here’s the rub. The cultists who wish that Tim was more like Steve express that desire with the what would Steve do mantra. But if Tim or any other imagined Apple CEO was in fact a lot like Steve while not actually being Steve, the result would be a CEO who would forcefully never, ever ask what would Steve do? A Steve-like CEO would map his or her own vision, obliterating the Jobs model of Apple and replacing it with an entirely different company. I don’t think that’s the result that the cultists actually want, however. What they want is a resurrection, or more likely, simply a cartoon charachter who will serve as an appeal to authority by embodying whatever opinion they might have about a given thing at a given time.
    macxpresslamboaudi4watto_cobra
  • Reply 18 of 22
    cgWerkscgWerks Posts: 2,952member
    macxpress said:
    Another thing about Tim is, he understands the values at Apple that have been built over time. Those who want Tim out be very careful of what you ask for. If Tim left there's no guarantee Apple would hire someone internally and if that was true, you could get some bozo in there who think they're the next Steve Jobs and totally ruins the culture built there as well as the visions and values. Apple could get a Steve Ballmer type CEO. You may think that will never happen, but its very possible that something like that could happen. 
    I think maybe my concern is that this is somewhat what has happened, just not nearly at a Ballmer level. My fear is that Apple has gone more 'corporate' and 'typical tech business' much like they were headed in the '90s before Steve returned.

    AppleZulu said:
    But if Tim or any other imagined Apple CEO was in fact a lot like Steve while not actually being Steve, the result would be a CEO who would forcefully never, ever ask what would Steve do? A Steve-like CEO would map his or her own vision, obliterating the Jobs model of Apple and replacing it with an entirely different company.
    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.
  • Reply 19 of 22
    asdasdasdasd Posts: 5,686member
    AirPods were good though. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 20 of 22
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member
    AppleZulu said:
    Here’s the catch-22 for all the Cult of Steve folks. Jobs was a singular and unique individual, visionary and company leader. It’s that uniqueness that made Jobs who he was, and how he made Apple what it became under his tenure. Now that Jobs is dead, many people want to throw shade at Tim Cook for ‘not being Steve Jobs.’ Of course he’s not Steve Jobs. The only person who could be Jobs is Jobs, and Jobs is dead. Now here’s the rub. The cultists who wish that Tim was more like Steve express that desire with the what would Steve do mantra. But if Tim or any other imagined Apple CEO was in fact a lot like Steve while not actually being Steve, the result would be a CEO who would forcefully never, ever ask what would Steve do? A Steve-like CEO would map his or her own vision, obliterating the Jobs model of Apple and replacing it with an entirely different company. I don’t think that’s the result that the cultists actually want, however. What they want is a resurrection, or more likely, simply a cartoon charachter who will serve as an appeal to authority by embodying whatever opinion they might have about a given thing at a given time.
    LOL Cult of Steve. Good one! I may steal that down the road. :smile: 
    watto_cobra
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