The frontrunners for next Apple CEO: Speculating on Tim Cook's successor

13

Comments

  • Reply 41 of 61
    sigma902sigma902 Posts: 18member
    Eve Jobs, eventually, who is at Stanford currently studying “science, technology and society with a focus on politics.”
  • Reply 42 of 61
    They already have a succession plan in place.  The SEC requires it when a CEO is close to retiring.  Cook is gone in 5 years at 65.  He’s not working till 70.  No reason to with all his money.  
  • Reply 43 of 61
    CheeseFreezeCheeseFreeze Posts: 1,331member
    Not exactly much diversity in the options presented. 
    I mean, in the end it’s about the right person for the job and that should take precedence, but another white man for a company like Apple feels a bit against what they want to express culturally.
  • Reply 44 of 61
    MisterKitMisterKit Posts: 511member
    Where can I place an enormous wager that it'll be anyone other than Jackson or Srouji?  I'll put up $100,000 if someone want to lay $1000 on one of those 2.  In other words, that ain't happening.  

    I did get a chuckle out of "Ternus's exact age is unknown."  Very mysterious.  Perhaps he's not of this Earth.
    Now he's an Apple kind of guy if he can keep his age secret.
    randominternetpersonBeats
  • Reply 45 of 61
    imatimat Posts: 216member
    Almost all of the proposed names will be too old in 5-10 years to guarantee some sort of continuity. Becoming CEO at 60 for a company like Apple is not a great proposal, because he/she will only be in charge for a limited time. The next CEO should be in an age group that allow him/her to potentially stay at the helm for at least 15 years and none of the names, except maybe one, fit said description.

    Furthermore it might also be possible that the next CEO will not have been around under Jobs himself, as the company vastly expanded and the years pass by. This is not a bad thing.

    But the next CEO will have to be an Apple veteran because the culture of the company has to be a substantial part of his/her mindset and, I suppose, only with years of experience in Apple a person really "gets what Apple is about". Challenges abound, opportunities as well. I imagine a young-ish CEO, that gets the role at about 45-50 years of age, would be ideal. Of course to become a CEO of one of the most valuable companies in the world in a dynamic market such as the one Apple is in you'd have to tick a lot of boxes and be an especially smart and dedicated person, with some almost "ascetic" like qualities. But I think Apple can find such a person.
    danoxmuthuk_vanalingamDAalseth
  • Reply 46 of 61
    aknabiaknabi Posts: 211member

    Jeff Williams... nolo contendere

    Where can I place that bet.

    (FYI I tried to fix that huge font in the first line 3 times to no avail)
    edited April 2021
  • Reply 47 of 61
    danox said:

    cg27 said:
    lpaaaapl said:
    Deirdre O’Brien
    Yeah, serious oversight on the part of AI to leave her off the list of potential candies. 
    Read up.

    "She was considered, but not included. She has no real technical chops, and seems like she'd be below our "third tier." She's 55 at present, in a decade, she'll be 65."
    I read it when I posted. It's an opinion piece right? I have a different opinion. 
    Sure! You're welcome to think it was an oversight -- but the facts are, it wasn't. She was, in fact, considered.

    This is a semantic thing.

    Oversight: an inadvertent omission or error. 

    I'm not saying the error was not considering her, I'm saying leaving her off the list is the error. 
    What would she possibly bring to the CEO role that the others couldn’t?  No technical chops sums it up perfectly.
    Let’s first start with the fact that everyone is speculating at this point. When people say “no technical chops” what are they basing that on? She certainly doesn’t have a formal education in technology but neither did Steve and he certain had the technical acumen to do the job. So when people are saying she doesn’t technical acumen they are just kinda guessing. I’d suspect that she isn’t in the weeds on technology but I’m also just kinda guessing. As far as what she brings? The CEO position is and will always be a leadership job first and foremost. Apple is a massive organization, more like several massive organizations, and the CEO can’t be in the details for all of those things. It’s about having the right people leading each organization. Steve had the analogy that his job was managing the Beatles, he had to get all the great parts working together. I’m guessing she could do it and that gets her a spot on the list. 

    If I were betting on it, my money would be on Craig or Jeff.... I’d also say that Sabih Khan should be on the list as Jeff is more or less as old as Tim and likely wouldn’t be around as CEO for long. Sabih is heir apparent to Jeff which should kind of put him in the running by default. 

    She should have gotten the retail job or someone else within Apple, instead of those two British duds, but that’s it....
    Well, bad news. Deirdre got more than running retail. Also Angela Ahrendts is an American, she was born and raised in Indiana. She moved to England mid career. Not sure how you landed on her being British. 
    edited April 2021
  • Reply 48 of 61
    danox said:
    I expect Apple to promote from within. But a good outsider will be T-Mobile’s ex ceo John Legere. 
    The two outsiders they had in retail were terrible......
    Apple had three outside people run retail. It was started and run by and outsider, Ron Johnson and he seemed to do a fairly good job with it. 
  • Reply 49 of 61
    If Apple is serious about winning back developers after the whole Epic lawsuit then they should hire an outsider who’s known to be good with developers. 
    This guy comes to mind

    edited April 2021
  • Reply 50 of 61
    TRAG said:
    Too far off to tell but the Board will have a succession plan. Currently my money would be on Jeff Williams or someone external, moot point this early though.
    The Board has a succession plan now...  There's a name or names in the doomsday envelope.
  • Reply 51 of 61
    As a stock holder, i’d like to see someone who will actually stand up to Apple’s abusive labor practices. Tim looked the other way while filling his pockets over too long of a time.
  • Reply 52 of 61
    +1 for Federighi... assuming he wants the job, which I’m unsure of.
    elijahg
  • Reply 53 of 61
    BeatsBeats Posts: 3,073member
    It’s gonna be a black female.

    /PC Joke
  • Reply 54 of 61
    bloggerblogbloggerblog Posts: 2,503member
    cg27 said:
    elijahg said:
    I think Federighi would be great. He'd put the products and engineering first as Jobs did, not profit like Cook (and likely any operations guy) does. He has charisma, he's funny, he is genuinely passionate about the products, he is obviously a very smart guy. It'd be great to have someone at the top who actually uses all the products the company produces, someone who is hands on in the engineering as Jobs was - someone who understands the limitations, the usability, the bugs and the functionality too. Someone who is a "power user" who understands the needs of those who need more than Pages and two USB C ports. He is much more Jobsian than Cook ever could be.
    This sums up Federighi perfectly and why he should be the next CEO.  If the board picks a non-engineer I’ll sell my stock before it tanks and will invest in other companies such as MSFT, GOOG, AMZN founded and still run by engineers.
    1) Steve Jobs was not an engineer. 2) MSFT, GOOG, AMZN would kill to have an Apple like corporate culture and product. GOOG and MSFT has lost billions trying to be Apple. I work in an engineer centric environment, and unlike Apple, they always de-prioritized design over production.
  • Reply 55 of 61
    Whomever it is, please don’t let it be another person that blindly and naively espouses racist, divisive ideologies like critical race theory and ‘equity’ in order to score politically correct brownie points. It’s damaging to Apple’s brand, as well as society as a whole. Also, please don’t let it be Cue, we don’t need Apple’s operating systems and hardware running like it’s services..
    elijahg
  • Reply 56 of 61
    What about Katherine Adams?
  • Reply 57 of 61
    elijahgelijahg Posts: 2,831member
    cg27 said:
    elijahg said:
    I think Federighi would be great. He'd put the products and engineering first as Jobs did, not profit like Cook (and likely any operations guy) does. He has charisma, he's funny, he is genuinely passionate about the products, he is obviously a very smart guy. It'd be great to have someone at the top who actually uses all the products the company produces, someone who is hands on in the engineering as Jobs was - someone who understands the limitations, the usability, the bugs and the functionality too. Someone who is a "power user" who understands the needs of those who need more than Pages and two USB C ports. He is much more Jobsian than Cook ever could be.
    This sums up Federighi perfectly and why he should be the next CEO.  If the board picks a non-engineer I’ll sell my stock before it tanks and will invest in other companies such as MSFT, GOOG, AMZN founded and still run by engineers.
    1) Steve Jobs was not an engineer. 2) MSFT, GOOG, AMZN would kill to have an Apple like corporate culture and product. GOOG and MSFT has lost billions trying to be Apple. I work in an engineer centric environment, and unlike Apple, they always de-prioritized design over production.
    1) Who said Jobs was an engineer? 1a) Someone does not have to have formal engineering qualifications to be an engineer. 2) What makes you think that? 2b) Your engineering company might, doesn't mean all do; Apple, Nest, Ubiquiti, Peloton to name a couple off the top of my head.
  • Reply 58 of 61
    k2kwk2kw Posts: 2,077member
    They already have a succession plan in place.  The SEC requires it when a CEO is close to retiring.  Cook is gone in 5 years at 65.  He’s not working till 70.  No reason to with all his money.  
    People at that level work because they love it.  I expect him to keep working for quite a while unless he and his husband adopt a child.
  • Reply 59 of 61
    k2kwk2kw Posts: 2,077member

    +1 for Federighi... assuming he wants the job, which I’m unsure of.
    It’s going to be Elon Musk after the Apple Car tanks.   

    However it is I hope they bring back innovation beyond evolution.
  • Reply 60 of 61
    k2kwk2kw Posts: 2,077member
    imat said:
    Almost all of the proposed names will be too old in 5-10 years to guarantee some sort of continuity. Becoming CEO at 60 for a company like Apple is not a great proposal, because he/she will only be in charge for a limited time. The next CEO should be in an age group that allow him/her to potentially stay at the helm for at least 15 years and none of the names, except maybe one, fit said description.

    Furthermore it might also be possible that the next CEO will not have been around under Jobs himself, as the company vastly expanded and the years pass by. This is not a bad thing.

    But the next CEO will have to be an Apple veteran because the culture of the company has to be a substantial part of his/her mindset and, I suppose, only with years of experience in Apple a person really "gets what Apple is about". Challenges abound, opportunities as well. I imagine a young-ish CEO, that gets the role at about 45-50 years of age, would be ideal. Of course to become a CEO of one of the most valuable companies in the world in a dynamic market such as the one Apple is in you'd have to tick a lot of boxes and be an especially smart and dedicated person, with some almost "ascetic" like qualities. But I think Apple can find such a person.
    whoever it is won’t be someone with kids still in school.   I’m sure the job demands an incredible amount of time.
Sign In or Register to comment.