It’s a question many in tech have pondered since Steve Jobs’s health issues cropped up several years ago: What would happen to Apple without Steve Jobs as CEO? Now we have to ponder the question for real, as the iconic businessman and chief executive officer of Apple just made his previous temporary medical leave permanent. He resigned on Wednesday as CEO of the company he co-founded and brought back from near bankruptcy. In his resignation letter to shareholders, Jobs recommended his longtime chief operating officer as his permanent replacement: “As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.”
Though Jobs steps out of his role as CEO, he’ll remain as chairman of the board, Apple has confirmed. Though markets will likely react when they reopen Thursday morning—having already dipped about five percentage points Wednesday after market close—having Cook in the executive office isn’t a change likely to be felt immediately in terms of the way Apple does business and the types of products it makes. That’s because Cook and Jobs are said to be very much of the same mind in their philosophy of how to run the world’s most valuable technology company.
The choice of Cook is no surprise. Though Apple hadn’t made its succession plans public, it’s been widely assumed that Cook would assume the role of CEO. He’s been a senior vice-president at Apple since 1995 and COO since 2005, and Jobs has entrusted him with the title of official acting CEO twice before. He’s also the man credited with turning around Apple’s manufacturing process and improving its inventory and margins, which are the envy of the industry.
When called upon during Jobs’s previous absences, Cook has been a calming, familiar voice on the company’s earnings calls for investors. That’s because he has overseen some of the most successful quarters in Apple history.
During his most recent six-month-long temporary CEO role, beginning in January, Apple has:
• Increased its cash reserves from $60 billion to $76 billion.
• At least temporarily become the most valuable public company in the world.
• Introduced a new iPad, dominated the tablet market, and sent industry heavyweight Hewlett-Packard running for cover.
• Had the iPhone remain the best-selling smartphone in the market, even after more than a year in release.
• Added more retail locations, including opening a fourth Apple Store in China, which has been a boon to the company’s bottom line.
• Been shepherded through a major new operating system update, launching OS X Lion last month.
Despite Cook’s clear ability to lead the company, he won’t be the public face of Apple in the way Jobs as CEO has become. Cook is known for being an extremely private person, and he’s not known to possess Jobs’s salesman qualities. So will we see Cook emceeing Apple events in the same style and manner as Jobs? Very likely not. We have seen Cook on stage at Apple press events, but this role will likely be shared, as it has been recently during Jobs’s absences, among Cook and other Apple executives like marketing chief Phil Schiller, head of iOS Scott Forstall, and hardware vice-president Bob Mansfield.
No comments:
Post a Comment