The departure of Apple’s chief operating officer, Jeff Williams, is just the beginning of a broader management overhaul, Mark Gurman reports for Bloomberg News, though CEO Tim Cook is staying put for the foreseeable future. Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
After what Steve Jobs built, a chimpanzee could run Apple profitably for many years. (Yes, even Steve Ballmer could do it.) — MacDailyNews, April 10, 2017 The problem, as is now plainly evident, is that when you do not have a visionary for coming up on 15 years, you miss the next paradigm shift. So, now, because non-visionary Tim Cook, a glorified operations manager, was wasting time, focus, and money blowing tens of billions on a failed EV project and an overpriced, non-selling AR/VR headset, Apple is way behind in genAI, struggling embarrassingly to catch up, and facing the prospect of of a myopic, charisma-free, aging CEO clinging on for “at least another half-decade” because Apple’s BoD, half of which were stocked by Cook with loyalists* (Cook himself is the Board’s tie-breaking vote), has as much vision as Cook himself. Good times. “Oh,” some might say, “but Tim has taken Apple to the very top!” Did he really? Or did he just ride Steve’s rocket? Imagine a CEO capable of adding his own fuel. How much higher and farther would that rocket be today? Drew Bledsoe looked like a pretty good quarterback – until Tom Brady took over. A visionary CEO would have taken the company far further than it is today. A visionary CEO would have recognized the potential of acquiring, say, a Netflix or a Tesla on the cheap. A visionary CEO wouldn’t today be desperately scrambling to come up with some homegrown generative AI, years late, as usual (see HomePod). A visionary CEO would have recognized the threat that China posed to his company and worked to extricate his company far sooner. Tim Cook is reactive, not proactive. Tim Cook couldn’t see it then. Tim Cook can’t see it now. Tim Cook won’t be able to see it tomorrow. “Tim’s not a product person, per se.” – Steve Jobs A visionary CEO would generate excitement, anticipation, and wonder. Instead we have all of the thrill of a conveyor belt, slowly moving, sometimes not even, for 12+ years and counting. Someday, hopefully sooner than later, watching the paint dry will blessedly be over. Steve Jobs painted a masterpiece. Tim Cook stands there fanning it. Imagine live keynotes, multiple times per year, revealing exciting, surprising products, delivered on stage by a CEO capable of sparking wonder and excitement in his own right. Instead, we endured years of sleep-inducing keynotes which have now devolved into canned, pre-recorded, highly edited industrial videos because the CEO couldn’t do them well live. – MacDailyNews, January 3, 2024 *Four current Apple Board members were appointed during Tim Cook’s tenure as CEO (after August 2011): Wanda Austin, Alex Gorsky, Monica Lozano, and Susan L. Wagner. Cook, who joined the board in 2011 upon becoming CEO, has actively sought new board members since at least 2014, suggesting he has influenced the selection process for appointments during his tenure. See also: Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon. The post Tim Cook could be Apple’s CEO for at least another half-decade appeared first on MacDailyNews. You're currently a free subscriber to MacDailyNews. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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Monday, July 14, 2025
Tim Cook could be Apple’s CEO for at least another half-decade
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