Auburn University alumnus Tim Cook succeeded the legendary Steve Jobs as Apple’s CEO in August of 2011. But in spite of Cook being the leader of the world’s most valuable company, very little is actually known about him.
That may change soon, though, thanks to a new book titled “Haunted Empire: Apple After Steve Jobs” by former Wall Street Journal reporter Yukari Iwatani Kane. The Journal posted an excerpt from the book today. Thanks to that post, we’ve already found out a lot about Cook and the way he’s building on Jobs’ legacy while also putting his own imprint on the company.
Here are 10 things you should know about Cook from excerpts in today’s WSJ article:
1. His family lived in Robertsdale, Ala.
In high school, he was voted “most studious.” He represented his town at Boys State, an American Legion mock legislature program, and won an essay contest organized by the Alabama Rural Electric Association on the topic of “Rural Electric Cooperatives—Challengers of Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow.” Outside of class, Cook was appointed the business manager of the yearbook because he was meticulous and good with numbers.
2. He’s an Auburn grad
Shout out to @CoachGusMalzahn and the entire #Auburn team. You made us proud. It was a wild ride and you reminded us of why we love Auburn.
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) January 7, 2014
Cook began his career at IBM after graduating from Auburn University with a degree in industrial engineering. Later he added an M.B.A. from Duke. After 12 years, he moved to a small Colorado computer reseller called Intelligent Electronics Inc., where he nearly doubled the firm’s revenues. He was plucked by Compaq and moved to Houston. One day a headhunter called: Apple was looking for a senior vice president of world-wide operations. “Why don’t you come and meet Steve Jobs?” the recruiter asked.
3. He joined Apple’s executive team in 1998
Unlike his predecessors, who sat with the operations team, Cook asked for a small office cater-cornered to Jobs’s on the executive floor. It was a shrewd strategy—staying close to the boss to be attuned to his thinking.
4. He is in many ways the polar opposite of Steve Jobs
Cook was a seasoned businessman and arguably a better manager than Jobs. He was organized, prepared and more realistic about the burdens of running a company of Apple’s size. But no one could beat Jobs at being Jobs—especially Cook, his polar opposite.
If Jobs was the star, Cook was the stage manager. If Jobs was idealistic, Cook was practical. But without Jobs, Cook had no counterweight to his dogged pragmatism. Who would provide the creative sparks?
5. He sets absurdly high expectations
‘I want you to act like we are a $20 billion company,’ he told the procurement team—even though Apple then had only about $6 billion in annual revenues and was barely eking out a profit. They were playing in a new league now.”
6. He is incredibly disciplined
Weekly operations meetings could last five to six hours as he ground through every single item. His subordinates soon learned to plan for meetings with him as if they were cramming for an exam. Even a small miss of a couple of hundred units was examined closely. “Your numbers,” one planner recalled him saying flatly, “make me want to jump out that window over there…”
Cook demonstrated the same level of austerity and discipline in his life as he did in his work. He woke up at 4:30 or 5 a.m. and hit the gym several times a week. He ate protein bars throughout the day and had simple meals like chicken and rice for lunch.
His stamina was inhuman. He could fly to Asia, spend three days there, fly back, land at 7 a.m. at the airport and be in the office by 8:30, interrogating someone about some numbers.
7. He can be terrifying
To some, Cook was a machine; to others, he was riveting. He could strike terror in the hearts of his subordinates, but he could also motivate them to toil from dawn to midnight for just a word of praise…
Meetings with Cook could be terrifying. He exuded a Zenlike calm and didn’t waste words. “Talk about your numbers. Put your spreadsheet up,” he’d say as he nursed a Mountain Dew. (Some staffers wondered why he wasn’t bouncing off the walls from the caffeine.) When Cook turned the spotlight on someone, he hammered them with questions until he was satisfied. “Why is that?” “What do you mean?” “I don’t understand. Why are you not making it clear?” He was known to ask the same exact question 10 times in a row.
Cook also knew the power of silence. He could do more with a pause than Jobs ever could with an epithet. When someone was unable to answer a question, Cook would sit without a word while people stared at the table and shifted in their seats. The silence would be so intense and uncomfortable that everyone in the room wanted to back away. Unperturbed, Cook didn’t move a finger as he focused his eyes on his squirming target. Sometimes he would take an energy bar from his pocket while he waited for an answer, and the hush would be broken only by the crackling of the wrapper.
8. He is relentlessly frugal…
For many years, he lived in a rental unit in a dingy ranch-style building with no air conditioning. He said it reminded him of his humble roots. When he finally purchased a house, it was a modest 2,400-square-foot home, built on a half-lot with a single parking spot. His first sports car was a used Porsche Boxster, an entry-level sports car that enthusiasts called the “poor man’s Porsche.”
9. …But he is also generous
He gave away the frequent-flier miles that he racked up as Christmas gifts, and he volunteered at a soup kitchen during the Thanksgiving holidays. He had also participated in an annual two-day cycling event across Georgia to raise money for multiple sclerosis; Cook had been a supporter since being misdiagnosed with the disease years before…
Cook’s second decision [as Apple CEO] was to start a charity program, matching donations of up to $10,000, dollar for dollar annually. This too was widely embraced: The lack of an Apple corporate-matching program had long been a sore point for many employees. Jobs had considered matching programs particularly ineffective because the contributions would never amount to enough to make a difference. Some of his friends believed that Jobs would have taken up some causes once he had more time, but Jobs used to say that he was contributing to society more meaningfully by building a good company and creating jobs. Cook believed firmly in charity. “My objective—one day—is to totally help others,” he said. “To me, that’s real success, when you can say, ‘I don’t need it anymore. I’m going to do something else.'”
10. RFK & MLK are two of his biggest heroes
Cook placed Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. among his heroes, and photos of both men hung in his office. In a statement that hinted at how Cook viewed his relationship with Jobs, he said that he admired the way RFK had been comfortable standing in his brother’s shadow. The martyred senator embodied everything that Cook strove to be—hardworking, principled and charitable.
Remembering my lifelong hero. "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."- Dr. Martin Luther King
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) January 20, 2014
Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims
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