For better or worse, Apple is a one-man show. And once that man inevitably shuffles off his mortal coil, 1 Infinite Loop will not be the same.
Yesterday, Fortune magazine made the case that COO Tim Cook would be the logical choice, saying: “He’s essentially been running much of the company for years.” (The Wall Street Journal made a similar case back in 2006.)
As COO, Cook essentially runs the show and makes stuff happen. If Jobs is the brain, the creative visionary, Cook is the brawn, making sure the money is there, Apple gets the right parts, and so forth.
As Adam Lashinsky writes:
Think of Cook’s contribution like this. There are two basic ways to get great profit margins: Charge high prices or reduce costs. Apple does both. The marketing and design drive consumers wild with desire and make them willing to pay a premium; Cook’s operational savvy keeps costs under control. Thus Apple is a cash-generating machine. Cook has called the company a place that is “entrepreneurial in its nature but with the mother of all balance sheets.” At last count that meant $24.5 billion in cash and no debt.
Further, Cook, like Jobs, is known for his brashness and demanding style, writes Lashinsky:
Cook’s stamina is the stuff of legend at Apple. He often begins e-mailing the executives who work for him at 4:30 a.m.; worldwide conference calls can take place at any time of day. For years, Cook held a standing Sunday night staff meeting by telephone in order to prepare for yet more meetings on Monday morning.
And if there’s any other indication of Cook’s worth to the company, remember this:
Cook also gets a bigger paycheck than any other Apple executive - including Jobs, a multibillionaire and a dollar-a-year-man in terms of salary. Cook’s salary, though peanuts compared to his stock grants, is $700,000, about $100,000 more than that of CFO Peter Oppenheimer and retail chief Ron Johnson. And when the company doles out restricted stock, Cook gets the biggest pile; in September that came to 200,000 shares, a bigger grant than anyone else at Apple got.
I’m convinced.
Not a chance! Steve might be working to clone himself to rule forever over Apple.
Or he might be working on ultimate Apple server where his brain can be planted inside when his body can no longer live.
Steve may be a greative genius, but sometimes he seems to forget that Apple is what it is because it keeps its users happy.
Reflecting screens on iMacs. barely functional Mobile Me,and iPhone problems do not keep the customer base happy.
After being a dot mac member since it started, I have quit Mobile me because it has never worked reliably for me.
I had planned to buy an iMac but reflections on the monitor and photo work do not go well together.