Steve Jobs is a showman but Cook specialises in making day-to-day business work
Apple's chief operations officer joined the company in March 1998, having been lured there by Steve Jobs from PC maker Compaq, then one of the biggest forces in Windows PCs, and before that at IBM. His specialism was in getting supply chains – the process of getting the right materials to the right place at the right time – to work correctly.
Now aged 50, Cook graduated from Auburn University with a degree in industrial engineering in 1982, and followed it with an MBA. Then he went into the computer-making business.
Arriving at Apple, he found a company whose supply chains were falling apart through a confusion of models, incompatible parts, and bad organisation. Cook shook them by the neck and tightened them up until Apple rivalled Dell, then the most efficient PC-making machine in the business, for minimal stock levels.
Yet this has been done without rancour. The story is told of one of his first meetings at Apple, where as the newly appointed senior vice-president for worldwide operations he observed that there were serious problems with a manufacturing plant. "This is really bad," Cook said. "Someone should be in China driving this." Half an hour later he looked at the operations chief, who was also in the meeting, and asked plainly: "Why are you still here?"
Born in Alabama, he loves the outdoors – notably cycling – Cook is not a showman; he has none of the magician's tricks of the reveal that Jobs employs. In fact, in all his time there, he has never lifted the cover off a new Apple product, be it software or hardware, in front of an audience, although he has led plenty of earnings calls with analysts, and kicked off some presentations to the press.
The question that remains is whether he could be Apple's chief executive. Cook's specialism is in making the day-to-day business work. But Apple is a company that needs someone with a grand vision at its helm. Cook has done everything else – but he has not so far shown a sign of being able to do that.
--
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jan/17/tim-cook-apple-profile
~
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment