As Tim Cook’s 7th anniversary approaches he says working with Steve Jobs was ‘liberating’
August 24 marks Tim Cook’s 7th anniversary as CEO of Apple. Reflecting back on the years, Cook said in an interview with Bloomberg that working with Jobs was “liberating.”
I found it to be liberating, is the way I would describe it. Because you could talk to Steve about something really big, and if it resonated with him, he would just say ‘Ok’ – and you could do it! It was like a total revelation for me that a company could run like this, because I was used to these layers and bureaucracies and studies – the sort of paralysis that companies could get into – and Apple was totally different. I realized that if I couldn’t get something done, I could just go to the nearest mirror and look at it and that was the reason.
Cook went on to say that when he took over as CEO, he had expected Steve to remain as chairman indefinitely.
Mark Gurman of Bloomberg also went on to list some possible successors following Cook’s time with Apple:
Potential successors would include Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams, whose profile has risen steadily inside and outside Apple, and marketing boss Phil Schiller.
Other skilled leaders include services head Eddy Cue, software leader Craig Federighi, top chip engineer Johny Srouji, hardware leader Dan Riccio, semi-retired car project chief Bob Mansfield and, of course, Ive. Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri, retail head Angela Ahrendts and General Counsel Kate Adams, a relative newcomer, all brought leadership experience from other companies.