Steve Jobs came to Apple at the worst time, but Steve Jobs convinced him to do it
He Wall Street Journal has interviewed Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, and has done some very interesting questions about how he came to Apple and how Steve Jobs convinced him to join the company. Cook joined Apple in 1998 as vice president of Global Operations at one of the company’s worst times. However, Steve Jobs managed to convince him, no matter how bad the expectations were.
Apple CEO Tim Cook sits down for The Job Interview with WSJ Magazine to talk about working with Steve Jobs, his first job delivering newspapers, and his early days working at IBM. Cook also talks about his love of logistics, manufacturing and mathematics, as well as graduating from Auburn University. He shares information about his job, including the sacrifices he’s had to make, his morning routine, and more.
Ask:
“When Steve Jobs recruited you to join Apple you said you trusted your gut, how would you know you were making the right decision?”
Answer:
“Talking to Steve, I got the sense that he was a very different type of CEO, he was focused on products, products, products and believed that small teams could do incredible work.
I love that vision and I also think that in an environment where everyone was going towards an enterprise type company, he wanted to refocus Apple on consumers and it was brilliant because at the time no one was doing that, everyone I thought you couldn’t make money selling to consumers.
I never thought it was a good idea to follow the herd. “I thought I had the opportunity of a lifetime to work with the creative genius who started the entire industry and I didn’t want to pass that up.”
Tim Cook and Steve Jobs had a great relationship for years
Ask:
Did you feel like you were going to bring something to Apple that was missing at the time?
Answer:
“People have forgotten, but Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy and it was a really terrible time and people advised me not to come to Apple because they thought everything was going down. But I saw something different, I saw the shine in the eyes from Steve and that just meant we could make this change and I’m so glad to have been part of that team.”
Ask:
“What management lessons did you learn from Steve?”
Answer:
“He taught me the value of innovation, the fact that small teams could do incredible things. I look at the size of the iPod kit initially. I look at the size of the iPhone equipment. These were very small teams in the scheme. Hire the best people to surround you who challenge you, who have skills that you don’t have and have confidence in that and also not be married to my past views. You know, you shouldn’t be proud of not changing your point of view. It doesn’t matter when you are presented with new evidence, he will change very quickly (his opinion) one day.
Initially I was a little surprised by that and then I fell in love with it all, very few people have that ability because they marry their past points of view . It was a brilliant skill.“
Ask:
Did you ever change your opinion of Steve Jobs?
Answer:
“Yes of course, he loved to debate, he loved having someone argue with him and you could always change his mind if you had the best idea, we changed each other’s minds, that’s why this skill works so well.”
We know that Tim Cook and Steve Jobs argued many times, just as we know that they are two quite different CEOs. Of course, Tim Cook has no doubt that if Steve Jobs were still alive, he would be the CEO of Apple. You can see the full interview in the following WSJ video.
You can follow iPadized in Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter (X) consult or consult our Telegram channel to stay up to date with the latest technology news.
Source: ipadizate.com
