' 'You need to work very hard, work very long, you have to make decisions for thousands of employees. ' Cook said in a long interview, 'You must admit that you have a blind spot, You need someone to guide you, including those who encourage you and those who complement you.' '
'As of last year, Apple's sales reached 229 billion US dollars, and the net income growth rate has increased more than 20 times, reaching 48.4 billion US dollars, and has become the most profitable company among US stock listed companies.
Apple's market value has broken trillions, and CEO Tim Cook has also become a hero to make this great moment.
US stocks last Thursday (August 2) witnessed the birth of the first US company with a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion. Apple's share price broke through $207 after the opening and kept the gains to a close. Finally, Apple's market value closed at 1. Above trillions of dollars.
The once-questioned CEO, after Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, is continuing his own way of writing Apple’s glorious history, and Cook, who is not so strong, is quietly leading Apple The next stage of development.
After the market value exceeded $1 trillion, Cook sent a congratulatory email to Apple's 12,300 employees around the world, and reminded employees not to move for the immediate results, saying 'this is not the most important criterion for measuring success'.
'We must look ahead, this is what Jobs is pursuing. Apple has a bigger future waiting for us to create together.' Cook said.
Compliance with non-product leaders
As a professional manager, Cook's job should be able to score full marks. He skillfully built a great business model; although he could not compete with Jobs in terms of innovation, he not only established investors' loyalty to Apple, It also greatly attracted the user's stickiness to the Apple Ecosphere and successfully realized the user's stickiness.
Jobs also commented that Cook said: 'Tim is not a product type.' But Steve Jobs still insists on using Cook as his successor. It turns out that this is also Jobs' most successful use.
Apple's former CEO John Sculley said it was very pertinent when evaluating Cook. Sculley said: 'Cook's greatest credit is to make Wall Street fall in love with what Jobs has built. It can be said that without Cook, there is no Apple today. Sculley served as Apple's ten-year CEO from 1983 to 1993.
Sculley believes that Cook does not need to have a very innovative thinking, he has accurately positioned Apple, just need to observe the size of the market, and determine which is important, and then do it.
Unlike Steve Jobs, who used his personal charm to attract millions of fruit powders around the world, Cook is a businessman, but he is more of a businessman than a geek. In the eyes of employees, the CEO has no significant features. He is just a professional businessman. 'An Apple employee said in an interview with the first financial interview.
Cook's professional experience is very simple. Before joining Apple, he worked in three companies. The longest job experience was that he worked at IBM for 12 years after graduating, and then spent four years at Intelligent Electronics. When Jobs tried to dig him, he had just been with Compaq for less than a year.
He also motivates young people to follow their heart when making key decisions. Of course, late preparation, hard work and execution also play a decisive role in success.
In 2011, Cook recalled his first time when he saw Steve Jobs at the opening ceremony of the undergraduate alma mater Auburn University. He said: 'From the pure rational consideration of cost and benefit, I I am definitely standing on the side of Compaq. But on the day of the beginning of 1998, my soul went out, obeyed my inner intuition, did not listen to the rationality of the brain, and did not listen to the opinions of the people who knew me the most. I talked with Steve. By about 5 minutes, I had already left all the cautious logic behind me. I decided to join Apple. Because my instinct tells me that this is the only chance in my life, for this creative genius work, Join his management team to realize the great renaissance of this American company. '
In 1998, Jobs had just returned to Apple, when Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy, and the stock price was less than $1. Jobs borrowed $150 million in cash from rival Microsoft and began a decade-long revival of the company. 2007 In the year, Apple introduced the first iPhone, achieving a market value from $6 billion in 2001 to $106 billion in 2007.
In 1998, Cook’s first job at Apple was the senior vice president responsible for global operations. He always kept himself in a sense of crisis. He once compared Apple’s management with the dairy industry: 'If the fresh period is over , then your product has a problem. '
It was at that time that he chose to close Apple's self-built factory buildings and warehouses and switch to a foundry such as Foxconn, which reduced the company's inventory from a few months to a few days. Since 2005, he advocated Apple invested in the flash chip business to ensure the supply of the iPodNano and later iPhone and iPad parts. At that time, Cook was known for controlling costs, and with Apple's design and market expertise, the company soon produced A huge profit.
In 2007, Cook was promoted to Chief Operating Officer of Apple. In 2009, Jobs was unable to continue the day-to-day management of the company due to health problems. Cook became the acting CEO. On August 24, 2011, Cook was appointed as the new CEO of Apple, Jobs. Passed away after six weeks.
Forbes commentator Robin Ferracone wrote at the time: 'Steve Jobs and Cook have formed a strong partnership and saved it when the company was in the most dangerous situation.' In 2012, Cook was selected as one of the most influential 100 in the world of Time magazine. Personal belongings.
Although Cook reorganized the executive team after taking office and established a new corporate development strategy to promote environmental protection and sustainable development, Apple's stagnation in innovation made Cook quite vocal. Some market analysts put Cook and Microsoft's former CEO Ballmer is in the same breath, thinking that Apple's status quo is like Microsoft's lack of innovation after Bill Gates's departure.
But compared to innovation, the capital market may be more concerned about interests. Although Cook did not design a cool new technology that changed people's lifestyle like Jobs, the iPhone's sales also suffered bottlenecks, but he succeeded in making Apple's profits. Doubled.
In 2006, Apple’s annual sales were less than $20 billion, and its net profit was less than $2 billion. But as of last year, Apple’s sales have grown about 11 times to $229 billion, which is the number one in the S&P 500. The four-high, and net income growth rate has increased more than 20 times, reaching 48.4 billion US dollars, and has become the most profitable company among US-listed companies.
Refuse to be alone and ask
Cook's leadership style is typical of American corporate leadership style, focusing on 'people, strategy and execution'. These three points are in his view to be critical to corporate governance. According to Apple employees, his day's life is usually from early morning 4 At the beginning of the semi-mailing, a conference call with employees is often held on Sunday evening to prepare for the next week's work.
But in terms of personal life, Cook is very low-key. In addition to knowing that the secret of his good body is to love sports, he likes hiking, cycling, and often going to the gym. Cook’s life is very mysterious. In Silicon Valley, maybe in The restaurant met him. He was not a socially friendly person. Even the gym was chosen far away from the company. He once said that he tried to seek to guarantee 'the most basic private space' and did not want to be over-represented by the public. attention.
In an exclusive interview with foreign media last year, Cook admitted that running a big company like Apple is very lonely. To this end, he has consulted former US President Bill Clinton, Goldman Sachs CEO Blankfein and investment tycoon Buffett. Experience. In Cook's view, these people have experienced what they are experiencing. This includes testifying before Congress, how the company has paid dividends, how much, and so on.
'You need to work very hard, work very long, you have to make decisions for thousands of employees.' Cook said in a long interview, 'You must admit that you have a blind spot, you Someone needs to guide you, including those who encourage you and those who complement you.'
Cook said: 'When I need to consider how much cash return to shareholders is fair, I would think of Buffett, because he is neutral, so I call him. 'He said that he not only listens, but also asks for advice. The opinion is that you don't want to be isolated. 'If you don't ask others, it's like staying in an echo wall and just listening to your own voice.'
For the past two years, Buffett has been a radical investor in Apple. He said: 'Apple is the most profitable company in the world, and its profit is almost twice that of the second US company. ' Buffett initially invested in Apple's $1 billion stock. In the first quarter of this year, Buffett added 75 million shares of Apple stock. Up to now, Buffett holds 240 million shares of Apple stock, with a total value of 42.5 billion US dollars.
In 2013, the US Senate issued a questioning report saying that Apple used the loopholes in the US tax law to transfer profits to tax havens through subsidiaries located in low-tax countries and regions abroad. Prior to this, Cook was never in Congress. He has testified. He started looking for someone who has done it before, so he found Goldman Sachs CEO Blankfein through Peter Oppenheimer, one of the former CFOs of Apple who has retired.
'I know he will be honest with me.' Cook said, 'I also found former President Clinton, who has rich political experience. Although we did not meet on political occasions, we met through his foundation. ' Cook also found Jobs's wife Laurene. 'Laurene knows Apple very well and knows me very well,' Cook said.
For Cook, being able to 'stop the pressure from the outside world and let others say ' became the key to his insistence on the job until now. Cook joked: 'Since becoming CEO, the skin has become thicker and thicker. This is not a bad thing. I become iron-hearted and unscrupulous, I prefer my present self. I can divide the boundaries of many things clearly, not to take everything for myself.
Under Cook's leadership, Apple has increased its philanthropy. Since 2013, he has hired Lisa Jackson, the former head of the US environmental protection agency, to be responsible for new energy and sustainable development.
In the early years of Cook's experience changed his view of the world and life. In 1996, Cook was misdiagnosed as multiple sclerosis, a neurological disease. But later he himself at the Auburn University Alumni Association The magazine nicknamed the nickname, which was misdiagnosed because it was 'often dragging heavy boxes'. After that, Cook began to raise funds for charities, such as donating money to fight against diseases.
During Jobs's illness, Cook even said that he hoped to donate part of the liver to save his life, because their blood type is also a rare blood type. As a result, Cook's proposal was rejected. Jobs shouted to Cook. : 'I won't let you do this, never, I won't do it myself.'
Cook is a homosexual. On October 30, 2014, Cook released a news that shocked the world, open his sexual orientation, and became the first CEO of a Fortune 500 company to open his own gay identity.
He published an article saying: 'I am proud of homosexuality, this is the biggest gift God has given me.' He also said that he does not want Apple employees to pay too much attention to their private life, but should concentrate on developing better. The product and user experience. He also wrote at the end of the article: 'Let us use a brick and a tile to lay a good road to justice.'
Previously, foreign media revealed that compared to other Apple executives, Cook’s annual salary is even less than half of them. In 2017, Cook’s salary was $12.8 million, which is 50% higher than 2016, but Apple’s other The average annual salary of executives is around $24 million.
At the beginning of last year, Apple’s board of directors just approved Cook’s interest in using private jets during business trips, and US executives including GE’s former owner Immelt had more than one private jet. Cook’s travel security costs It is also very convergent. In 2016, aviation expenses were calculated. His annual travel expenses were only $224,000, of which aviation expenses were $93,000.
But Cook has a trump card in his hands - Apple stock. Cook currently has an equivalent of Apple stock worth 46 times its basic salary of 46 million. According to "Fortune" magazine, Cook's shareholding in Apple is more than 120 million US dollars, The value of the option is as high as $665 million. In March 2015, he said he plans to donate all his equity to charity.
Pay attention to the Chinese market
During Cook’s tenure, another significant change for Apple was to pay more attention to the Chinese market and develop a loyal 'fruit powder' in China. Today China has become the second largest Apple company after the United States and Europe. market.
Cook has also visited China more than a dozen times. In December last year, Cook came to China for the 12th time to participate in the World Internet Conference held in Wuzhen. At last year's conference, Cook revealed in his keynote speech for the first time, 180 Tens of developers developed games in Apple's China app store and earned $17 billion in revenue. Earlier last year, Cook revealed that global developers earned $70 billion in Apple Mall. This means China. Developers account for nearly a quarter of the total income.
In addition, Cook is a frequent visitor to the China High-Level Development Forum held in Beijing every March.
Cook’s China market strategy is aimed at the next generation of Chinese Internet users. According to Wu Rongzhen, the principal of Luwan First Center in Huangpu District, Shanghai, who received a visit from Cook last December, “Cook is very concerned about the information education in Chinese schools. The pattern, we have achieved far more than his imagination, he has been amazed. '
Every time Cook visits China, he will also visit the Apple Store. He came to an Apple store in West Lake, Hangzhou last year. The clerk found a foreigner who was looking around at the door. He finally found out that Cook was shocked. Many people He is responsive when he wants to sign and take photos with Cook.
In the latest quarterly earnings report released by Apple, the performance of the Chinese market is also very bright. Greater China's revenue increased by 19% year-on-year to reach $9.55 billion.
However, the Sino-US trade friction in front of us has given Cook a lot of confusion.
The United States levies taxes on Chinese imports, which will affect many US technology and hardware products, and the biggest impact is Apple's iPhone and its peripheral products. The iPhone price increase is expected to reach 10%, which means the current iPhone 724 The average price of the dollar will rise further to above $800, which will undoubtedly affect sales. In the past quarter, iPhone sales increased by only 1%.
This will also hit Apple's confidence in the Chinese market. In August last year, Apple's sales in Greater China experienced a one-and-a-half-year decline. Many institutions were preparing to reduce their holdings. They think Apple is the latest in China. Cases that have been challenged.
Cook expressed concern after Apple’s earnings report last week. He said: 'The trade relationship between the United States and other major economies in the world is complicated. Although we have seen some progress, tariffs cannot be the main means of solving problems. Ke always insists that there is an inseparable common interest between China and the United States. Looking ahead, he still expressed optimism.