If Steve Jobs' Reality Distortion Field had a Bizarro counterpart, Tim Cook would almost certainly be at the controls. Raised on the mundane minutia of Apple's inventory chain and gross margins, Cook doesn't evoke adoration among Apple fanboys and girls; in fact, most of them wouldn't even recognize Apple's new CEO if they passed him on a Cupertino street.
"Come on, replace Steve? No. He's irreplaceable," Cook ruminated in 2008 (according to an unnamed source in a Fortune article), long after he had his first taste of running the show in Jobs' absence.
Suffice to say, we won't be watching any Cooknotes anytime soon (though he has shared the stage with Steve at Moscone West, most notably in May 2002 to introduce the Xserve). Despite his similarly casual attire, Tim is more of a behind-the-black-curtain CEO. This is a good thing. The last thing Apple needs in a post-Jobs world is some hotshot desperate to leave his own mark on the company.
Born in Robertsdale, Ala., on Nov. 1, 1960, Cook graduated from Robertsdale High School and earned a bachelor‘s degree in industrial engineering from Auburn University (which he remains fanatically devoted to this day). He wrapped up his schooling with a master's degree in business administration from Duke University and quickly landed his first tech sector job at IBM, where he would stay for more than a decade.
A harrowing misdiagnosis of multiple sclerosis in 1996 impelled Cook to "see the world in a different way,” according to an interview with his alma mater's magazine, and he left IBM for greater opportunities: first as chief operating officer of the reseller division at Intelligent Electronics, then as vice president of corporate materials for Compaq Computer Corp.--where he was charged with “procuring and managing all of Compaq’s product inventory.”
But after just six months at Compaq, the interim CEO of a struggling niche computer company somehow persuaded him to jump ship.
"The decision to come to Apple, which I made in early 1998, was not so obvious," he told the Auburn University graduating class in the 2010 commencement speech. "Only a few months before I accepted the job at Apple, Michael Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell Computer, was publicly asked what he would do to fix Apple, and he responded, 'I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.' ... So Apple was in a very different place than it is today and my employer at the time, Compaq Computer, was the largest personal computer company in the world.
“Any purely rational consideration of cost and benefits lined up in Compaq’s favor, and the people who knew me best advised me to stay at Compaq. One CEO I consulted felt so strongly about it he told me I would be a fool to leave Compaq for Apple.”
But when the world’s greatest salesman is sold on you, resistance is futile. Originally hired as senior vice president of operations, Cook was given the unenviable task of fixing Apple’s ailing manufacturing and distribution segments. In that role he performed admirably, shuttering underperforming factories, streamlining manufacturing and reducing Apple’s channel inventory--the time it takes for a product to reach the consumer--from months to days.
Steve quickly took notice of Cook’s tremendous results, promoting him to executive vice president of worldwide sales and operations in 2002 and handing him the reigns of the Macintosh division in time to deftly guide the company through the tricky Intel transition. Finally, in late 2005--after already having run the company during Jobs‘ first medical absence--Cook was elevated to chief operating officer, a title that was long overdue: “Tim has been doing this job for over two years now,” Steve said at the time, “and it’s high time we officially recognized it with this promotion.”
Since, Cook--who also serves on Nike’s board of directors--has essentially been co-CEO of Apple, guiding the company skillfully and profitably through long stretches of Jobs’ medical leaves. He raked in $59 million in salary and stock bonuses last year, watched the company record quarter and quarter of record profits, and was on hand to witness the launch of the Verizon iPhone while Steve was away.
Named “the most powerful gay man in Silicon Valley” by Gawker blog Valleywag--despite his unwillingness to discuss his personal life--Tim Cook’s quiet, reserved demeanor belies his position at the sometimes-largest company in the world.
In that same commencement speech, Cook said he used his “intuition” to guide his decision to join Apple. “No more than 5 minutes into my initial interview with Steve, I wanted to throw caution and logic to the wind.”
Thanks to that risk, Apple’s now in good hands. You might say it’s the job Steve always knew he would fill.
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