3 Years In, a "B" For Tim Cook's Performance at Apple

Cult of Mac has taken a look at the three years since Tim Cook began his job as Apple's CEO, and rates him a "solid B." Cook might be neither as charismatic or volatile as Steve Jobs was, but he's made some interesting moves and statements. One factor (an area in which Cult of Mac gives Cook an A) is employee happiness, something for which Jobs was not always known: Cook’s highest “grade” on this hypothetical report card may come from Apple employees. Though the lanky 53-year-old is reportedly short on small talk, his people skills have earned him a 93 percent approval rating from a sampling of almost 2,000 people who work at Apple on website Glass Door, where anonymous employees can rate their satisfaction with the overall work environment as well as give thumbs up or down for the CEO.

Comments

Stock is at a record high

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple Stock is at a record high. He did what he was hired to do.

Re:Stock is at a record high

[Jeremy Erwin]

I'm not sure why Apple needs to enhance shareholder value. Apple hasn't raised capital on the markets for years. Apple needs to be profitable, Apple needs to be an attractive platform for developers. Apple needs to be perceived, by its customers, as qualitatively superior to Android and Windows. But enhancing shareholder value should be a side effect of those more important goals, not a goal in itself.

Re:Stock is at a record high

[Noah Haders]

-1 disagree. SJ was the heart of apple, or the core if you will. He was charasmtatic and a great salesman. At the beginning of apple part 1 and part 2 he had to carry the burden because the company was either small or not functioning well. But cook's apple is a juggernaut with thousands of brilliant and dedicated employees. His strategy is to inspire his people to be great and get out of their way so thereby can do awesome things.

the proof is in there pudding, so to speak. Depending on how you define the market they may or may not be losing a lot of ground to android. The Mac Pro is awesome design but currently a niche product. I like where they're going on software and services, and how their jettisoning old mac apps like iPhoto for lightweight apps like photos originally from iOS. Stock prices are a poor indicator of long term positive decisions, but a good indicator of bad times when the stock is in the he crapper, which it's not.

let's check in again in a couple years. Two long-term dangers: first, he's been getting by on a "great products in the pipeline" story for a bit, and it's time to put up or shut up. A lot of people will be really disappointed if there's not iwatch this year. Second, so much of their revenue is based on just a handful of products, and if the market suddenly shifts against their favor or if they release a dud, then there will be heck to pay.

Re:Stock is at a record high

[spire3661]

Apple themselves are all but ignoring it, and have for its entire life. It could be so much more, but they let it rot. They dont even expose the bluetooth module so you can get headset audio from it......

As a non-fanboy I like the Cook Apple better.

[pecosdave]

I use Apple products, but I'm by no means a fanboy, as my signature suggest (fanboys should NEVER have mod-points). I support Apple products at work, use a 27" iMac at work (which I rather like, and I've put TotalTerminal and other utils on to make it more Linux-like and comfortable for me), and I've got a work iPad 2, all of which I like.

I'm actually a Linux/Android guy.

Why I like Apple better under cook:

Less lawsuits. They're slowly settling/arbitrating old ones and filing less new ones. I developed a deep hatred of Apple under Jobs due to his temper-tantrums and deep ingrained need to shit in everyone else's punch bowls.

I'm seeing less new intenentional handicaps of their own products, and some of the old ones are getting less rigid (iOS is becoming slightly less user-hostile).

They've finally declared hardware the source of their profits and allowed free upgrades to the OS. (I refuse to use the nomenclature of "Free Operating System" that's been used here on Slashdot too damned many time to describe Mavericks since it's still tied to a mandatory purchase to run it)

What Apple still needs to work on:

Drop all user hostility - make so people can release source code for iOS apps they write. Stop attempting to strong-arm exclusivity out of the iOS platform.

ADOPT FRIGGIN NORMAL CABLES FOR YOUR IOS DEVICES
USB-C connectors are on their way, go with those. All the advantages of your Lightning cables but not "just ours".

Give me an editable path bar I can enable (it can be off by default) like every other OS. As a tech moving around yoru file system is more of a pain than it's worth. Don't spout anything at me about using muCommander or something, I'm a tech, I support other peoples stuff and I don't want to install crap or run utilities that have to be imported somehow every time I sit at a different system.

Drop the artificial restrictions on OS updates "when it was manufactured" isn't a good yard-stick for install eligibility and everyone knows it. Those Mac Pros that are six months too old to run Mavericks are more than capable of doing so and everyone knows it, it just makes you look like a bunch of pricks by barring install.

Re:As a non-fanboy I like the Cook Apple better.

[DigiShaman]

ADOPT FRIGGIN NORMAL CABLES FOR YOUR IOS DEVICES
USB-C connectors are on their way, go with those. All the advantages of your Lightning cables but not "just ours".

A multi-billion dollar company. You know, Apple could chuck the community a bone here and open up their lightning cable specs free from royalties. I prefer that design over USB-C.

Re:As a non-fanboy I like the Cook Apple better.

[Noah Haders]

ADOPT FRIGGIN NORMAL CABLES FOR YOUR IOS DEVICES USB-C connectors are on their way, go with those. All the advantages of your Lightning cables but not "just ours".

The industry wouldn't bother with USB-c if apple hadn't made lightning. Otherwise regular USB would be "good enough" like it has been for the past decade. Aside from apple the entire electronics industry is about commodity components and a "good enough" attitude about everything.

Re:Edit please

[Anonymous Coward]

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Innovation

[Citizen of Earth]

How many years in until Cook finally produces an innovative product? For the past three years, it's been all about belatedly adopting Android features. This fall, it will be the bigger screens Android phones have already had for years.