14 DAY TRIAL // Yukari Kane, a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal, is launching her new book, “Haunted Empire: Apple After Steve Jobs,” this month. The WSJ is building up some hype about it by releasing some excerpts to the public, revealing some interesting things about the CEO of Apple.
Kane describes Cook as a “machine” in the book, something we know all-too-well about Apple’s former chief operating officer and now CEO of the world’s most valuable tech company.
Cook is the guy behind some of Apple’s strategic acquisitions and partnerships with overseas suppliers. If Steve Jobs wanted a certain company to supply a specific part for the iPhone, Cook would get it done.
“To some, Cook was a machine; to others, he was riveting. He could strike terror in the hearts of his subordinates, but he could also motivate them to toil from dawn to midnight for just a word of praise.”
The book reveals that Cook, despite being cordial and soft-spoken in public outings, is actually a beast in meetings. Not the kind of beast that roars, but the kind that stares you in the eye until you pretty much surrender your soul.
“Meetings with Cook could be terrifying. He exuded a Zenlike calm and didn't waste words. ‘Talk about your numbers. Put your spreadsheet up,’ he'd say as he nursed a Mountain Dew. (Some staffers wondered why he wasn't bouncing off the walls from the caffeine.)”
Cook drinks a lot of coffee and repeats the same question 10 times in a row if necessary if someone isn’t able to give him a satisfying answer, according to another excerpt.
“When Cook turned the spotlight on someone, he hammered them with questions until he was satisfied. ‘Why is that?’ ‘What do you mean?’ ‘I don't understand. Why are you not making it clear?’ He was known to ask the same exact question 10 times in a row.”
Cook repeats himself quite often in public interviews, speeches, and regular chit chat as well.
Another interesting account deals with Cook’s generousness. For instance, “he gave away the frequent-flier miles that he racked up as Christmas gifts, and he volunteered at a soup kitchen during the Thanksgiving holidays,” according to another passage from the book.
Cook is known to hit the gym a lot, so it’s really not surprising to hear that he also took part in an annual two-day cycling event across Georgia. The initiative was to raise money for multiple sclerosis.
“Cook had been a supporter since being misdiagnosed with the disease years before. The doctor said, ‘Mr. Cook, you’ve either had a stroke, or you have MS,’ Cook told the Auburn alumni magazine. He didn’t have either. His symptoms had been produced from ‘lugging a lot of incredibly heavy luggage around’.’