Steve Jobs Didn’t Regard Tim Cook as a ‘Product Person’

In Walter Isaacson bio of Steve Jobs, the late Apple co-founder is quoted as saying that Cook has great operational skills, but that products aren’t a trait he’s defined by.

Unlike Jobs, who not only was a great leader but was also obsessed by the products his company made, Cook only knows how to run things, going by Isaacson’s book.

“Tim’s not a product person, per se,” Jobs told Isaacson.

However, there’s another guy inside Apple that may just complete the missing half. That person is Apple’s senior vice president of industrial design, Jonathan Ive, who has “more operational power than anyone else at Apple except me,” Jobs told Isaacson. “There’s no one who can tell him what to do, or to butt out. That’s the way I set it up,” Jobs said.

The charismatic Ive gave one of the most touching speeches ever at Jobs celebratory event on October 19, on the Infinite Loop, Cupertino campus.