14 DAY TRIAL // Apple’s Chief Executive Officer, Timothy D. Cook, has been named one of the world’s 50 greatest leaders by CNN’s Fortune magazine, with editor Geoff Colvin calling his two-and-a-half-year performance the “toughest corporate leadership assignment in decades.”
Fortune’s “The World's 50 Greatest Leaders” names people who are famous, but also little known figures, all with one common trait and mission to “energiz[e] their followers and mak[e] the world better.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook is one of them (to nobody’s surprise, really) and we can’t help but wonder if he didn’t deserve a spot higher than just #33. In any case, Fortune’s Geoff Colvin chooses his words well in describing Cook and his mission:
“Following Steve Jobs has arguably been the toughest corporate leadership assignment in decades, yet Cook has carried it off with mostly quiet aplomb. In 2½ years he has kept the parade of winning new products marching (the Retina display, new operating systems, the iPhone 5), and he is bringing in Burberry's savior, Angela Ahrendts, to run Apple's (AAPL, Fortune 500) retail stores. That's thinking different.”
What the magazine doesn’t mention is how Cook raked in tens of billions of dollars for Apple in the past two years and his ability to keep hungry sharks away from Apple’s cash pile. Another thing worth mentioning is the immense pressure on Cook’s shoulders to innovate. Something that should have become a topic of discussion only this year has been on Cook’s conscience since the day Steve Jobs died.
The media practically harasses the man likening him to a sloth, when in reality Cook is but a calculated leader who doesn’t beat around bush when it comes to taking action.
Take for instance Scott Forstall’s unexpected departure from Apple around the time Apple messed up Maps big time. Although there had been increasing tensions between Forstall and his colleagues, word has it that Cook canned Forstall simply because he’d refused to sign an apology letter to the public regarding the problems with iOS Maps.
Apple usually lets people go by announcing their departure months in advance, but in the case of Forstall, Cook had him on the first bus out of the 1 Infinite Loop campus (metaphorically speaking, of course). That’s something to think about.
As soft-spoken and cordial as he may be in public appearances, there are numerous accounts of Cook having a terrifying stare when something doesn’t sit right with him.
It should be interesting to see Cook’s first all-new product unveiling this year and whether his image will remain unchanged in the eyes of some naysayers.