- Apple CEO Tim Cook has been at the helm since 2011.
- Cook’s tenure has produced valuable lessons that managers and execs can use to improve.
- He’s taken Apple to new heights by asking questions, sticking to his values, and more.
Tim Cook has been Apple’s CEO since 2011, and he’s led the tech giant to major milestones and through tough times.
An Alabama native, Cook is known for his mild manners and relatively private life outside work, but he’s maintained his leadership position at Apple for 13 years and become an iconic name.
It hasn’t been easy. Apple has faced increasing competition in recent years and, mostly recently, European Union fines and an ongoing antitrust lawsuit from the Department of Justice.
Still, Cook has seen the company through major releases such as the Vision Pro headset and the launch of Apple Intelligence this year alone.
Here are five things managers and CEOs can do to run their companies like the 63-year-old Apple chief.
Lead with your values
When Cook addressed the graduating class of Gallaudet University in 2022, he gave them a key piece of career advice.
“I have one important piece of advice I want to share, so important that it’s the only piece of advice I’m going to share today. And that is this: Whatever you do, lead with your values,” he told students during his commencement speech.
Cook continued, “By leading with your values, what I mean is that you should make decisions big and small, each and every day, based on a deep understanding of who you are and what you believe.”
Know the difference between prepared and ready
In another commencement speech — this time to students at Stanford University — Cook spoke about taking over at Apple after its cofounder Steve Jobs took medical leave and later died in 2011.
He said he “learned the real, visceral difference between preparation and readiness” when Jobs was “truly gone” and added that it was a lonely time for him.
“Your mentors may leave you prepared, but they can’t leave you ready.”
Ask questions
Cook is known for putting his employees in the hot seat.
In the book “Tim Cook: The Genius Who Took Apple to the Next Level” by Leander Kahney, it’s said that asking employees questions is a management tactic Cook uses often.
Kahney wrote that Cook could “wear people down through an endless barrage of questions.” According to the book, the Apple CEO did this to ensure workers had a deep understanding of whatever they were tasked with doing.
“He’s a very quiet leader,” Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, told Kahney, according to the book. “Not a screamer, not a yeller,” he said, adding: “He’s just very calm, steady, but will slice you up with questions. You better know your stuff.”
Don’t worry about a “legacy”
Although Cook hasn’t offered this as advice, his opinion on legacies seems to differ from that of other high-powered CEOs.
In a 2024 interview with the tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee, Cook said he hadn’t thought much about his legacy because it’s “something that is defined by other people.”
He’s also made peace with the inevitable end of his tenure as the head of Apple and the beginning of another CEO’s legacy.
“At some point, there will be another CEO,” Cook said. “And my whole focus in life will be on making them successful.”
Keep your finger on the pulse
Cook has said he spends each morning reading hundreds of employee and customer feedback emails to learn more about how Apple can improve.
For him, it’s a way to “stay grounded in terms of what the community is feeling,” he told the singer Dua Lipa in November. In past interviews, Cook has said he receives about 800 emails daily and reads most of them.
“I read emails from a lot of customers and employees, and the customers are telling me things that they love about us or things that they want changed about us,” he said. “Employees are giving me ideas.”
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