As Apple prepares for its first leadership change in 15 years, a single piece of advice is taking centre stage. It is the same wisdom Steve Jobs shared when he handed the reins to Tim Cook, and it is the advice Cook now intends to pass down to his successor, John Ternus. In an interview conducted just weeks before his retirement announcement by The Wall Street Journal, Cook looked back at the moment that defined his leadership. When asked what advice Cook would give to his successor, Cook didn’t hesitate. “I would probably say the same thing [Jobs said],” Cook remarked. “Be yourself. Keep a firm North Star on the values of the company” – what Cook said Steve told him when he chose him as the CEO. Now that hardware expert John Ternus prepares to take the top job, he knows what Cook wants him to do.
Tim Cook’s secret to success
He revealed that the secret to Apple’s $4 trillion success wasn’t trying to mimic the past, but having the courage to ignore it. Cook believes that as long as the CEO focuses on Apple’s core values like privacy, design and environmental responsibility, the company will always find its way back to the right path.
Breaking the “Disney Curse”
When Steve Jobs handed the reins to Tim Cook in 2011, he issued a stern warning. He pointed to the Walt Disney Company, noting that after Walt Disney passed away, the company became paralysed. Executives spent decades asking, “What would Walt do?” instead of focusing on the future.Jobs didn’t want Apple to suffer the same fate. He looked Cook in the eyes and told him never to ask what he would have done.“You can get in paralysis if you start trying to port yourself into somebody else’s thinking,” Cook explained.By giving Cook permission to be his own leader, Jobs allowed Apple to grow from a $350 billion company into a $4 trillion empire. Under Cook, Apple now makes more than $200 billion a year from the iPhone alone.
From Alabama to the global stage
Cook’s journey to this moment started far from Silicon Valley. While a young Steve Jobs was tinkering in a garage, a young Tim Cook was in Alabama winning speech contests for his local “Optimist Club.” That natural optimism helped him lead Apple through the loss of its founder and into a new era of global dominance.Apple recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, and now the company is betting that John Ternus can follow that same North Star.
