Apple CEO Tim Cook on The David Rubenstein Show
Summary
TLDRTim Cook, CEO of Apple, is interviewed about his life and career. He discusses growing up in Alabama, working at IBM and Compaq, and joining Apple in 1998 at Steve Jobs' request. He talks about succeeding Jobs as CEO in 2011, continuing Apple's focus on innovation and the user experience. Cook addresses topics like privacy, equality, immigration, and trade policy in a meeting with President Trump. Despite leading Apple, Cook maintains a modest, self-effacing demeanor.
Takeaways
- 👨💼 Tim Cook was inspired to join Apple by Steve Jobs' innovative thinking and willingness to challenge conventional wisdom.
- 📱 The iPhone has been an incredibly successful product, with over 1 billion sold so far.
- ⌚️ The Apple Watch can detect heart problems and has saved lives through its alerts.
- 📈 Apple is focused on long-term innovation rather than short-term profits.
- 💻 Tim Cook transformed Apple's operations early on by outsourcing manufacturing.
- 🏢 Steve Jobs envisioned Apple Park as a collaborative workspace.
- 🧠 Tim Cook values equality highly and believes it could help solve many world problems.
- 👪 Tim Cook publicly disclosed he is gay to help kids who feel ostracized.
- 💰 Apple has amassed a huge cash reserve and is spending some on new campuses and stock buybacks.
- 🇺🇸 Tim Cook advised President Trump on trade and immigration policy.
Q & A
How did Steve Jobs' thinking and approach inspire Tim Cook to join Apple?
-Steve Jobs was willing to challenge conventional wisdom and take Apple in innovative new directions that others were abandoning, which inspired Tim Cook to join the company.
What makes the Apple Watch a potentially life-saving product?
-The Apple Watch can detect irregular heart rhythms and other heart problems, and it provides alerts that motivate people to seek medical attention early.
How has Tim Cook transformed Apple's operations?
-Early in his tenure at Apple, Tim Cook oversaw a shift to outsourcing manufacturing to partners instead of trying to do large-scale manufacturing internally.
What was Steve Jobs' vision for Apple Park?
-Steve Jobs envisioned Apple Park as a collaborative workspace where people would often run into each other and exchange ideas randomly and spontaneously.
Why does Tim Cook believe strongly in equality?
-Tim Cook believes equality is key to solving many world problems. He thinks lack of equality leads to lack of education, discrimination, and more.
Why did Tim Cook publicly reveal he is gay?
-Tim Cook revealed he is gay to help kids who feel ostracized for being gay see they can still succeed in life.
What is Apple doing with its huge cash balance?
-Apple is spending some of its cash on new campuses and offices and on buying back its own stock.
What subjects did Tim Cook discuss when meeting President Trump?
-Tim Cook discussed trade policy and immigration with President Trump, advocating for free trade and a solution for Dreamers.
How did Steve Jobs originally envision the relationship when handing over the CEO reins?
-Steve Jobs expected to remain as Chairman indefinitely when first stepping down as CEO, overseeing Tim Cook in an ongoing capacity.
How does Tim Cook maintain a modest demeanor as Apple CEO?
-Tim Cook says Apple's high expectations and standards mean he never feels successful for long, keeping him grounded.
Outlines
🤝 Introductory conversation between Jobs and Cook.
Paragraph 1 provides an introductory overview of the conversation between Jobs and Cook. It highlights Jobs' unconventional thinking and passion that sparked Cook's interest. Cook was drawn to Apple despite advice not to join, viewing it as a pivotal life decision.
👨💻 Cook's background and early career leading to Apple.
Paragraph 2 details Cook's background growing up in Alabama and studying engineering at Auburn. He worked at IBM and Compaq before getting a call from Jobs to join Apple in 1998. Friends thought it was risky, but Cook was compelled by Jobs' vision and spark.
🏭 Cook's operations role and close working relationship with Jobs.
Paragraph 3 covers Cook's initial operations role at Apple and the liberating creative freedom enabled by Jobs. Despite concerns, Jobs' health declined and Cook was announced as CEO in 2011. Their close partnership allowed seamless continuity of vision.
📱 Development and success of the revolutionary iPhone.
Paragraph 4 focuses on the launch of the hugely successful iPhone in 2007. Cook highlights Jobs' passion in unveiling it as a game-changing product. Over a billion iPhones have now been sold globally.
💰 Cook on Apple's values, privacy, equality and amassing cash reserves.
Paragraph 5 discusses Cook's values-driven leadership on privacy, equality and human rights issues. He also explains Apple's strategy around its huge cash reserves, investing in the US and buying back stock.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Innovation
💡Privacy
💡User experience
💡Values
💡Equality
💡Education
💡Culture
💡Mission
💡Environment
💡Partnership
Highlights
Steve Jobs had a sparkle in his eye Cook had never seen in a CEO before.
Cook was drawn to Apple because Jobs was doubling down on consumers when conventional wisdom said to focus on enterprise.
Cook says Jobs could greenlight big, unconventional ideas if they resonated with him.
Cook credits his loving family and good public school for his success.
Cook was shocked when Apple Watch outsold original iPhone.
Cook gets emails from Apple Watch users who discovered health issues and got treated.
Cook reads customer emails to stay connected to users.
Cook came out publicly to promote equality, especially for LGBTQ kids.
Cook told Trump tariffs are the wrong approach and talked immigration.
Apple will build a new $30B campus and hire 20,000 more in the US.
Cook's parents treated him the same after he became CEO.
Cook focuses on policy over politics, so won't run for president.
Cook credits Apple's high expectations for his modest, self-effacing style.
Cook removed his tie in honor of chatting with Buffett tie-less.
Cook believes he can make the biggest difference staying at Apple.
Transcripts
[Music]
you get a call from Steve Jobs
there was a sparkle in his eye that I'd
never seen in a CEO before did your
friends tell you this was not a good
idea
they thought it was not Warren Buffett
still uses an old flip phone I told him
that I'll personally cut all Mahal to do
tech support for you exposed your own
personal life a bit I thought I'm making
the wrong call why was it called the
Apple watch and not the iWatch I kind of
like to have a watch what do you think
well you're the CEO so would you fix
your time please well people wouldn't
recognize me if my tie was fixed but
okay just leave it this way all right I
[Music]
don't consider myself a journalist and
nobody else would consider myself a
journalist I began to take on the life
of being an interviewer even though I
have a day job of running a private
equity firm
how do you define leadership what is it
that makes somebody tick
quite a reception you got here I thought
it was for you no it's for you you've
now been the CEO of Apple since been
July of 2011 the earnings are up about
80 percent so have you ever thought you
can't do better than this and maybe you
should just say well I've done a great
job and now I'm going to do something
else with my life
we viewed the the stock price and
revenues and profits as a result of
doing things right on the innovation
side on the creativity side focusing on
the right products treating customers
like their jewels and and focusing on
the user experience I didn't even know
the numbers that you just quoted this is
not something that I it's not even in my
orbit to be honest with you well so when
you announce your quarterly earnings
analysts always say well they didn't
sell as much Metra this product is that
we thought they would and so where does
that bother you
it did it one time it doesn't anymore
the we run Apple for the long term and
and so it's always struck me as bizarre
that there's a fixation on how many
units are sold in a 90 day period is
we're making decisions that are
multi-year or kind of kind of decisions
and so we try to be very clear that we
do not run the company for people that
want to make a quick buck we run the
company for the long term well one of
the shareholders who recently surfaces
having bought 75 million additional
shares is Warren Buffett are you pleased
to have him as her shareholder I'm
overjoyed I'm thrilled because Warren is
focused on the long term and and so
there is we're in sync it's the way we
run the company it's the way he invests
and yeah so I could not be happier have
you thought about this Warren still uses
an old flip phone I know he has
have you thought how much more your
stock could go up if you actually use
the product
I'm I am working on it and I told him
that I'll personally come out on the
haul to do tech support for so you now
in a building that was designed and
inspired initially by Steve Jobs Apple
part Apple Park and if you've moved in
recently Steve had the vision that the
workplace should facilitate people
working together having these common
areas that people could work together
and run into each other without planning
on doing it and at the level of ideas
and creativity and innovation that would
come out of that would would be
phenomenal and we're seeing that you're
convinced standing up working is better
than sitting down we have given an all
of our employees hundred-percent
standing gaps if you can stand for a
while and then sit and and so on and so
forth this is much better for you about
how you came to this position so you
grew up in Alabama a very very small
rural town between Pensacola and Mobile
on the Gulf Coast
and you grew up where you up star
athlete or your star scholar where you a
tech nerd what were you whether I would
say I was a star anything I worked hard
at school I had some reasonably good
grades the benefit I got in my childhood
was being in a family that was a loving
family and a public school system that
was good and you know that's a huge
benefit and honestly a benefit that many
many kids don't have these days he went
to Auburn and how did you do there I did
I did pretty good I did pretty good I
really got into engineering in a big way
and and Industrial Engineering
so then you went to work for IBM I did
yes I started as like a production
engineer out designing manufacturing
lines and at that time robotics were
beginning to take off and and so we were
we were focused on automation I wouldn't
say we successively focused on it but I
learned a lot from going through that as
well so you were there for about 12
years and then you joined another
company called compact yes so you're a
compact which at the time I think was
one of the biggest manufacturers of
personal computers they were they were
the number one at the time yeah so
you're there for about six months and
you get a call from Steve Jobs or
somebody working for him saying can you
come and join Apple Apple was modest
compared to compact why did you take the
interview and why did you join Apple
yeah it's a good question Steve had had
come back to the company and was
essentially replacing the executive team
that that was there at the time but I
thought you know this is an opportunity
to talk to the guy that started the
whole industry and Steve met me on
Saturday and it was like just minutes
into talking with him I want to do it
which I was totally shocked myself but I
there was a there was a sparkle in his
eye that I'd never seen in a CEO before
and there was he he was sort of turning
left when everyone else is turning right
it was almost it almost done everything
that he talked about he was doing
something extraordinarily different than
conventional wisdom many people were
abandoning the consumer market because
they were just it was a bloodbath
Steve was doing the exact opposite he
was doubling down on consumer at the
time everybody else the conventional
wisdom said go put your money in storage
and servers and I thought it was
brilliant and so with talking with him
and and the type of questions he asked
were all so different
and you know I I did literally before
the I left everything he I hope he
offers me a job really want to do this
did your friends tell you this was not a
good idea they thought it was nuts they
thought it was nuts again conventional
wisdom was you're working for the top
personal computer maker in the world
why would you ever leave you have got a
great career head and there was it
wasn't a decision that you could kind of
sit down and do the engineering kind of
analysis saying here are the pluses and
here the minuses because that analysis
would always say stay clogged it was
this sort of voice in your head that was
saying go west young man go west
I'll despite the fact that there was no
state income tax in Texas and there
raising a California you're still said
you're gonna go west so in hindsight
this was the best professional decision
of your life I assume may be the best
decision of my life I'm not sure you
need to put professional in that Steve
health was such that he couldn't
continue to be the CEO I thought
honestly my my thought at that time was
he was going to be chairman and he would
do that forever and it you know
unfortunately it didn't turn out that
way
[Music]
so you go there and what is your job at
Apple running worldwide operations and
the company that time was struggling in
many different areas and operations
isn't there different our economies of
scale didn't lend itself to us doing
manufacturing and in different places
like we like existed in a company at
that time and so we found partners that
were expert manufacturing and we
maintained the sort of the intellectual
knowledge of how the process and
obviously all of the design of the
problem when you got there and you're
working for her Steve was it better than
you thought
worse than you thought more challenging
than you thought I found it to be
liberating is the way I would describe
it because it's you could you could kind
of talk to Steve about something very
big and if it resonated with him he
would just say ok and you could do it
and so it was like a you know like a
total revelation for me that a company
could run like this because I was used
to these layers and bureaucracy and
studies and you know studying things
sort of the paralysis that companies can
get into and Apple was totally different
than that I realized that if I couldn't
get something done I could just go to
the nearest mirror and look at it and
that was the reason Steve health was
such that he couldn't continue to be the
CEO he told the board that and you were
announced as the CEO I think around July
of 2011 something around there when you
became the CEO did you feel you had
Steve would say here's what I was
interested in doing and you fulfill my
goals or did you feel you had your own
view on what you should do and how did
you balance the two you're succeeding a
legendary figure it's not so sequential
as that
we have a really open company and so
most of us could finish the other
person's sentences even when we might
disagree with them and so it wasn't a
matter of Steve having this secret file
or something he was always sharing his
ideas all the time and so so you're very
different than that and I thought
honestly my my thought at that time and
I know people people have told me you're
just not very smart but my view at that
time was he was going to be chairman and
he would do that forever and we would
figure out the you know the sort of the
relationship that changed there and
that's what I thought and it you know
unfortunately it didn't turn out that
way today Apple is going to reinvent the
phone you have product that is the most
successful consumer product in the
history of mankind which is the iPhone
there was a sense that it was a profound
product it was a game-changer if you go
back and watch the keynote that Steve
announced it you can feel his passion in
it and the way the way he described I
still remember it like it was yesterday
so how many iPhones have now been sold
oh well over a billion so there are
seven half billion people in the face of
the earth so one of every seven people
has one more or less well some people
probably bought more than one along
oh I hope so anyway well well you do
have new ones coming out every so often
you know is that if I buy a new iPhone
should I expect another one in two years
or you should expect that Apple is going
to keep innovating and and you should
jump on the train now though okay
because because life is so short up here
and I have my iPhone here actually and I
do use it and I love it and one time
with you and I were in China I couldn't
quite work something and I asked you to
help me and you said look I normally
don't do Texas nice and it did work we
came out with the Apple watch not too
long ago why was it called the Apple
watch and not the eyewash because you
have iPhone iPod iPad why not I watch
did you ever think of that
and I'm sure you must have thought of it
I'm sure it's on a novel idea but I'm
just curious it was something that we
thought of it wasn't a crazy question so
no it wasn't a crazy question at all and
some Apple watch one out well I kind of
like the Apple watch what do you think
well you're the CEO so Heyman CEO says
something okay so how are they doing
they're doing fantastic
cellular is now on the watch you don't
have to travel with your iPhone you can
just use your watch one of the my best
moments of a day is to go through my
emails that are from users and I get so
many each week from people that found
out they have a heart problem from their
watch it's alerting you if you've been
sitting and your heart has climbed to a
level that doesn't make sense
relative to the activity that you've
been doing suppose you don't want to
know if you have a heart problem
well we think most people do because you
can then go seek help and seriously
David so many people have written and
said the watch alerted me to a problem
I took an action and went to the
cardiologist he told me that if I had
not gone there I wouldn't be alive so
you say you go through your emails
nobody emails you directly I can't I
assume you can oh sure they do
well you how could you could respond all
those email I can't but but it doesn't
mean that I can't read a fair number of
those myself because I think it's
important to sort of keep your hands on
the pulse of the user have you ever
thought that maybe you could run for
president in the United States because
I think you know you know the president
is something that you'd love to to be
president but not ever wrong and and
that should never happen in our country
and so that kind of eliminates pace
today let's talk about some of the
values that you've been espousing one is
a privacy we see privacy is a
fundamental human right and and so it's
to us it's right up there with some of
the other civil liberties that make
Americans what they are you know it
defines us as Americans and we see that
this is becoming a larger and larger
issue for people and so our our tax on
this is we we take a minimum amount of
data from customers only that which we
need to to provide a great service and
then we work really hard to protect it
with encryption and and so forth and
you've also talked about the importance
of equality yeah why is that important
to you as I look at the world many of
the problems of the world come down to
the lack of equality it's the it's the
fact that it's the kid that's born in
one-zip code who doesn't have a good
education because they happen to be born
in that zip code it's someone that is
maybe an LGBT community that is fired
because of that it's someone that has a
different religion than the majority and
therefore they're ostracized in some way
and some very simply I think if one day
you could wave a wand and everybody in
the world would treat each other with
dignity and respect there are many many
problems that would would go away with
that
so you exposed your own personal life a
bit you you know the privacy that you've
said other
we should have you kind of gave up some
of your privacy why did you do that well
I did it for a greater purpose is that
it became clear to me that there were
lots of kids out there that were not
being treated well including in their
own families and and that kids need
someone to say oh they did okay in life
and they're gay so it must not be a life
sentence in some kind of way and when I
were getting these nodes it would tug on
my heart even more and it got to the
point where I thought I'm making the
wrong call by trying to do something
that is comfortable for me which is to
stay private that I needed to do
something for the greater good and so
that's why no never grabs
now you're obviously in the public eye
recently you had a meeting with the
president Trump what was the meeting
with President Trump like you know I
wouldn't want to say what he said what I
talked about was I talked about trade
and the importance of trade and how I
felt that two countries trading together
make the pie larger and that it's true I
think undoubtedly true that not everyone
has been advantaged from that in in
either country and we've got to work on
that but I I felt that tariffs were not
the right approach there and I showed
him some more of analytical kinds of
things to demonstrate why we also talked
about immigration and the importance of
fixing the dreamer issue now you know
we're only one Court ruling away from a
catastrophic case there so do you think
you made progress on these issues I hope
so and I hope so Apple has roughly 260
billion dollars of cash more or less
what do you do with that cash we're
going to create a new site a new campus
within the United States we're gonna
hire 20,000 people and so we're gonna
spend 30 billion in capex over the next
several years and so we're what number
one we're investing in investing a ton
in this country we're also going to buy
some of our stock because we view our
stock is a is a is a good value so your
did your parents live to see your
success my mother passed away three
three years ago and my but my father's
still alive so your mother was in it
your mother lived to see you be the CEO
she did and that she say well you're
great I always knew your be successful
and can you help me with my iPhone can
you
well I did get both of them on iPad and
I finally convinced my father to start
using iPhones and so but they honestly
they treat me like they did 20 years ago
in 40 years ago six years ago he calls
with tips about what to do or tell you
how to do things or now if I do
something doesn't think as good he tells
me about it hey I saw you on that show
you aren't very good I'm hoping you edit
this well you're obviously a pretty
public figure you were not before have
you ever thought that maybe you could
run for president of United States
because you know you've seen the
president up close I'm not political
right I I loved focusing on the policy
stuff but in the dysfunction kind of in
in in Washington between the the
legislative branch and and so forth I
think that I can make a bigger
difference in the world doing what I'm
doing and I appreciate the comment but I
think yeah you know the president is
something that you'd love to be
president but not ever run and and that
should never happen in our country and
so that kind of eliminates me of all the
CEOs that I know that have run major
companies you are the lowest ego kind of
most self-effacing person that I've seen
in this kind of position so have you
ever noticed that you're different than
the other people are CEOs and and how do
you maintain this self-effacing kind of
modest demeanor when you're running the
biggest company in the world what would
you when you work at Apple there's a
high expectation on everyone to perform
and to contribute and because of that
high bar and you never quite get there
including the CEO
including every job in there and so I'd
never feel that way very long if I ever
felt that way well thank you for taking
the time today and I'd say having me
you're the first person I've interviewed
without a tie on and so I was in your
honor and I bet you sleep in a tie
[Applause]
[Music]
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