The news that Steve Jobs will be taking medical leave from Apple Inc. has once again thrust Timothy D. Cook, Apple chief operating officer, onto center stage.
Just as he did in 2004, when he filled in when Jobs was recovering from cancer surgery, Cook will run the day-to-day operations of the company, at least until June when Jobs expects to return.
The turn in events offers Apple-watchers a study in contrasts.
Jobs, 53, the company’s co-founder and CEO, is frequently described as larger than life, a visionary who knows what the public wants before the public even knows what it wants.
Cook, 48, is described as a problem-solver, a very smart, very calm and very private person, who has fulfilled the unglamorous but vital task of making the trains run on time at Apple.
Timothy D. Cook
“He’s the story behind the story,” Mike Homer, a former Apple executive told The Wall Street Journal in 2006.
An Auburn University industrial engineering graduate with an MBA from Duke, Cook joined Apple in 1998, a year after Jobs returned for his second stint of leading the company.
Before that, Cook had been at Compaq Computer Corporation, where he was vice president of corporate materials. Before Compaq, he spent a brief time at Intelligent Electronics. Previous to that, he worked for 12 years at IBM.
According to Fortune magazine, Cook’s mandate upon arriving at Apple was to “clean up the atrocious state of (its) manufacturing, distribution, and supply apparatus.”
Cook contracted out the manufacturing, established new relations with suppliers, drastically lowered inventories and made other changes that have helped the company become enormously profitable.
He was able to accomplish this, according to reports, by working long hours, by traveling extensively and by being a demanding but steady boss.
“While Mr. Jobs is known to have a mercurial temper and a sharp tongue, Mr. Cook has the courtly demeanor of a Southern gentleman,” the Journal reported.
The news of Job’s leave sent Apple’s stock price down, an indication that Joe Nocera of The New York Times may have been right Thursday in calling Jobs, “the most indispensable chief executive in the United States.”
Jobs was not specific in the e-mail about his medical issues, other than to say they were “more complex than (he) had originally thought.”
He had earlier said that he was suffering from a hormone imbalance that was keeping his body from absorbing proteins.
Nocera argued in the Times that Apple’s board has to be more specific about Job’s condition.
“Put the subject to rest,” Nocera wrote. “End the constant rumor-mongering. And then get back to the business of making the coolest products on the earth.
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1 Comments
#1. George 01.16.2009
Please don’t let him turn the Apple lavender with his gay approach to business.
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