Tim Cook: The Genius Who Took Apple to the Next Level

by Leander Kahney

Journalist Leander Kahney reveals how CEO Tim Cook has led Apple to astronomical success after the death of Steve Jobs in 2011.

The death of Steve Jobs left a gaping void at one of the most innovative companies of all time. Jobs wasn't merely Apple's iconic founder and CEO; he was the living embodiment of a global megabrand. It was hard to imagine that anyone could fill his shoes--especially not Tim Cook, the intensely private executive who many thought of as Apple's operations drone.

But seven years later, as journalist Leander Kahney reveals in this definitive book, things at Apple couldn't be better. Its stock has nearly tripled, making it the world's first trillion dollar company. Under Cook's principled leadership, Apple is pushing hard into renewable energy, labor and environmentally-friendly supply chains, user privacy, and highly-recyclable products. From the massive growth of the iPhone to lesser-known victories like the Apple Watch, Cook is leading Apple to a new era of success.

Drawing on access with several Apple insiders, Kahney tells the inspiring story of how one man attempted to replace someone irreplaceable, and--through strong, humane leadership, supply chain savvy, and a commitment to his values--succeeded more than anyone had thought possible.

Genres: Biography, Business, Nonfiction, Technology, Audiobook, Apple, Leadership

320 pages, Hardcover

First published April 16, 2019

About the author

Leander Kahney is managing editor, formerly a senior reporter at Wired News, the online sister publication of Wired. He is the author of The Cult of Mac , Cult of iPod and Inside Steve's Brain. Kahney is best known for his popular blog, Cult of Mac (The Cult of Mac Blog). As a prominent writer on Apple- and Mac-related topics, Kahney was once theorized (incorrectly) to be the identity of Fake Steve Jobs.

Leander has worked for many other publications, including: MacWeek, as a senior reporter, Scientific American, The Observer and The Guardian in London. Working as a newspaper reporter in the UK, he covered amongst other things, the war in former Yugoslavia.

According to Gawker.com, Leander Kahney has been laid off from Wired.COM.

He is currently living in San Francisco, California and is a father of four.

Reviews

[Ashok Rao · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I learnt from the book - It's not the conditions of our lives but the decision we make determine our future. Can you imagine, Tim Cook decided to leave Compaq where he was extremely well placed, to join Apple. That one decision changed everything for Tim Cook. It made me think why he took that decision; Apple was struggling at that time, then, why? Well, I think it was Job's magnetic personality that did the trick. He could make Cook visualize where Apple could be in the near future if they worked together. The rest is history. We all know where Apple is today. Take a decision and stick to it. You never know that one decision could alter your life. As Anthony Robbins rightly said, "It is our decisions that will ultimately determine who we become and where we go in life."

[Odai Al-Saeed · Rating 4 out of 5]

تعتبر شركة (أبل) من الشركات التي تتسم بها أمور مسلمة من العبقرية والمنهجية التنولوجية التي غيرت اتجاهات البشر والمنطقية التي يتعايشون بها من الأطفال والكبار حيث أصبحت أجهزتهم نظام وأسلوب حياة لا يفارقهم
ما كان يتسم به (ستيف جوبز) مؤسس الفكر التكنولوجي ل (أبل) هي تلك الكاريزما الجماهيرية التي كان يحظى بها وزيضاً السباقية إلى ظهور التطور المفاجئ الذي كان عرابه سواء من إطلاق أجهزة (الآيبود> الآيفون> ،الآي باد)وأفول نجمه بعد وفاته واستلام (تيم كوك)الدفة جعل الشركة تحت ضوء توقعات خافت بإستمرار نجاحها خصوصاً اذا ما عقدنا مقارنة بسيطة بتلك الشخصية الانطوائية ذات الكاريزما الباهتة أمام نظيره جوبس وما حصل منذ توليه القيادة كان أمراً عكس التوقعات حيث أن الشركة في عهده بلغ ت قيمتها السوقية (ترليون دولار ) رقم لم يسبق لركة في التاريخ أن إجتازته وحظيت منتجات كساعة أبل وسماعتها مكاسباً لم تخطر على بال....ما آزدت أن أوصله أن لشخصية كوك مفاجئات جاد بها الكتاب وحظي السرد على أسلوب براق كتبه ليندر كاهني حيث أن العمل يشعرك بسلالسة هائلة يتقبلها القارئ بشكل مبهج...كتاب جميل

[Bob den Hartog · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best biographies are not afraid to ask some tough questions and hold their subjects in a critical light, so the readers get the impression they’re getting a well balanced, unbiased account from which they can draw their own conclusions as to whether they like the person or not. Walter Isaacson did a great job in presenting Steve Jobs with all of his misgivings and downsides, but managed to give such a well-balanced narrative that ultimately I understood the guy. Yes, he could be an asshole, but it also served a purpose. He wasn’t perfect by a stretch, but while reading I started to understand what made him tick, and why he became the man he was. But most importantly, I felt I was reading an account by an unbiased journalist who was willing to explore each side of his so you, the reader, could make up your own mind.

Did Kahney achieve the same thing? Well... not exactly. The clue is in the title, right? Maybe Isaacson was the perfect guy to tackle Jobs, because he never meant to. He wasn’t a Silicon Valley guy. He was simply approached by Jobs because he liked his Einstein book, and being the narcissist he was, Jobs deemed himself a natural fit for him. Kahney, on the other hand, has been reporting on Apple for years. He loves the company. And he clearly loves Cook. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but as soon as you start to lavish your subject with praise in sentences that are repeated ad nauseam (apparently, Cook *really* brought diversity to Apple), you’re kinda losing the belief you’re reading something that’s written by an objective journalist. It feels like Kahney took the title as a starting point, and then started to seek evidence to prove his thesis.

Especially when the more critical parts (yes, there are a few segments on Cook’s lesser moments) appear to be there mainly to serve the purpose of showing Cook’s growth, with Kahney frequently defending Cook’s actions. And I’m sure Cook is a breath of fresh air, and the CEO Apple needed right now, especially in this time of heightened awareness of diversity and the environment. And I applaud many things Cook has brought to the company. But there are many critical questions either explored insufficiently, or simply not brought to the table.

Still, the book does present a lot of evidence to show Cook is, after all, doing pretty good. At its worst, at least it’s a good reminder how innovation of the company doesn’t necessarily need to be in the grand gestures - while people were yelling they were missing The Next Big Thing from the tech giant, Apple was innovating the accessibility of their products for the impaired, while behind the scenes Apple was getting more and more diverse. So Kahney does manage to provide a decent overview of Apple under Cook and that’s mainly how this book should be regarded - not as a biography of Cook himself, because it’s not, really. Whether you will find a wealth of new information here depends on your knowledge of tech and the company.

[Julia Chupryna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Не Бути Джобсом
(це все ж більше про Apple, ніж про Кука)

Складно сказати на якому етапі Тіма перестали порівнювати зі Стівом (а робили це з того самого часу, як він у 2011 році став CEO Apple), але те, що його почали визнавати найуспішнішим очільником компанії за всю її історію, компанії, яка першою в світі почала оціюватися в суму з 12-ма нулями, значило більше за все про що мовчали і що небажали визнавати. Але за біографією хлопця з півдня криється безмежна відданість компанії, що змінила його inside out, а потім він проробив це саме, у притаманній йому "не джобівській" манері. І от, що з цього вийшло:

1) "Компанії мають бути на стороні добра" - якось сказав Кук і почав робити все, щоб етична сторона технічної галузі виглядала трохи краще, ніж убого. Не секрет, що Apple закидали проблеми з утриманням робочих на фабриках у Китаї, умовами праці, масовими самогубствами, але компанія одна з перших у Кремнієвій долині почала звертати увагу на постійні закиди активістів і щось роботи.

2) Перша установа, яка настільки піклується про захист особистих даних, що відхиляє запит ФБР на отримання інформації з айфонів особливо небезпечних осіб, оскільки це своєю чергою дасть перецендент до витіку інформації інших невинних людей (навіть самі працівники компанії не знають як це зробити, бо шифри міняються із небаченою швидкістю). Кейс - як піти до суду і виграти справу проти ФБР - done (тому, спіть спокійно, Кук стереже ваші приватні дані, айфонолюби).

3) Питання різномантності та інклюзії - пріоритет №1. Apple постійно звинувачують у приматі білошкіро-чоловічого складу (особливо на вищих керівних посадах). Що робить Кук? Здійснює камінг-аут (чим ой-як насторожує інвесторів, тому що до цього жоден CEO із списку Fortune не робив нічого подібного). А він наважився і відкрився (хоча це було непросто, зважаючи на максимальну приватність і конфеденційність із якою він асоціюється). А потім почалися зміни: люди асболютно всіх рас, статей і віросповідань можуть комфортно працювати в компанії (тут мені здається вони лукавлять, бо з всесвітнім хайпом багато хто так робить), але позиціонування себе такими добрими і привітними, випускаючими інклюзивні пристрої, які реально працюють і допомагають людям, отримуючи купу нагород - це та щось значить.

4) Витрачання нереальних сум на технічну освіту. Працює це дуже просто - компанія заключає контракт із освітнім закладом, платить йому внесок (для деяких закладів - найбільший за їхню історію), вони заохочують молодих (і не дуже) людей до програмування (у широкому сенсі цього слова), безкоштовно навчають і потенційні нові кадри для Apple готові (simply complicated).

5) І наостанок - Apple завжди переконувала (читай: Кук завджди переконував), що компанія вбачає свій сенс у задовленні своїх споживачів (їхньої радості і досвіду від користування продукцією), а не в простому заробітку заради рекордів. Можливо, великі гроші не цікавить таку компанію як Apple (що не скажеш про її інвесторів), але те, що своєї позиції і чіткого голосу компанії не позичати - це напевно.

P/S всі нотатки зроблені на MacBook (досі - найркащий ноут в історії мого користування пристроями:)

[Siah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book. Tim Cook is my boss and I truly believe in him. But this book is not at all about Cook. It is rather a boring review of Apple's recent history. It has thousands of material about Apple Park, iPhone or iPads but almost nothing about Cook's family or his relationship with his parents. This book has nothing remotely interesting about Cook. I know Tim Cook is a genius but there is nothing in this book that tells me why!

[Tadas Talaikis · Rating 2 out of 5]

OK, this book is hardly a biography, more like another propaganda peace.

"But I find it difficult to believe that anyone becomes a billionaire by being an ethical, decent human being." The Inherent Cruelty of a Billionaire Class

Tim Cook may be "better" than Steve Jobs, but I remember some analysis how Apple makes money since Tim Cook took the position along with market saturation and falling sales. It's actually simple - by just increasing prices. Let's see, ex., maybe iPhone's hardware is tightly integrated with software, but is it really worth 3x times more than competitor's often even better products? Let's be fair, people buy Apple because of narcissistic "status", not because those products are better.

The American premise that if someone's net worth is billion plus, then he/ she is a genius is totally nuts.

Tim Cook basically admitted that the price of iPhones may be too high for a world that's getting poorer, and further increased the prices :-D

Apple's growth under Tim Cook was due to expansion to outside of the U.S. markets and profiting from more, but poorer economies, when charging same prices.

"To make up for the innovation stagnation, Cook & Co. went all-in on the company's services business." Tim Cook has a really big iPhone problem. Don't know how much that is genius, but other companies went to services and imbecilic overpriced "subscriptions" way earlier.

What this company is doing at the "genius" level is basically taking hard work of other people, improving them (rarely now) and popularizing it through their marketing (e.g., brainwashing).

[Weixiang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! I knew that Tim cooks was a supply chain management genius, but I did not know what to do extent of his influence in Apple. Until now! This guy is a genius, anything that Cook touches becomes gold essentially.

What I took from the book is that I believe Tim Cook has always been the CEO of AAPL, even before the death of Steve Jobs. After Cook becomes the CEO however, real change in the company started to take place mostly for the better. Or rather almost all of it for the better. Him influence in environmentalism, as well as gender in the work force has been better than the other mega companies.

As for this book, I know it’s far reaching to ask for some more personal upbringings of Cook. However he is a very private man, and my guess is that this is this author’s style of a biography. Rather it’s more of a biography of Cooks with respect to AAPL.

An awesome history of Cook in AAPL, would recommend for any tech nerds.

[MadZiddi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tim Cook, the ops guy under Jobs, had big shoes to fill after Jobs passed. Having an engineering plus MBA background, and having worked for tecg giants like IBM, he may come across well prepared for the top job. However the kind of innovation, that is required to keep the super ascendent trajectory of Apple (the company was growing double digit for more than a decade), on course was no mean feat. Because the indominatable spirit of enwrgy of Job was hard to imitate by such a quiet gay guy like Cook. But it is a testament to the fact that different management styles can yield equally results that Apple has progressed to be the first trillion dollar company.
This book although not written with the same writing aplomb as the master Isaacson, but does give valuable insights into the life of one of the great successor Business moghuls.

[Ietrio · Rating 2 out of 5]

The cover really made me curious. Tim Cook has proved an able manager for a very big company. And that is all. Genius? I can't recall ONE thing that would not be just average. As for taking Apple to the next level, if Apple was the corner butcher shop, yeah, Tim Cook would take it to the next level. But such a big company? And after Jobs? This volume simply has a strong butt kissing smell. Back when I'll read it.

[Bianca A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Never had a clue who this man was, but his story is incredible and just worth generally being aware of (not necessary out of an entire book, but in general). Defying predictions, coming clean to the public about his sexuality, filling up some massive and charismatic shoes, he took firm and able comand of Apple after Jobs' passing. Being quiet but industrous can shake mountains - or shall I say build them?
I've definitely become fascinated with this man, despite discovering him quite late, and will research him further after this book.
Every biography about an important personality is in one way or another a form of propaganda with a high tendency for bias, so expect such vibe alongside the presented facts, then supplement with your own research if you feel the need to. Let's face it: it's not easy to take a company from a visionary and maintain it not only afloat, but profitable amidst fevorous competition. If that's not talent, I don't know what is. And I'm sure these and many more were the reasons Jobs had reached out to him personally.
Only 3 stars because I found the author's style a bit tough to read, the content does feel biased to me personally and I'm realizing more and more that I much prefer audovisual material in the form of documentaries (preferably where the main person is featured directly) rather than a book that takes several days or more to read. I also personally tend to prefer autobiographies on Audible where the narrator is the author himself!

[Drtaxsacto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biographies of living people are always hard to write. Leander Kahney actually did a pretty good job of trying to tell us something interesting and important about Apple's Tim Cook. Kehany is a founder of Cult of the Mac.

Before I tell you about some of the interesting conclusions that the author presents let me express a reservation. Kehany seems to have done a lot of homework on this book. But then he seems to take a lot of what is said about Cook or Apple as gospel. So many of the issues he covers, for example in his discussion of the diversity initiatives he presents the conclusions of activists trying to grind the company for this or that with meaningful comparisons about where Apple wants to be. But that is a minor problem.

Apple has always been an anomaly in the way it does business. For example, it has 18% of the market for cellphones but retains 87% of all the profits in the industry. They have successfully created a niche where a good portion of their customer base is committed to the brand. That was something Steve Jobs understood and the lesson was not lost on Cook. When the iPhone X came out many analysts said the price approaching $1000 would not sell well. Those analysts were simply wrong. People grabbed the X models off the shelves. The number of times that Apple has been written off as doomed is almost too many to count. In a Huffpost article in 2011 Ty Fujimura touted the Motorola Xoom as the iPad killer because it had more memory and used Android. But then he admitted the Xoom was not that successful. (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-ap...) In the end he argued that Apple's fate was tied to Jobs' fate. The article was written about 4 months before Jobs died. But if you look at the company since Jobs' death - Apple could paraphrase Mark Twain - "the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." Under Cook Apple became the first trillion company and as a stockholder I have been very pleased. As a product user I have also been very pleased.

Cook when he took over for Jobs in 2011 understood that he had to deal with an almost deity and yet he could not be the mini-me of Jobs. So he set off to redefine the brand of Apple into six broad categories (none of them having direct relationship with the company's products). Cook understands that Apple's customers are not just buying a product (or products) they are buying something more. So he started out making conscientious initiatives in six areas - Accessibility, Environment, Education, Supplier Responsibility, Inclusion and Diversity, and Privacy and Security.

Kehany's chapters and analysis of each of the six ideas is uneven. From my perspective the chapter on inclusion and diversity was poorly done. He argues that Apple's critics are right. But that is simply not true. Apple has had some major and substantive initiations to improve the diversity of its workforce and even its board. They have made significant financial commitments to improve the opportunities for a broad range of students and institutions. They have created an open source code (Swift) and offered a wide range of learning opportunities to learn how to code. But all that financial commitment and work does not pay off in minutes. Consider the opposite example of Google whose motto Don't be Evil is just a bunch of words. They have a culture which abhors diversity in beliefs.

For me the value of one of the ideas is fundamental to the company. In 2015 the FBI tried to force Apple to build a back door to allow the FBI to unlock an iPhone 5c. James Comey, then director of the FBI, argued that he could use an obscure 1789 statute to force Apple to write code to open the phone. Apple resisted, successfully the power of the state to try to force it to break its own code. The FBI later claimed (I am not sure that their claim was true) that it paid a hacker to break through the encryption. The larger principle here is whether the power of the government should be able to force a company to support its investigations. While the government can be assisted in many places the risks of subverting privacy limits could have consequences in oppressive regimes like China and Iran. Cook made a very principled response to the idiotic requests of Comey. That was one of many examples where I thought Comey had no appreciation of civil liberties. But that is longer story.

This is a short and interesting book and while it has some limits in its reporting it was well worth the time. I think Cooks analysis of how to move the company has been mostly correct. He understands that the company's future depends in part on defining an environment that will attract and retain customers.

[Vėjas Galvoje · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kai kalbama apie Apple kompaniją, tai visada figuruoja viena asmenybė - Steve Jobs. Kiek jis padarė, koks jis buvo vadovas, kaip jis buvo išmestas ir vėl priimtas į Apple ir t.t. Tačiau Apple savo populiarumo aukštumų būtent pasiekė jau nebe Jobs’o eroje, bet Tim Cook’o. Rekomenduoju, jei nors kiek domiesi Apple kaip kompanija arba naudojiesi jų sukurtais produktais

[Luis Lector · Rating 4 out of 5]

El libro nos muestra la influencia que ha tenido Tim Cook en la gestión de Apple, una de las empresas más importantes, por capitalización, beneficios, etc. Los clientes y los mercados tenían al principio alguna duda de como iba a funcionar Apple sin Steve Jobs, su gran director y alma mater. Sin embargo, Tim Cook ha sido capaz de llevar la empresa a un estado superior, con mayor cifra de negocio, más ventas, más beneficios, mayor presencia internacional con las famosas tiendas “Apple store".

En el libro se abordan varios aspectos en los que la empresa ha mejorado notablemente bajo la dirección de Cook: dirección de operaciones, gestión de la cadena de suministro, relación con los proveedores, respeto de los derechos laborales de los trabajadores de la propia empresa y de las empresas proveedoras localizadas en China, mejora de la política medioambiental de la empresa reduciendo los productos contaminantes y las emisiones de CO2. Otro aspecto importante que toca es el del fomento de la diversidad entre sus trabajadores, tratando de incorporar más mujeres y minorías étnicas tanto en los puestos base como entre los directivos. Cook también desarrolló en la empresa la política de defensa del derecho a la privacidad de los clientes de Apple, por encima de otros intereses y de gobiernos.
En lo personal, Tim Cook se muestra como una persona muy trabajadora, que apenas tiene vida privada, altruista, defensor de los derechos LGTBI. Muy poco se sabe de su vida, salvo que le gusta el ciclismo. Los pocos datos que se conocen no darían para una biografía.

El libro tiene un enfoque más empresarial, que biográfico. Tim Cook es el líder de un gran equipo de directivos y miembros del consejo de administración. Juntos han convertido a Apple en una de las primeras empresas del mundo.

Me ha gustado mucho el libro, es de fácil lectura y me ha descubierto las habilidades de Cook en el campo de operaciones y en la dirección de la compañía. Lo menos positivo es que hay mucha información que podría ponerse en tablas para dar una visión más clara, en lugar de ser todo texto. Recomiendo su lectura, en especial, a los interesados por la gestión empresarial y a los amantes de los iPhone, iPad, etc.

[Trang Do · Rating 4 out of 5]

I pick this book with the intention to study about who Tim Cook is, what about him that makes him Apple’ next CEO.
It turns out I got more than that after I finish. And here are some of my takeaways that the excitement urges me to jot down:

1. Owning the shared vision/the same “why” for the company does not necessarily mean you share the same “how”. And that’s what about Tim Cook that differentiates him from Steve Jobs. He seems to me as someone quieter than Steve, who is very detailed with hunger for clarity, who is persevere with “resultership” and ‘victorance” beings. Taking over Apple from the legendary Steve Jobs is no doubt a challenging opportunity, but he chose it knowing crystal clear he would not be a copy of Steve but would be the best Tim Cook he can to lead Apple. The man who honors his words and takes responsibility for any breakdowns of the company.
2. A transformation/creative mindset can also be seen at a man with expertise in operations. Cook embraces the idea to “think different” just like Jobs in what he excels at: supply chain managament and operations in manufacturing. What he has done with JIT and ODM production opens my eyes about supply chain management, outsourcing in manufacturing industry. Also, if Steve Jobs is one of the only 2 people at Apple who doesn’t focus on specialization (which is known at every Apple’s department), the other is Tim. Started as a technical guy, Tim equipped himself with business mindset who later proves himself compentent for leading the company as a general chief.
3. Tim Cook is a top executive who cares for minority and human equality (LQBTQ community, women, disabled people) and environmental issues. This is shown in his leadership at Apple, through activities he involves and contributes aggressively. This may be attribute to his background from a small town in Alablama. (I’m excited as well when I know “to Kill the mockingbird” is his fav.)
4. The book also gives me a sense about the computer industry since 1980s with giants like IBM, Dell, Intel, Compaq until now. I also get how outsourcing has become Apple’s key strategy under Tim’s leadership to manage supply chain. Stories about FoxConn and other vendors in China with E&S issues also open for a discussion about how’s Vietnam would be in the same situation/avoid the issues related to environment and working condition for labors.

Really enjoy the book this weekend and would recommend any friends of mine to read it.

[Flor Méndez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es una gran biografía de, justamente la Apple de Tim Cook, no de él como persona, que es lo que muches parecen creer que es.

El libro empieza explicando de dónde viene Cook, en qué estuvo (en términos de educación y trabajo hasta llegar a Apple) y termina explicando no solo qué hizo en la empresa, sino también cómo la empresa cambió gracias a él.

Es admirable leer cómo fueron cambiando las políticas ecologistas, de diversidad y no-discriminación gracias a Cook, diferenciándose con creces de su predecesor. Específicamente me sorprendió el hecho de negarse a invertir en ciertos estados, por ejemplo el que lo vio crecer, hasta que aprueben leyes que prohíban el hecho de despedir gente por su orientación sexual, entre otras.

Una lectura muy interesante, tanto si te gusta Apple (no es mi caso) como si te interesa leer cómo una persona dio vuelta para bien una compañía cuyo anterior CEO parecía intocable y su lógica de trabajo inmovible.

[Andy Rectenwald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a Great Read

Overall, I think this book was less a biography and more the author detailing what he likes about Apple as a company and Cook as a leader and where he wishes they were better.

Positives:
- you’ll learn a lot of fun facts about Jobs, Cook, and Apple.
- if you’re a fan of Apple products, it is neat to see how some of them came together.

Negatives:
- throughout the book, the author makes clear his disdain for opinions on the right of the political spectrum. it has relevance to Tim’s upbringing, but he tends to lump people from the south together in one category of people for which he has contempt. He even - at one point - insinuates that he thinks Cook’s parents’ reasoning for leaving their neighborhood was not true, but that it was maybe due to their being racist. It was kind of appalling.
- there were far too many times in which, instead of telling the story of Tim’s life or leadership, the author spends time giving his opinions on how things could be better or should be better.

[Raynaud · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enige minpuntje is dat er weinig inbreng van Cook zelf is.

[Roger Philby · Rating 1 out of 5]

Lazy, disappointing...

Takes a lot for me to say anything negative about someone’s work, which kinda tells you how bad this book is. If you follow Apple, there is nothing new in this book, like nothing, waste of time and money.

[Felix Soo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Talks mostly about Apple‘s progress rather than Cook’s disposition and thoughts. Think of it as a Apple history book...

[Jim Lavis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well written book with information I haven’t seen before, and I’ve read a few book about Apple and Steve Jobs. It gives us Tim’s background, all the way back to his childhood and shares with us his personality and how he thinks as a CEO.

In many ways Tim is the opposite of Steve Jobs. Steve never was a good CEO, he was a visionary and entrepreneur that started this amazing company. Steve struggled adapting to the size and scale that Apple grew into and dealing with people challenged him. He was known to lose his cool and verbally castrate his coworkers.

Tim had a wonderful understanding of procurement and created systems like Just-in-Time Inventory and other procedures that made all the difference in Apple’s success. Tim grew up in a small rural town in Alabama and has strong ties to religious principles and doing things right. Ethics mean a lot to him, and he brought that culture into Apple’s way of doing business.

Tim is a workaholic and his standards are high. He expects his employees to be ethical and dedicated to Apple’s philosophy and mission. Tim is a charitable man and brought that into Apples culture. He feels businesses need to give back to the community and foster worthwhile causes. He took it upon himself to mandate Apple to use nothing but renewable energy throughout his supply chain which is global in scope. This encouraged other companies like Samsung and others to follow suit. In addition, Apple is looking to see how they can use recycled materials in producing their new products as well.

Tim is all about being of service. The salespeople at their retail stores are not hired for their sales abilities. They are hired for their empathy and compassion. Matter of fact, Apple doesn’t call their retail facilities stores, they call them Town Squares where people gather and learn.

Diversity and helping disabled customers are a priority with Tim Cook’s missions. All of Apple products are designed to be used by people with impairments, including being blind or deaf. Tim feels so strongly about this initiative, he said when they’re designing these products, they don’t even consider how these additional costs will affect the profit.

Tim seems like an amazing person. I sure would love to met him and pick his brain.

[Emmet Kearney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writing a biography of a private CEO of a highly secretive company is not an easy task. Kahney has a deep knowledge of Apple and provides a well researched account of Cook’s journey from his beginnings in Alabama to developing his skills at IBM to working his way up through the ranks and ultimately leading Apple since 2011.

For the average Apple fan it provides some new insights into internal politics, product developments, supply chain issues, environmental challenges, and ultimate successes. Other than that there was nothing ground breaking or too challenging. The penultimate chapter on Apple’s future was light on content and simply provided a summary of Apple’s recent, publicly known, ventures into autonomous cars. There was one statement about AR. I had hoped for more insights or musings, but then again Apple is a highly secretive company.

There are many respectful comparisons between Jobs and Cook, but it is clear that each was the right leader for their time. Jobs and Cook are different people with different values, and like company’s evolution, requires a CEO with a different skill set to take it to the next stage.

Undoubtedly Cook is a great leader, who I admire, and has brought Apple to new, spiralling heights, which was possible thanks to the strong foundations built by Jobs and the rest of the Apple team over the past 30 years.

[Chris De Vera · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delightful read! I'm somewhat of an Apple hater as I've been a long-time fan of Android and windows. I've never even owned an iPhone or iPad. And I guess it was largely because of how I perceived Apple in the Steve Jobs era.

But now knowing what an ethical and kind leader Tim Cook is, especially in contrast to his counterparts in other Silicon Valley tech companies, I now have a newfound fondness for not only Apple as a company, but for Tim Cook as a leader, a person, and now a voice for the LGBT+ community.

I went into this book curious about Tim Cook (largely because I knew he was gay and wanted to learn more about this private gay CEO of the largest company in the world) and less interested in the inner workings of Apple. But the book delivers on both fronts. Also, I felt like I knew enough about Steve Jobs's life after watching both the Jobs (2013) and Steve Jobs (2015) films and the

I appreciate as well how seemingly objective and sober the book is. While it mostly puts Tim Cook in a positive light (and somewhat puts Steve Jobs in a more critical light), it manages to recount the good and the bad of Apple as a company, even during Tim Cook's time. I appreciate this as I didn't want to read a "fanboy" retelling of the Apple saga.

[Pratik Samant · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I picked up this book I had already expected it to be on the life of Cook, as well as some elements of PR to elevate cook’s reputation. But this book is like a 300 pager PR report. The author has cleverly tried to portray Cook as one of greatest leaders, at times he has pointed out how Cook was better than his predecessor Steve Jobs. It’s better to leave that to the audience, let them read and decide.

Though I liked reading this book, but the blatant PR language removed the excitement of reading a book on ‘Tim Cook’.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

an insightful read about the leadership team at Apple post-steve jobs era. steve jobs has been described as an irreplaceable visionary and many thought Apple would die without steve jobs.

this book goes beyond just describing the incredible changes that tim cook has made for the company, both incremental and innovative, and highlights the peculiar difficulty in running such a big company including supply chain and ethics/sustainability considerations, of which tim cook seems to nail perfectly. interesting to think that had steve jobs not been diagnosed with cancer and had instead continued to be the CEO of Apple, the company perhaps wouldn't be as successful as it is today

[Natalia Dwórznik · Rating 1 out of 5]

It’s a disaster. Half of the book tells the story of Steve Jobs. The author’s conclusions are so shallow and obvious that this could be a school essay from a fifth grade. There’s not a single trace that the author have ever had any meaningful conversation with Tim Cook whatsoever. Does he know that someone wrote this biography at all? Because he was clearly not interviewed for his own story.

[Lucas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting insight into the life of Tim Cook and his overhaul of Apple. Where Steve Jobs focused on product innovation, Cook revolutionized the operational side. It was really interesting to gain insight into a much more nuanced and subtle form of innovative revolution, yet the book reads much more like an essay built upon the reference of other articles and thus may tread more water rather than deep dive into any of the topics discussed

[Marcin Boruchowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book, which was intended to be a biography of Tim Cook, turned out to have little information about Cook's life. The author repeatedly mentions that the current CEO of Apple protects his privacy, perhaps that is the reason there is so little information about him in the book.
The author often compares Steve Jobs’s Apple and Tim Cook’s Apple.
Based on the shown cases, it can be undoubtedly stated that the title character brought Apple to a new level of operation. Cook is a genius in his field, but little of the genius is shown in the book, which leaves a huge dissatisfaction.

[Arthur Castro · Rating 3 out of 5]

É um livro ok, eu esperava bem mais. Mas, pelo que é narrado, dá pra entender um pouco a personalidade de Cook.

Eu sei que a vida de Cook e da Apple são muito conectadas mas eu esperava muito mais detalhes da vida dele e das situações do que é descrito no livro.

[Ana Moon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Básicamente propaganda sobre Apple y poco de lo que promete el subtítulo.
Mi reseña completa_
https://memoriasdevirtual.blogspot.co...

[Mikhail Konstantinov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Блин, одна из самых нудных биографий. Автор облизывает гения с ног до головы целую кригу, куча деталей какой-он крутой, и как в эпл хорошо.

Журналисту 2, Куку 4, итого 3.