Steve Jobs came to Apple at the worst time, but Steve Jobs convinced him to do it
He Wall Street Journal interviewed Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, and did some very interesting questions about how he got to Apple and how Steve Jobs convinced him to join the company. Cook joined Apple in 1998 as vice president of worldwide operations, during one of the company’s worst periods. However, Steve Jobs managed to convince him, regardless of expectations.
Apple CEO Tim Cook sits down for The Job Interview with WSJ Magazine to talk about working with Steve Jobs, his first job delivering newspapers and getting started at IBM. Cook also talks about his love of logistics, manufacturing and math, as well as his degree from Auburn University. He shares insights into his job, including the sacrifices he’s had to make, his morning routine, and more.
Ask:
“When Steve Jobs recruited you to join Apple, you said you trusted your instincts, how would you know you were making the right decision?”
Answer:
“In talking to Steve, I got the impression that he was a very different type of CEO, he focused on products, products, products and believed that small teams could do incredible work.
I love that vision and I also think that in an environment where everyone was moving towards an enterprise type business, he wanted to refocus Apple on consumers and that was great because at the time no one was doing that, all the world I thought you couldn’t make money selling to consumers.
I never thought it was a good idea to follow the herd. “I thought I had the opportunity of a lifetime to work with the creative genius who started the entire industry and I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity.”
Tim Cook and Steve Jobs have had a great relationship for years
Ask:
Did you feel like you were going to bring something to Apple that was missing at the time?
Answer:
“People have forgotten, but Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy and it was a really terrible time and people advised me not to come to Apple because they thought everything was going to collapse. But I saw something different, I saw the sparkle in Steve’s eyes and it just meant we could make this change and I’m so happy to have been a part of this team.
Ask:
“What management lessons have you learned from Steve?” »
Answer:
“He taught me the value of innovation, that small teams could do incredible things. I first look at the size of the iPod kit. I look at the size of the iPhone equipment. These were very small teams in the project. Hire the best people to surround you with, who challenge you, who have skills you don’t have and who are confident in themselves and who are also not married to my past opinions. You know, you shouldn’t be proud of not changing your point of view. No matter when you are presented with new evidence, he will change (his opinion) very quickly one day.
At first I was a little surprised by this, then I fell in love with it all, very few people have this ability because they espouse their past views. It was a brilliant skill.“
Ask:
Have you ever changed your opinion about Steve Jobs?
Answer:
“Yes of course, he loved to debate, he liked someone to argue with him and we could always change our minds if we had the best idea, we changed each other’s minds, that’s why this skill works so well.”
We know that Tim Cook and Steve Jobs have argued many times, just as we know that they are two quite different CEOs. Of course, Tim Cook has no doubt that if Steve Jobs were still alive, he would be the CEO of Apple. You can see the full interview in the following WSJ video.
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