Today, Apple is a huge global name with the power to internationally influence technological innovation, shape policies, and lifestyle. However, that was the case always. After the demise of its visionary founder, Steve Jobs, Apple was expected to stagnate without his creative genius. But to everyone’s surprise, Apple under Tim Cook, current CEO of Apple, has grown to unimaginable heights and Bloomberg has given us a detailed account of how Cook has achieved it.
Apple sold two iPhones and one iPad; today it offers seven iPhones and five iPads. Cook also added high-priced products that amounted to accessories for the flagship mobile devices, such as AirPods and the Apple Watch.
In addition to products, successful Apple services launched by Cook play a huge part in expanding the company’s reach in Music, News, video streaming, fitness and other industries. Now it is rumored that the company’s next major project is Apple Car which has already added $100 billion in its market value.
Apple under Tim Cook has become the U.S first $ 2 trillion company
Joining Apple in 1998, Cook’s hardware and business acumen was instrumental in shifting the company’s supply chain from Ireland to China which proved beneficial for its growth in the post-Steve Jobs era and now its worth is $2 trillion and is on the way to hit $3 trillion by 2022.
Jobs’s death two years later caused skeptics to predict Apple would stagnate without a steady stream of his inventions; in fact, the real challenge was keeping supply up in China. Operations managers were scrambling to buy enough computer-controlled milling machines and laser cutters. Every millimeter was scrutinized for savings—as were even the seemingly least consequential parts. Three people familiar with the company’s supply chain say there was an Apple employee whose job consisted of negotiating the cost of glue.
In the present geo-political context and change in policies, the report accredits Apple’s success to Cook’s diplomatic and calm personality. It is his understanding of the world leaders and the situation which has not only helped the company survive the recent U.S and China trade war under former President Trump but flourish in the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Tim may not be able to design a product like Steve,” says Warren Buffett, who knows Cook well and whose Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has a stake in Apple worth $111 billion, as of a September filing. “But Tim understands the world to a degree that very, very few CEOs I’ve met over the past 60 years could match.”
But Cook has been counterpunching, broadening his influence over the mobile phone industry while marketing Apple’s commitment to privacy as the antidote to the practices of social media companies. Moreover, Cook’s unflappable temperament makes him well suited to the polarized political climate.
Strangely, though, Apple thrived under Trump. In August 2018, the company’s market value reached $1 trillion; 24 months later, even as Trump railed on the campaign trail that “these stupid supply chains” in China should move home, it surpassed $2 trillion.
The Bloomberg story on Cook’s leadership is an inspiring account of how hard work and a futuristic approach can achieve wonders. Read the complete story here.
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