Contemporary Business Leaders: Tim Cook - Essay Example

Topic: Contemporary business leaders: Tim Cook Introduction Timothy Donald Cook was is a US business executive, who was born in 1960 and is currently the CEO of Apple. He enrjoined Apple in yera 1998 and became the Senior Vice President responsible for operations all over the globe, while also serving as the Executive Vice President, before serving as the Chief Operating Officer up to the time when he became the CEO of Apple succeeding Steve Jobs. Previously, he had been the CEO in an acting capacity when the former Apple CEO had been on medical leave in 2011. Tim Cook is also a member of the Nike’s board of directors and well as the National Football Foundation, and in 2014, he was made a public declaration that he was gay, making him the first chief executive of a Fortune 500 company to make such as a declaration. Career After Tim Cook Graduated from the Auburn University, he worked for twelve years in IBM personal computer business and eventually served as the director in charge of North American Fulfilment. He went on to serve as the Chief Operations Officer in charge of the computer reseller section on Intelligent Electronic and then became the president for Corporate Materials at Compaq for a short period. Cook joined Apple in 1998 after he met the then CEO, Steve Jobs for the first time with his first assignment being to become the Senior Vice President, where Cook stated that the management approach he preferred could be compared the dairy business, where if the product goes past its date for freshness, then there is a problem. In his role as the Senior Vice President, he closed factories as well as warehouses, and replaced them with contact manufacturers, which resulted in a significant reduction in the inventory of the company from several months to a few days (Jose, 2014). After forecasting its significance, his group made investments in long-term deals including prior investments in flash memory from 2005, and this guaranteed a steady supply of a critical component of various Apple products including the iPhone, iPad and iPod nano. The actions that were taken by Cook at Apple were considered to have reduced the costs of production and together with the design of market savvy of the company, were a source of great profitability. At the beginning of 2007, Cook was appointed as the Chief Operations Officer and went on to serve as the CEO in 2009, in an acting capacity when Steve Jobs had taken a leave of absence so that he could manage his failing health. At the beginning of 2011, the Board of Directors of the company approved the third medical leave of absence for Steve Jobs and at this time, Cook assumed the responsibility of majority of the daily operations of the company even though jobs was still the key decision maker. Upon Steve Jobs resignation as the CEO to become the chairman of the board, Tim Cook became the CEO of the company in mid-2011 (Williams, 2013). Only a month and a half later, in October 2011, Steve Jobs succumbed to a relapse of islet-cell neuroendocrine pancreatic cancer which he had been treated for before. Prior to Steve Jobs death, he and Tim Cook had fostered a strong partnership and revived Apple from its decline which had taken it from a revenue of eleven billion dollars in 1995 to less than six billion in 1998. When Steve Jobs and Tim Cook worked together, the company reinvented itself to more than one hundred billion, and this resulted in Tim Cook being named among the people with the most influence in the world by Time in 2012. Towards the end of 2012, Tim Cook made significant changes to the executive team of Apple. The Senior Vice President of iOS, Scott Forstall, tendered his resignation and became Cook’s advisor up to the time when he departed in 2013. On the other hand, the senior vice president in charge of retail, John Browett, was let go six months after he started working at Apple when he was the recipient of one hundred thousand shares worth sixty million US dollars. The duties that were initially carried out by Scott Forstall were subsequently split among four executives in the company. The changes that cook instigated at Apple took place in the third quarter at a time when revenues and profits were less than the forecasted numbers. After he became the Chief Executive of Apple, Cook concentrated on fostering a harmonious culture at the company that included getting rid of the people who were associated with disagreeable personalities regardless of whether they were close to him. At the beginning of 2014, Tim Cook was the center attention after he challenged the shareholders of Apple to get out of the stock if they could not share the view of the company in regards to climate change and sustainability. Style of leadership The leadership style that Tim Cook uses can be widely considered as democratic, and instead of operating in total contrast to Steve Jobs, who was the former Apple CEO, Cook seems to have embraced some aspects of Steve Jobs’ renowned entrepreneurial practices and established an exceptionally leadership approach. It has been argued that it was clear from the beginning that Tim Cook lacks the bold visionary approach that was synonymous with Steve Jobs, but he has his own strengths including being considered charming and considerate by the workers at Apple (Williams, 2013). Cook is renowned for concentrating on the already existing products as well as fostering the business along with his relationship with the workers at the comp Instead of trying to the simply carry on the legacy of Steve Jobs’ autocratic approach to leadership, Cooks continues to play to his own strengths while emphasizing on increasing cooperation to the collection of Apple’s talent. This clearly demonstrates his democratic approach to management that has encouraged building of consensus, especially among the high level workers before the make mutually consented decisions. The part of practical involvement of the CEO in the development of Apple products has considerably reduced after Tim Cook became the CEO (Jose, 2014). The iWatch, which was much glorified can be considered as an example of the changes in structure as Cook decided to be less involved in particulars of product engineering and rather delegated the duties to his executives. Even though his clearly less vigorous, his indirect approach to leadership has improved goodwill of the employees and the industry, and in comparison to Steve Jobs’ harsh and sometimes autocratic approach, it has also led to decisions taking more time and an obvious loss of innovative inspiration. In a deliberate shift from the innovation first tactic that was preferred by Steve Jobs, Tim Cook states that an individual can only do a few things properly (Jose, 2014). Nonetheless, it is clear from his famous removal of Scott Forstall and the manner in which he handled the controversy surrounding Apple Maps, that Cook has a capacity to make tough choices and decisions when he is required to. In the end, his emphasis on the already existing strengths of the company, the significance he gives to consensus between the senior executives as well as the lacking in micromanagement by Tim Cook, clearly demonstrates a democratic for of leadership and management. Conclusion Cook is a good example of the significance of the commitment of a leader to bring themselves in a truthful and authentic way in respect to all aspects. Additionally, Tim Cook reminds people that actual leadership is achieved when an individual’s pursuit is properly aligned to his or her legacy. Ultimately, what other leaders can learn is that susceptibility and personal character are among the biggest tests of character in leadership. In the case of numerous leaders this is the edge to acknowledging the expectations of other people; the capacity to be truthful to the world. Regrettably, for most of the people in leadership positions, this comes too late and they forget that all the steps and actions that they take have an effect on their leadership. In Tim Cook’s case, his legacy is dependent on the powerful and simple influence that originates from the truth. References Jose, K. (2014). Apples leadership strategies. Steve Jobs and Tim Cook. Munich: GRIN Verlag GmbH. Williams, C. (2013). Management. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Read More