Tim Cook – Biography Review

I recently finished Leander Kahney’s book, Tim Cook: The Genius Who Took Apple to the Next Level. His biography explored Cook’s background, his rise in Apple, and why his leadership took Apple even further as a company.

Cook is a Private Person

His privacy became quite apparent as Kahney almost grasped to find antidotes from Tim’s life. But unfortunately, though there were some fascinating factoids, like growing up in Mobile, Alabama, during the period of desegregating schools, much of Cook’s childhood and even life now remains primarily unknown.

In this way, the book felt lacking if the hope was to truly understand who Cook is as a person. Instead, much of the book drew on Cook’s actions as a proxy for understanding his motives and desires.

Values as a Proxy

One place Kahney drew from most is the unlisted values of Apple that have been installed during Tim Cook’s era. Some of these values are unique to Cook, especially in comparison to the late Steve Jobs, so they can help identify diverging thoughts and attitudes between the two leaders.

As Cook took the reigns of Apple, he slowly articulated things he wanted to see over time, many of which can be found as whole pages on Apple’s website, signifying the importance to the organization.

The 6 values that Kahney draws are:

1. Accessibility
2. Education
3. Environment
4. Inclusion and Diversity
5. Privacy
6. Supplier Responsibility

As you explore Apple’s focuses over the last decade, it is easy to see these patterns emerge as initiatives that Apple is working on tackling.

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Accessibility

Apple believes everyone should be able to use their devices – regardless of their abilities. A cynic could look at this and say they are looking at selling more devices by tapping into a small group of individuals traditionally overlooked. However, some of Apple’s steps are in no way financially advantageous.

One of the best examples of the dedication to accessibility is making a Mac usable only by voice commands – seen in this amazing video.

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Philosophically, inclusive design is a noble cause – no one likes to be left out. It can even be a wise business decision to reach a greater audience, like designing for women. However, at some point, there is a diminishing return on the amount of design and development time. Yet, Cook has made it clear that he will continue to provide access to Apple products because it is the right thing to do.

Morality can be striking in the corporate world. I can’t help but applaud Cook for offering a voice to those unable to speak – for standing up for the underrepresented and marginalized.

Education

In March 2016, I remember watching a special Apple event centered around education. One of the first computers I remember using in elementary school was the bubble iMac in our computer lab in the library. So I was familiar with Apple and education mixing. However, with the rise of Chromebooks and other inexpensive laptops, Apple’s involvement seemed to fade into the background. However, under Tim Cook, the company has doubled in better tools, less expensive devices, and perhaps most importantly, their education initiatives.

One of the most well-known programs is Today at Apple sessions at the Apple stores. The events are meant to do 2 things:

1. Help people understand Apple products and hopefully purchase them.
2. Explore new ways of expressing creativity through Apple products.
3. 
   

Though the first is always going to be true (Apple is a business, after all), Apple is attempting to serve future artists, designers, and music producers, while increasing overall expression in the communities. And with COVID-19, the concept of Apple Today was extended to an asynchronous online platform, where it achieved further reach.

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Environment

From my perspective, the environment feels like the headliner of Cook’s time at Apple. It is easy to picture someone from Apple standing on the solar panel roof of the mothership, talking about the importance of sustainability at any number of their events.

This value has come with some criticism, however. Apple has reduced packaging and PVC from devices, is set to go carbon neutral in the next decade, and has developed new practices to recycle devices. These are all good things.

But many question if Apple has gone far enough. The Right to Repair initiative has seemed to put Apple at odds with the sustainable-minded community they are attempting to coordinate with. With rumors of planned obsolescence and difficulty to repair, there are natural questions such as:

• If Apple allowed users to replace batteries like early 2000 cellphones, would fewer phones end up in the trash?
• If Apple wanted to make an environmental impact, why not make repairs ridiculously inexpensive?
• Why doesn’t apple have the same cord for all devices so that users need to purchase fewer cords?
• With the inefficiency of wireless charging and the wear on batteries, does it make sense for a company that claims to take the environment very seriously to introduce features like Magsafe?

Inclusion and Diversity

This value may be one of the weaker expressed values during Cooks’s tenure. Though he has made progress, it has been slow. Although some high-level wins, since I have been watching events like WWDC, there has been a significant increase in female and minority representation on the stage. Further, Apple has also started many programs to teach coding to underrepresented populations. This is all excellent news.

Over the past 5 years, Apple has focused on this value. Though currently, there are some gaps

• 35% of roles are filled by women globally at Apple
• Women fill only 25% of R&D roles
• Read the whole report

It appears that there is a gravitational pull toward white male leadership. Cook will need to continue his dedication to inclusion and diversity if this value marks his time as CEO at Apple.

Privacy

Apple has seemed to double down on this value in the past few years. On every release of a product, they say that it was built around privacy. In addition, they have ads that focus on privacy like this one:

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The old adage seems to ring true: if the product is free, you are most likely what’s being sold. However, in this case, Apple has decided to charge a premium to consumers in exchange to not sell data to advertisers. This distinction has made them a clear choice for anyone who is even remotely privacy-centric.

I speculate that Cook’s childhood as a young gay man most likely played a role in increasing the value of privacy. Cook was the first fortune 100 CEO to come out publicly, and though he was met with mostly positive responses, that wasn’t necessarily going to be the case – there was a risk. Of course, this also meant that Cook had been keeping this under wraps for quite some time.

Even this book’s narrative feels weak in Cook’s personal anecdotes, which align completely with Cook’s leading a private personal life.

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Supplier Responsibility

As the world was making a positive progression toward worker rights, Apple came under fire for how workers were treated in their supply chain. It is important to note that this was a relatively new framework. Up to that point, most companies needed to only worry about scandals and treatment within the confines of their company.

However, people recognized that if a giant like Apple put pressure on their supply chain, Apple could take advantage of these smaller companies, making working environments terrible for those supply chain workers.

After a few suicides at Foxconn, the press seemed to force Apple’s hand in being responsible. Whether this was Apple realizing its responsibility, or a needed PR response, Apple has now put pressure on its supply chain to treat workers fairly. Intriguingly, the same pressure that destroyed workers’ lives could force bosses to treat their workers better.

Though this is still a process, and there is a lot of discussion around what qualities as “fair” for workers in another cultural context, Apple remains dedicated to at least publicly showing a push toward better working conditions across their supply chain.

Worth the read

Though this book perhaps gives more insight into the culture of Apple than about Tim Cook specifically, there are a few antidotes that give a glimpse into the life of Cook. Further, if you want to understand how Apple operates, this book is an excellent resource to understand the focal points of Apple. And perhaps, the author is attempting to make the point that the current flavor of Apple only exists because Tim Cook is at the helm – if you want to know Tim Cook, look deeply into Apple’s values, which will tell you everything you need to know.

Regardless, it was an enjoyable read that is definitely worth the read (or listen).

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