Tim Cook – Apple’s ‘luck god’: Helping to increase capitalization by $ 700 million per day for a decade, the old business people only prove their ability by numbers

“Just look at what happened to Apple during the period when Steve Jobs was kicked out of the company in 1985. We all know, have seen and been through that experiment,” Ellison – CEO oracle spoke at a talk show in 2013. “We saw Apple’s rise under Jobs when he returned to the company in 1997. Now we’ll see an Apple without him with a blow. No one can replace him, Apple won’t be as successful again.”

However, the reality shows that the Oracle CEO’s predictions are completely wrong.

CAPITALIZATION INCREASED $700 MILLION/DAY FOR A DEVELOPER

According to the Financial Times, Mr. Cook’s success as the successor to Steve Jobs resounded with numbers that could not be more “terrible”. Since he took over as CEO of Apple, the company’s market capitalization has grown by more than $700 million a day and surpassed the $3 trillion mark on January 3, 2022, before falling below this threshold right away. afterward.

However, Ellison’s skepticism at first when Cook took over Apple was not without foundation.

“The skepticism was overwhelming when Cook was appointed, including Wall Street, iPhone customers or friends and colleagues in the tech world,” said Tripp Mickle, author of the forthcoming book. titled “After Steve,” about Apple’s 10-year history, said.

The spectacular growth in market capitalization of Apple is the “sweet fruit” of the smart mobile era (smartphone) on which Mr. Jobs laid the foundation. Still, even Jobs’ biggest fans have to admit that they underestimated or misinterpreted the qualities Cook brought to Apple, from supply chain expertise to ingenuity. skillful in foreign affairs.

Apple’s dominance during Mr. Jobs’ return to the company from 1997 to 2011 created a business model as a “disruptive company” that could change an entire industry with just a few minutes. a product. The advent of the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad is proof of that.

But Mr. Cook, who receives a regular salary of nearly $100 million from Apple in 2021, most of which is common stock, doesn’t fit that model.

CHANGING THE NATURE OF APPLE

According to the Financial Times, Mr. Cook’s skills lie in areas where popular culture doesn’t really understand, let alone appreciate.

“Jobs is a visionary bold, and Cook is an efficiency expert, a connoisseur of operations,” said Ray Wang, president of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research. review. “A company needs both of these characters. The company needs someone who can come up with ideas that get people excited and also need someone to bring that idea to market on a massive scale.”

Supporters of Mr. Cook – a business leader good at diplomacy say that he has changed the nature of Apple. During Cook’s time at the helm, Apple’s annual revenue has grown from $108 billion the year he took over to $365 billion in 2021. Its net profit also increased 3.7 times, from 26 billion USD to 95 billion USD in the same period.

But what’s more important is how Cook has built a network of services to “mine every penny” in the Apple ecosystem, bringing in a steady stream of recurring revenue from App Store fees and nearly 800 million paying customers. digital media deployed under him.

This has significantly reduced Apple’s reliance on the iPhone, according to analysts, and has pushed the company’s stock price up, with the stock’s price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio tripling. compared to a decade ago.

“Tim Cook’s greatest success is in nurturing and driving services and the extent to which he can revolutionize how investors see it,” commented Mr. Mickle.

Apple’s two major product launches during Cook’s first decade – the AirPods and the Apple Watch – have been hugely successful with 25% and 31% share of their market, respectively.

However, more successful is the service segment. Last year, the segment brought in nearly $70 billion in revenue for Apple — nearly double that of Macs, iPads and wearables — and has a 70 percent profit margin.

“We won’t credit Cook for coming up with further innovative ideas, but what can be attributed to him is a platform with services that will generate 25% of the company’s revenue by 2025.” , said Mr. Wang of Constellation Research.

DRIVE APPLE OUT OF BIG TECH’s troubles

And according to the comment of business professor Dan Wang at Columbia University, Apple owns an unmatched ecosystem. And with all the troubles with the big tech giants in the US (Big Tech), Apple overcame it spectacularly.

“One of Cook’s greatest successes was bringing consistency to Apple’s operations. Jobs had an amazing start, but his focus on products meant revenue for Apple. The company will be extremely volatile, like a fashion company,” said Professor Wang.

According to Mr. Wang, if a company can predict the tastes of customers next year, that company will be rich. But if the forecast is wrong, the company will bear the cost.

“Cook has done a great job of getting Apple out of the cycle where the company is always forced to come up with a new ‘blockbuster’ product,” said Mr. Wang.

At the same time, Apple still creates a steady cycle of product iterations, impressive enough that consumers are willing to pay a lot for them. According to Counterpoint Research, iPhone has a rare 17% market share in 2021, but accounts for 80% of the profit of the global smartphone market.

Mr. Cook is also appreciated for his diplomatic skills. His focus on customer privacy has helped Apple avoid objections from the European Union (EU) in the context of a series of other technology companies subject to strict control measures.

In China, Cook has signed contracts to expand production facilities and build a business empire that brings in $68 billion in revenue in the world’s most populous country – bigger than any other competitor.

In the US, the CEO also helped avoid import taxes on Apple products made abroad under President Donald Trump by keeping a good relationship with the White House boss.

“Mr Cook calls Trump often and is always friendly with the President,” said Margaret O’Mara, a technology historian and author of “The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America.” “He’s extremely adept at navigating global trade flows, first with Trump’s tariffs and then with the Covid-19 pandemic.”

According to Ms. O’Mara, Apple’s valuation clearly reflects that expertise of Mr. Cook. She also thinks that if Mr. Jobs was still alive and running Apple, things might not go so well.

According to some observers, Apple has largely avoided being grouped with Apple and Google in terms of monetizing user data — what Harvard University professor Shoshana Zuboff calls “supervisory capitalism.” close”.

Under Mr. Cook, Apple also did not “flap too much” into “unnecessary” acquisitions. Apple’s biggest deal in a decade was the acquisition of the Beats headphone brand for $3 billion.

While there were a few mistakes or products that didn’t resonate like the HomePod speaker or Apple Maps, Apple’s meager number of mistakes under Cook was considered a success.