Hey guys, it’s Greg with Apple Explained,and today we’re going to explore the history of Tim Cook
Where he grew up, some of his career achievements,and how he ended up as CEO of the most valuable company in the world
This topic was the winner of last weeks votingpoll and if you didn’t get to vote, make sure you’re subscribed, that way the votingpolls will show up right in your activity feed and you can let me know which video you’dlike to see next
So as you may know, Tim Cook is the currentCEO of Apple who replaced Steve Jobs in 2011
And while Cook may not be as famous, he’sjust as interesting and has contributed just as much to the company over his tenure
We’ll start off by covering his early life,then explain his career path, and finally we’ll discuss his major achievements withinApple
So, Timothy Donald Cook was born on November1st, 1960 in Mobile, Alabama
Now Mobile isn’t a big place, and it’snot exactly known for producing the most famous people in the world – although there havebeen a few big names, including Jeff Sessions, Laverne Cox, and quite a few major leaguebaseball and NFL football players
Cook, though, wasn’t really set up for famein his early life
His mother worked in a pharmacy, his dad workedin a shipyard, and he had two brothers that his parents also supported
He was always known as a bright student, though,and he graduated high school second in his class
He eventually left Mobile in 1982 for AuburnUniversity in Alabama where he earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering
At this point, Cook’s story starts to takeshape
After Auburn, he started working for IBM
He spent twelve years there, from 1982 to1994, and climbed the ranks to director of North American fulfillment
During this time, he also earned his master’sdegree from Duke University in business administration
He was awarded a title as a Fuqua Scholar,given to the top ten percent of business administration graduates at Duke
After leaving IBM, he briefly jumped aroundto a few more high-level positions with companies like Compaq and Intelligent Electronics
In 1998, Cook met Steve Jobs who offered Cooka position at Apple, but it wasn’t same Apple we know of today
At that time, Apple was losing money fastand nearing bankruptcy
Many in the tech industry felt Apple was doomedto failure with no chance of recovery
Including Steve Jobs, but that didn’t preventJobs from trying to save the company anyway
Because Apple was essentially a sinking ship,many people tried to dissuade Cook from taking the job, but he felt that it was the rightchoice
He described in as an intuitive decision,and during a commencement speech at Auburn University, he said that “on that day inearly 1998 I listened to my intuition, not the left side of my brain or for that mattereven the people who knew me best… no more than five minutes into my initial interviewwith Steve, I wanted to throw caution and logic to the wind and join Apple
” He described Jobs as a creative genius andfelt that he could make a huge impact at Apple – one that would turn the company from asinking ship into a successful tech giant
And as we now know, that was the right decision
Cook did end up making some crucial contributionsthat brought Apple into the global limelight and really allowed Jobs’s creative geniusto shine through
At the start, Cook took a position as theSenior Vice President for worldwide operations
He was in charge of supplier relationships,supply chain operations, and leading the Macintosh division
One of the first actions he took was shuttingdown Macintosh factories and signing new contracts with manufacturers to take some of the pressureoff the internal supply chain
He reduced inventory significantly by successfullyimplementing something called just-in-time manufacturing
An inventory strategy borrowed from Toyotathat reduced flow times within production systems as well as response times from suppliers
He negotiated new deals with suppliers andwithin a year of his hiring, Apple began to see profits for the first time in years
Cook served as Apple’s Senior Vice Presidentuntil 2007, and in that time he made a lot of important decisions that seriously affectedthe future of the company
He predicted that flash memory would be centralto new technology in 2005, and his decision to invest in it early payed off big with productslike iPods, iPads, and iPhones
He helped create the current image of thecompany which allowed higher market prices for products – all while keeping productioncosts low
He was promoted to lead operations in 2007,and then as interim Chief Executive in 2009
As Steve Jobs battled with pancreatic cancer,Cook took over more and more of the daily operations of Apple – and Jobs eventuallyappointed Cook Chief Executive Officer on August 24th, 2011 – just a few weeks beforeJobs passed away
At that point, Cook had a lot of pressureand responsibility on his shoulders since Steve Jobs was obviously a tough act to follow
But Cook delivered a successful first yearas CEO and earned the title of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, but he was onlygetting started
In the third fiscal quarter of 2012, Apple’srevenue didn’t look as good as expected, and infighting among executives was reachinga boiling point
In response, Cook rearranged the leadershipteam of Apple pretty significantly
First, Scott Forstall stepped down as thesenior vice president of iOS in 2012 and then left the company for good a year later in2013
Cook and the board of directors asked thevice president of retail John Browett to step down only a few months after he started, andhis role was divvied up to other high-ranking individuals
This rearrangement was controversial for bothApple employees and outsiders, who thought that most of Apple’s success came from allowingtension to exist between senior executives
And this wouldn’t be the last controversialevent involving Tim Cook
In 2014, he made some waves by issuing whatsome people thought was a more than sharp remark to shareholders
As part of an ongoing commitment to makingApple a more sustainable company, he announced that Apple was increasing its investment inrenewable energy sources and in making sure that their raw materials were obtained ethically
But some shareholders, like the National Centerfor Public Policy Research, weren’t happy with these endeavors
They asked Cook to only pursue investmentsthat were immediately profitable to Apple
And Cook responded with anger, saying, “Whenwe work on making our devices accessible by the blind, I don’t consider the bloody returnon investment
If you want me to do things only for ROI reasons,you should get out of this stock
” Now, obviously Cook has been much more politicallyoutspoken than Jobs, but this event was one of many that emphasized his concern with businessethics and the impact of Apple on the world – not only as a supplier of technology,but as a manufacturer and distributer
Another example of this ethical concern happenedin 2016, a few months after the San Bernardino shooting
The FBI asked Apple to cooperate in the investigationof Rizwan Farook, one of the shooting suspects, by unlocking his iPhone and allowing investigatorsto search its contents
When Cook denied the request, a federal judgeordered Apply to comply by creating special firmware to get around the phone’s security
Cook appealed the decision – not only inthe court of law, but in the court of public opinion with a scathing open letter that condemnedthe governments’ actions
He called the consequences of their demands“chilling” and predicted that, if Apple was forced to comply, there was no tellingwhat the future of privacy laws might hold
A day before the appeal on March 22nd, 2016,the FBI found a third party to unlock the phone and dropped the case against Apple
Not all of the controversies surrounding Cookpaint him in a good light, however
In 2017, documents leaked that showed Applepaying extremely low taxes to the Irish government before transferring their offshore accountsto the Channel Islands
These “Paradise Papers”, as they werecalled, resulted in Apple being asked to pay almost $15 billion in unpaid taxes to theEuropean Union
On top of potential tax evasion, Cook wascriticized personally for his business expenses, which amounted to almost $100,000 in personaltravel and $224,000 for personal security in 2017
Cook defended himself and Apple against bothof these criticisms, claiming that Apple paid taxes responsibly and that his personal billswere so high only to preserve his safety
While Tim Cook is known for making some prettytough, and very public, decisions, he has been criticized by analysts for the amountof innovation that Apple has produced since his time serving as CEO
He was criticized for the iPhone X, whichsaw slow sales after its release in November 2017 – but he defended it fiercely as aprime example of Apple innovation
Even though he may not have the same creativegenius Jobs was known for, he’s still an excellent businessman with a history of majorupgrades to the company product line
For instance, in 2014 he announced that Applewas acquiring Beats Music and that its founders, Dr
Dre and Jimmy Iovine, were taking executiveroles at Apple
In that same year he announced features likeApple Pay, Burst Selfies, the Apple Watch, and reliable Apple News
So, we’ve discussed Cook’s career at Appleand some of the important decisions he’s made as both Senior Vice President and mostrecently as CEO
But there’s a lot more to him than justbeing a leader at Apple
His decisions for the future of the companyare often based in global ethical concerns, like hiring Lisa Jackson, the former headof the Environmental Protection Agency, to help improve the company’s reliance on renewableresources and an increased effort in creating accessibility features for people with disabilities
Those decisions come from a lifelong interestin justice and his own personal values
When he was about 13 years old, growing upin Alabama, he witnessed members of the Ku Klux Klan burning a cross on a Black family’slawn
He cites this incident as a major influenceon his life and considers himself a human rights activist
He was also wrongly diagnosed with MultipleSclerosis in 1996 – a progressive, degenerative illness – which he says made him “seethe world in a different way” and motivated him to help others even more
This system of ethics and beliefs manifestthemselves in different ways with Cook
One example is in 2017, when President Trumpwithdrew the United States from the Paris Accords, Cook publicly voiced his disappointmentand spoke directly with the president about his concerns
But climate change and renewable energy aren’tthe only issues that Cook stands up for
In 2012, he donated $50 million dollars tohospitals around Silicon Valley to help build infrastructure and a new children’s hospitalin the area
He donates almost annually to democratic politicians,including Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign and Hillary Clinton’s campaignin the 2016 election
He also spoke out strongly in 2017 on thediscontinuation of DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, defendingthe children of undocumented immigrants’ right to stay, work, and get education inthe United States
Finally, and maybe most significantly, Cookis passionate about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights
He came out publicly as gay in 2014, althoughhe had been open about his sexuality in his private life years earlier
He now speaks publicly as a gay advocate andwas inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor, where he spoke about the history of LGBT activismin the south
He says that he plans to donate his fortunewhen he passes away to charity
Overall, Cook has spent twenty years withApple and been through both some good and some bad
He’s credited with helping turn the companyaround in the 90’s, and has since built Apple into an extremely profitable companythat brought in almost $50 billion in 2017
In 2018, he pledged to create 20,000 new jobsand invest $350 billion into the American economy
And as a result of his ethical beliefs andadvocacy, Cook holds the honor of Financial Times Person of the Year, the Robert F
KennedyRipple of Hope Award, Fortune Magazine’s World’s Greatest Leader, an honorary doctoratefrom George Washington University, and the Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award
Who knows how long he’ll serve as Apple’sCEO, but one thing is certain
Steve Jobs left his company in very good hands
So that is the history of Tim Cook, and ifyou want to vote for the next video topic, don’t forget to subscribe
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you nexttime
Where he grew up, some of his career achievements,and how he ended up as CEO of the most valuable company in the world
This topic was the winner of last weeks votingpoll and if you didn’t get to vote, make sure you’re subscribed, that way the votingpolls will show up right in your activity feed and you can let me know which video you’dlike to see next
So as you may know, Tim Cook is the currentCEO of Apple who replaced Steve Jobs in 2011
And while Cook may not be as famous, he’sjust as interesting and has contributed just as much to the company over his tenure
We’ll start off by covering his early life,then explain his career path, and finally we’ll discuss his major achievements withinApple
So, Timothy Donald Cook was born on November1st, 1960 in Mobile, Alabama
Now Mobile isn’t a big place, and it’snot exactly known for producing the most famous people in the world – although there havebeen a few big names, including Jeff Sessions, Laverne Cox, and quite a few major leaguebaseball and NFL football players
Cook, though, wasn’t really set up for famein his early life
His mother worked in a pharmacy, his dad workedin a shipyard, and he had two brothers that his parents also supported
He was always known as a bright student, though,and he graduated high school second in his class
He eventually left Mobile in 1982 for AuburnUniversity in Alabama where he earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering
At this point, Cook’s story starts to takeshape
After Auburn, he started working for IBM
He spent twelve years there, from 1982 to1994, and climbed the ranks to director of North American fulfillment
During this time, he also earned his master’sdegree from Duke University in business administration
He was awarded a title as a Fuqua Scholar,given to the top ten percent of business administration graduates at Duke
After leaving IBM, he briefly jumped aroundto a few more high-level positions with companies like Compaq and Intelligent Electronics
In 1998, Cook met Steve Jobs who offered Cooka position at Apple, but it wasn’t same Apple we know of today
At that time, Apple was losing money fastand nearing bankruptcy
Many in the tech industry felt Apple was doomedto failure with no chance of recovery
Including Steve Jobs, but that didn’t preventJobs from trying to save the company anyway
Because Apple was essentially a sinking ship,many people tried to dissuade Cook from taking the job, but he felt that it was the rightchoice
He described in as an intuitive decision,and during a commencement speech at Auburn University, he said that “on that day inearly 1998 I listened to my intuition, not the left side of my brain or for that mattereven the people who knew me best… no more than five minutes into my initial interviewwith Steve, I wanted to throw caution and logic to the wind and join Apple
” He described Jobs as a creative genius andfelt that he could make a huge impact at Apple – one that would turn the company from asinking ship into a successful tech giant
And as we now know, that was the right decision
Cook did end up making some crucial contributionsthat brought Apple into the global limelight and really allowed Jobs’s creative geniusto shine through
At the start, Cook took a position as theSenior Vice President for worldwide operations
He was in charge of supplier relationships,supply chain operations, and leading the Macintosh division
One of the first actions he took was shuttingdown Macintosh factories and signing new contracts with manufacturers to take some of the pressureoff the internal supply chain
He reduced inventory significantly by successfullyimplementing something called just-in-time manufacturing
An inventory strategy borrowed from Toyotathat reduced flow times within production systems as well as response times from suppliers
He negotiated new deals with suppliers andwithin a year of his hiring, Apple began to see profits for the first time in years
Cook served as Apple’s Senior Vice Presidentuntil 2007, and in that time he made a lot of important decisions that seriously affectedthe future of the company
He predicted that flash memory would be centralto new technology in 2005, and his decision to invest in it early payed off big with productslike iPods, iPads, and iPhones
He helped create the current image of thecompany which allowed higher market prices for products – all while keeping productioncosts low
He was promoted to lead operations in 2007,and then as interim Chief Executive in 2009
As Steve Jobs battled with pancreatic cancer,Cook took over more and more of the daily operations of Apple – and Jobs eventuallyappointed Cook Chief Executive Officer on August 24th, 2011 – just a few weeks beforeJobs passed away
At that point, Cook had a lot of pressureand responsibility on his shoulders since Steve Jobs was obviously a tough act to follow
But Cook delivered a successful first yearas CEO and earned the title of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, but he was onlygetting started
In the third fiscal quarter of 2012, Apple’srevenue didn’t look as good as expected, and infighting among executives was reachinga boiling point
In response, Cook rearranged the leadershipteam of Apple pretty significantly
First, Scott Forstall stepped down as thesenior vice president of iOS in 2012 and then left the company for good a year later in2013
Cook and the board of directors asked thevice president of retail John Browett to step down only a few months after he started, andhis role was divvied up to other high-ranking individuals
This rearrangement was controversial for bothApple employees and outsiders, who thought that most of Apple’s success came from allowingtension to exist between senior executives
And this wouldn’t be the last controversialevent involving Tim Cook
In 2014, he made some waves by issuing whatsome people thought was a more than sharp remark to shareholders
As part of an ongoing commitment to makingApple a more sustainable company, he announced that Apple was increasing its investment inrenewable energy sources and in making sure that their raw materials were obtained ethically
But some shareholders, like the National Centerfor Public Policy Research, weren’t happy with these endeavors
They asked Cook to only pursue investmentsthat were immediately profitable to Apple
And Cook responded with anger, saying, “Whenwe work on making our devices accessible by the blind, I don’t consider the bloody returnon investment
If you want me to do things only for ROI reasons,you should get out of this stock
” Now, obviously Cook has been much more politicallyoutspoken than Jobs, but this event was one of many that emphasized his concern with businessethics and the impact of Apple on the world – not only as a supplier of technology,but as a manufacturer and distributer
Another example of this ethical concern happenedin 2016, a few months after the San Bernardino shooting
The FBI asked Apple to cooperate in the investigationof Rizwan Farook, one of the shooting suspects, by unlocking his iPhone and allowing investigatorsto search its contents
When Cook denied the request, a federal judgeordered Apply to comply by creating special firmware to get around the phone’s security
Cook appealed the decision – not only inthe court of law, but in the court of public opinion with a scathing open letter that condemnedthe governments’ actions
He called the consequences of their demands“chilling” and predicted that, if Apple was forced to comply, there was no tellingwhat the future of privacy laws might hold
A day before the appeal on March 22nd, 2016,the FBI found a third party to unlock the phone and dropped the case against Apple
Not all of the controversies surrounding Cookpaint him in a good light, however
In 2017, documents leaked that showed Applepaying extremely low taxes to the Irish government before transferring their offshore accountsto the Channel Islands
These “Paradise Papers”, as they werecalled, resulted in Apple being asked to pay almost $15 billion in unpaid taxes to theEuropean Union
On top of potential tax evasion, Cook wascriticized personally for his business expenses, which amounted to almost $100,000 in personaltravel and $224,000 for personal security in 2017
Cook defended himself and Apple against bothof these criticisms, claiming that Apple paid taxes responsibly and that his personal billswere so high only to preserve his safety
While Tim Cook is known for making some prettytough, and very public, decisions, he has been criticized by analysts for the amountof innovation that Apple has produced since his time serving as CEO
He was criticized for the iPhone X, whichsaw slow sales after its release in November 2017 – but he defended it fiercely as aprime example of Apple innovation
Even though he may not have the same creativegenius Jobs was known for, he’s still an excellent businessman with a history of majorupgrades to the company product line
For instance, in 2014 he announced that Applewas acquiring Beats Music and that its founders, Dr
Dre and Jimmy Iovine, were taking executiveroles at Apple
In that same year he announced features likeApple Pay, Burst Selfies, the Apple Watch, and reliable Apple News
So, we’ve discussed Cook’s career at Appleand some of the important decisions he’s made as both Senior Vice President and mostrecently as CEO
But there’s a lot more to him than justbeing a leader at Apple
His decisions for the future of the companyare often based in global ethical concerns, like hiring Lisa Jackson, the former headof the Environmental Protection Agency, to help improve the company’s reliance on renewableresources and an increased effort in creating accessibility features for people with disabilities
Those decisions come from a lifelong interestin justice and his own personal values
When he was about 13 years old, growing upin Alabama, he witnessed members of the Ku Klux Klan burning a cross on a Black family’slawn
He cites this incident as a major influenceon his life and considers himself a human rights activist
He was also wrongly diagnosed with MultipleSclerosis in 1996 – a progressive, degenerative illness – which he says made him “seethe world in a different way” and motivated him to help others even more
This system of ethics and beliefs manifestthemselves in different ways with Cook
One example is in 2017, when President Trumpwithdrew the United States from the Paris Accords, Cook publicly voiced his disappointmentand spoke directly with the president about his concerns
But climate change and renewable energy aren’tthe only issues that Cook stands up for
In 2012, he donated $50 million dollars tohospitals around Silicon Valley to help build infrastructure and a new children’s hospitalin the area
He donates almost annually to democratic politicians,including Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign and Hillary Clinton’s campaignin the 2016 election
He also spoke out strongly in 2017 on thediscontinuation of DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, defendingthe children of undocumented immigrants’ right to stay, work, and get education inthe United States
Finally, and maybe most significantly, Cookis passionate about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights
He came out publicly as gay in 2014, althoughhe had been open about his sexuality in his private life years earlier
He now speaks publicly as a gay advocate andwas inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor, where he spoke about the history of LGBT activismin the south
He says that he plans to donate his fortunewhen he passes away to charity
Overall, Cook has spent twenty years withApple and been through both some good and some bad
He’s credited with helping turn the companyaround in the 90’s, and has since built Apple into an extremely profitable companythat brought in almost $50 billion in 2017
In 2018, he pledged to create 20,000 new jobsand invest $350 billion into the American economy
And as a result of his ethical beliefs andadvocacy, Cook holds the honor of Financial Times Person of the Year, the Robert F
KennedyRipple of Hope Award, Fortune Magazine’s World’s Greatest Leader, an honorary doctoratefrom George Washington University, and the Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award
Who knows how long he’ll serve as Apple’sCEO, but one thing is certain
Steve Jobs left his company in very good hands
So that is the history of Tim Cook, and ifyou want to vote for the next video topic, don’t forget to subscribe
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you nexttime
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