How Cook has fared at Apple
By any measure, Cook has been a superb technocratic leader at Apple. His big achievements were in the behind-the-scenes nuts-and-bolts of manufacturing that don’t make headlines, but that helped Apple cash in on Jobs’ many innovations and become a multi-trillion-dollar company.
Most important, he transformed Apple’s supply chain. It was a complicated mess when Cook took over as CEO. He streamlined things by reducing the number of suppliers and manufacturers Apple dealt with. He also put into effect a “just-in-time” delivery of components that the company needed, reducing costs and making the manufacturing process more efficient and more nimble in responding to a fast-changing market.
He also recognized the value of services, transforming iCloud, Apple Music, the App Store, and Apple Pay into financial juggernauts, and rolling out Apple TV+ to critical acclaim. But Cook never succeeded in developing breakthroughs like the iPhone. The Apple Watch has been a hit, but it didn’t change the tech world in the way many of Jobs’ products did. (The jury is still out on the Vision Pro.)
