During Tim Cook’s tenure as CEO of Apple, the company’s stock rose 2,275%, with a total return including dividend payments of 2,736%. Finding a replacement for the financially successful Cook is unlikely, but Apple’s new head John Ternus is under no obligation to imitate his predecessor in everything.
Tim Cook bought a company with a market value of less than $350 billion and transformed the iPhone and Mac maker into a diversified business worth $4.6 trillion that now also sells smart watches, AirPods and financial services. But John Ternus doesn’t have to imitate Cook in everything. Both Cook and company founder Steve Jobs believe that financial success is a side effect of the real goal, not the goal itself.
“If you create a really cool product, the profits will follow.”Steve Jobs once said. Tim Cook insists he never cared about quarterly results but the long-term direction of the company. When Cook replaced Jobs, he gave Jobs this advice: “Don’t ask me what I will do. Just do it well.”.
So Ternus hardly needed to ask himself what Jobs or Cook would do. He will manage the company in a manner that he believes is most likely to successfully develop the best products and evolve the company culture for long-term success. Ternus is probably as different from Cook as Cook is from Jobs. But Apple’s goal isn’t to repeat its previous winning formula, but to look to the future.
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