Since September, Tim Cook has ceded the post of Apple CEO to John Ternus, while taking on the position of chairman of the company’s board of directors. He now insists he is not interfering with his successor’s work.
Image Source: Apple
Many may have been confused by Tim Cook’s recent appearance at a government dinner at the White House to coincide with Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States. The other US technology companies that attended the event were mostly CEOs. One might get the impression that Donald Trump still considers Tim Cook to be the “chief at Apple.”
In an interview with the publication The Independent Tim Cook stated the following: “First of all, John and I enjoy an incredible level of mutual trust. Relationships must be built on trust, and communications must be frequent and meaningful. But besides all this, I am now focused on world politics. And engagement with governments around the world is important because there are a lot of things that we’re trying to promote or propose to change. There’s a lot of work involved, and that’s what I’m doing, helping John in whatever way he sees fit. I don’t interfere”.
Cook said he told Ternus to “do his own work,” devoting his time to the things that provided the most value to the company. Cook advised Ternus not to imitate him, just as he himself did not imitate Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. “We all have different strengths” — Tim Cook summed up his instructions. His successor Ternus internalized these ideas, judging by the content of his address to Apple staff. He told his subordinates that he would spend his time on those areas that create the most value for the company.
Cook admitted in an interview that he planned to make a procedure for transferring powers to Ternus “the best in history – an example for a textbook from which people will later learn”. This process, according to him, began several years ago, and everything went about as he imagined. It was Ternus who unveiled Apple’s first foldable smartphone just days after becoming CEO, and Cook noted that he wanted to send John “a little tailwind at our back”.
Tim Cook served as CEO of Apple for almost 15 years, taking over the reins from company co-founder Steve Jobs in August 2011, as he was battling a serious illness and could not fully perform his duties. Previously, Cook was the company’s chief operating officer. John Ternus began his career at Apple in 2001 as an engineer, but by 2013 he had risen to vice president of hardware development. Ternus became senior vice president in this area in 2021, and since September 1 of this year he has been holding the post of general director.
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