With Apple's AR glasses approaching, the end of Cook's tenure has arrived. Succeeding Jobs was hard enough, and the harder thing was to succeed Cook
Text/Evergreen
A few months ago, on the big day of Cook's tenth anniversary as CEO of Apple.
Bloomberg's journalist Gurman wrote a lengthy essay at an inopportune time discussing a conundrum. Who will be the one to succeed Captain Cook?
In recent years, Bloomberg has had a poor reputation, especially in a country in the East. However, Cook and the journal are very good friends, some of Apple's important topics, are disclosed by the journal.
Not long ago, Bloomberg Businessweek wrote a long article praising Cook's performance in a complex world. "Evergreen" (WeChat public account: Evergreen Business Notes) has been introduced before.
Judging by the current executive sequence, Williams will be the successor
A few months ago, when Cook was interviewed by a journalist, Kara, and first mentioned the idea that he might retire, there was a good chance that he would not have a second ten-year tenure as CEO.
Among the many speculations, Gurman's inference is the most informative. Last month, Cook just celebrated his 61st birthday, will Cook be 71? After all, today's American popular old man rule, apple can not?
Cook can do it, but probably not. Gurman notes a few details that in 2025, Apple's 1 million shares of Cook will be granted, and at current prices, the price of these shares will exceed hundreds of millions of dollars.
According to Guo Mingchi, as well as Gurman himself's previous predictions, 2025 is just a little special for Apple, and Apple will release an important product, that is, the expected mature version of Apple AR.
According to the expectations given by the market now, in 2023, Apple released the first Apple AR/VR hybrid display glasses, however, this version may only be a Demo, and the real mature version may be released by 2025.
What Cook had in mind was to release a truly strategic product during his tenure. Gurman predicts that several events are intertwined, and Cook's CEO may end up at some point in time between 2025 and 2028.
Cook will no longer wait for the launch of Apple's car, iGlasses is the end, so that iCar will not be launched in 2025 as the market expected?
Gurman carefully combed through the sequence of Apple executives, and from various clues, made an analysis of the possibility of succeeding Cook.
Among them were, Kate Adams, Apple's chief legal officer, Eddy Cue, senior vice president of Apple's services business, Craig Federighi, head of software engineering, John Giannandrea, head of artificial intelligence strategy, Greg Joswiak, head of product marketing, Sabih Khan, head of operations, Luca Maestri, head of finance, and Deirdre, head of retail O'Brien, Apple Chip Head Johny Srouji, Hardware Engineering Chief John Ternus, and COO Jeff Williams.
Gurman first dismissed the possibility that the head of finance and legal affairs would take over as CEO of Apple. In addition, he also looks down on the importance of artificial intelligence and chip business leaders to apple's CEO position.
In addition, Eddy Cue, as a veteran who has worked at Apple for 32 years, has patiently cultivated 3 business leaders and has shown his intention to retire.
Craig Federighi, the head of software engineering, has personally refuted speculation about his personal promotion.
Gurman gave a 4-man shortlist: Jeff Williams, Greg Joswiak, Deirdre O'Brien and John Ternus.
Joswiak is the longest-serving member of Cook's executive team, being promoted to senior vice president in 2020 and spending more time in Apple's inner circle of leaders. Participated in product management and marketing of all Apple products.
The problem is that this person is only 4 years younger than Cook.
O'Brien, head of retail, has been with Apple for 30 years and has witnessed apple growth. He became Head of Retail at Apple in 2019 and previously held sales, operations and finance, and human resources positions.
However, she is also only 5 years younger than Cook.
Ternus is the youngest member of Apple's executive team, and age is outside of the biggest advantage. In 2021, this person took over as Apple's director of hardware engineering. Since a year ago, he has been responsible for Apple's most important iPhone hardware, and before that, he was also responsible for AirPods, Macs and iPads.
Most notably, current COO Jeff Williams, now, is responsible for Apple's entire supply chain and operations, from manufacturing to supply chain sourcing. The growth trajectory is similar to That of Cook.
The impression is that this person and Cook also intersected quite early.
Williams is also involved in the day-to-day development of all of Apple's hardware and manages the hardware and software teams for the Watch project. Not long ago, at the launch of the iPhone 13, Williams also appeared.
More recently, Williams also took over a very special team, Apple's hardware and software design team, which was once the forbidden land of Ive and Jobs.
Williams appeared at the recent iPhone 13 launch
Gurman bluntly said that Williams is now the real number two head of Apple. If Apple is looking for someone who can succeed Cook in 5 years, Williams is almost the only one.
The powerful book "Tim Cook" in Cook's biography celebrates Cook, revealing his familiarity with Apple. Among them, when talking about Cook's successor, only one person is mentioned, and that is Williams.
One of the problems is that Williams is only 3 years younger than Cook and does not seem to be a candidate for a long-term qualified crown prince, and Gurman's explanation is quite intriguing, maybe this is what Apple needs - unprecedented prosperity, conservative people, do not need a longer term?