It was a year ago that the news broke: Steve Jobs had resigned as Apple CEO. Apple’s Chief Operating Officer at the time, Tim Cook was named by the board of directors as Apple’s new CEO. Cook has taken the helm and proved himself to be confident captain, steering Apple through four successful quarters.
Jacqui Cheng, writing for Ars Technica:
But Cook didn’t run the company like a Steve Jobs clone; after all, Cook said that Jobs taught him to “never ask what he would do.” Instead, Cook ran it the way he would like to run Apple, for better or for worse. Below are five of the biggest things we think Apple has done since Tim Cook took over one year ago.
1.) Charity Contributing Matching – While Jobs was reportedly quite happy to give to charity in private, and even Apple itself donated to charity, the company wasn’t widely known for making charitable contributions. That’s changed under Cook’s reign. One of the first things Cook did after taking over was to announce a charitable matching program for Apple employees. Apple will match employee contributions to nonprofit organizations up to $10,000 annually, dollar-for-dollar.
2.) Dividends – In March 2012 Apple surprised the investment world when it announced that it would begin paying dividends on its stock. The dividends would start “sometime in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012,” and would be $2.65 a share. The company also announced it would be spending $10 billion in a stock repurchasing plan beginning in fiscal 2013, and continuing for three years, in order to neutralize the “impact of dilution from future employee equity grants and employee stock purchase programs.”
3.) Left (Then Rejoined) EPEAT – When Apple announced that it would be pulling its entire product lineup form the green electronics registry EPEAT, it set off a firestorm of backlash in the press and among government agencies. At first Apple didn’t make a big deal about leaving EPEAT, but found itself defending its decision by making public statements that its own standards went above and beyond the EPEAT standards.
The City of San Francisco, and a handful of other municipalities immediately began revisiting their Apple purchasing habits, many governments and educational institutions have guidelines requiring them to purchase only electronics listed on EPEAT’s list. The backlash didn’t have a chance to grow too large however, as Apple backed out of their decision one week later and returned its products to the EPEAT list.
4.) Fighting the Department of Justice on e-books – Early this year the D0J formally filed an antitrust complaint against Apple and its publishing partners over their “agency model” pricing scheme, and Apple, unlike some of its partners, stood firm instead of settling.
Apple didn’t just stand its ground, it fought back. Apple argued that the DoJ “sides with monopoly, rather than competition,” and that Apple itself broke “Amazon’s monopolistic grip” on the e-book industry. Apple looks like it has no plans to back off so this one may go to trial. It’s going to be fun to watch.
5.) New Ad Campaigns – Sure, the latest round of Apple ads were not well received, critics say the Genius character grates on people, and that the ads are dry and don’t appeal to Apple users. Other say Apple is at least trying to target a demographic other than its usual Apple faithful. What’s wrong with targeting older, less experienced users? The “cool kids” aren’t the only ones who have money to spend on Apple products.
The recent ads aren’t the only ones that have Apple fans groaning, the celebrity Siri ads haven’t exactly set the world on fire. There’s no way to know how much input Cook has on the ads. We can’t even really say Steve would’ve done it differently. As Ken Segall, former creative director who worked with Jobs and Apple, said on the topic, “None of us can possibly know what Steve would do. Steve was a master marketer, but he was also perfectly capable of a lapse in judgment. Every one of us, Steve Jobs included, has experienced failure. It may sound trite, but it’s how one responds to failure and what one learns from the experience that defines character, whether you’re an individual or a corporation.”
There we have it, 5 ways Tim Cook has changed Apple in his first year. He’s not batting a 1.000, but all in all he’s doing a pretty fair job, and he’s definitely leaving his mark on the company. I for one, can’t wait to see what’s up his sleeve next.
What do you think about Tim Cook’s first year at the helm? Share your opinion with us in the comments section below.
