Great CEOs: Tim Cook and Steve Jobs

According to Cook, Jobs advised him to be his own leader and never to ask "what would Steve do?". In the same spirit, I feel comparisons between the two are unnecessary. Both Cook and Jobs are great CEOs who have brought $Apple(AAPL.US)$ to greater heights and we should just celebrate their contributions individually.

Jobs was a visionary who co-founded Apple and made it a household name. He was responsible for a number of pioneering inventions: iMac provided a viable personal computing alternative to Windows; the iPod and iTunes made portable music players fun and fashionable; the iPhone revolutionised the design of smartphones; the iPad made tablets indispensable; the App Store completely transformed the way software applications were distributed; and the Apple TV which provided an integrated televsion and software experience.

Since joining Apple, Cook has helped streamline Apple’s supply chain and operations. Jobs and he turned around the struggling company from near bankruptcy to profit. Under Cook’s capable steerage as CEO, Apple expanded its services business and fluorished into the first trillion-dollar publicly-traded company in the US. Apple subsequently became the first US company to reach 2 trillion dollars in market capitalisation. It is currently the most valuable company in the world and the S&P 500 Index $SPDR S&P 500 ETF(SPY.US)$ , ahead of $Microsoft(MSFT.US)$, $Amazon(AMZN.US)$ , $Alphabet-A(GOOGL.US)$ and $Facebook Inc(FB.US)$ . Under Cook’s watch, Apple launched Apple TV+, Apple Watch, Airpods and has ventured into electric cars. Apple is also giving its users more control over their privacy.

Although there are challenges ahead (antitrust suits), as an Apple fan, I firmly believe in Apple’s continued growth and innovative offerings.