since Tim Cook He became CEO of Apple in 2011, and has been cementing his own legacy — but he still admires the leadership style of his predecessor, Steve Jobs. in the interview for GQ magazineHe revealed the leadership strategies he liked most about the company’s founder, and how he works today to keep it alive.
“I knew it couldn’t be Steve [quando me tornei CEO]Cook said. “He was the kind of individual who appears once in a hundred years, who is original in any way. And so what I had to do was be the best version of myself.”
But that doesn’t mean the CEO couldn’t learn a leadership trick or two from Jobs. In particular, Cook said he admires how Steve Jobs made everyone at Apple with the same level of creativity and eagerness to push boundaries — whether they work in engineering, marketing, or any other department.
- Tricks of Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and other CEOs to make your meetings more productive
- Here’s why Steve Jobs wouldn’t let his kids use iPads
“One of the things I loved about him was that he didn’t expect innovation and creativity to come from one group within the company,” Cook said. This is expected from all places and regions of the company.
Cook tested this closely. Prior to becoming CEO of Apple, he was the company’s Chief Operating Officer, overseeing the company’s worldwide sales and business. And in this role, he was expected to be creative.
“When we were running operations, we tried to be innovative in operations and innovative in operations, just as we’ve been innovative in other places,” Cook said. “We had to basically build the products that we design.”
Under his leadership, Apple has become a multi-billion dollar company. Cook oversaw the launch of the Airpods, the Apple Watch, and the M1 processor, an advanced chip now found in most of the company’s newer products. Apple has also been expanding its service-based offerings — including Apple TV+, the subscription-based media streaming platform.
Cook could not have spearheaded any of these initiatives without first learning from Jobs, as he said at Vox Media’s 2022 Code conference in Los Angeles: “He was the best teacher I’ve ever had. These teachings live on, not just in me, but in a lot of people [na Apple]. “
Today, the Apple CEO is still using some of Jobs’ old traditions, like meetings at 9 a.m. every Monday, he told GQ. But, he added, this is not nostalgia. “We don’t really look at history much,” Cook said. “We are always focused on the future and try to feel like we are at the starting line where you can really dream and have big ideas that are not limited by the past in any way.”
Want to check out exclusive content from work time? Access to the digital version.