Tim Cook: Apple After Jobs

Steve Jobs announced his resignation from the position of Apple, Inc's CEO today for undisclosed medical issues which have kept him from fully executing the position. It is a far more honorable exit than the one he was forced to make in 1985. His re-appointment to the position in the late-1990s saw him retake the reins of a moribund Apple, a shell of the company he had built.

In the fifteen years he had been gone, he had learned how to be a leader and in the more than a decade since he was reappointed, Apple has become one of the worlds most highly valued companies - recently overtaking Google for a few hours before slipping back to #2. His vision and his leadership will continue with the appointment of Tim Cook as the CEO, but there remains a good deal of hand wringing in the markets.

Apple has a plan in place through 2014 - of course with technology plans change, but Cook has been at the helm since Jobs began his most recent leave of absence. And he has done so before. Apple will be just fine.

Consider this: the reason there are so few competitors in the 10" tablet market and that it has taken so long for them to produce a larger product is because Cook, as a masterful supply chain manager, had supplies locked up - even as Samsung, a potential competitor, was supplying materials to Apple. Apple had so much of the inventory accounted for ahead of time, competitors were all but priced out of the market - they couldn't build a competitive product at a price that made sense. This consistently happens, and it's Cook's prowess with the supply chain that makes it happen. He's not a "tech guy," but he has been a significant part of what has made Apple into that market capitalization behemoth.

Cook was quoted in a 2009 CNN/Money article, that could easily have been written today: "We believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great products and that's not changing. We are constantly focusing on innovating. We believe in the simple not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution. We believe in saying no to thousands of projects, so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us. We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allow us to innovate in a way that others cannot. And frankly, we don't settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit when we're wrong and the courage to change. And I think regardless of who is in what job those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do extremely well."

For those counting there are 13 "wes" and 3 "us/ours" represented in that 165-word quote. There is clearly an engrained culture of the company, and the leadership have been chosen for their belief in these values. Apple is going to be just fine going forward under CEO Cook.