Apple just named its next CEO—and Tim Cook is passing down the same advice Steve Jobs once gave him |
Apple just named its next CEO—and Tim Cook is passing down the same advice Steve Jobs once gave him
Apple just named its next CEO, who will be taking the reins from Tim Cook this fall: longtime insider John Ternus. He inherits the $4 trillion company that became a global icon under late cofounder Steve Jobs, and Cook says he’d offer his successor the same advice Jobs gave him when he stepped into the top role: Never ask what I would do, just do the right thing.
“I would probably say the same thing,” Cook told The Wall Street Journal just weeks before the succession announcement. “Because you can get in paralysis if you start trying to port yourself into somebody else’s thinking.”
Ternus, who currently serves as Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, will take the helm on September 1. Meanwhile, Cook’s 15-year stint as CEO of the tech giant will come to an end as he transitions to executive chairman of the board. Although the tech industry looked a whole lot different when Cook stepped into the top job in 2011— AirPods were still years away from hitting the market—he has never wavered from Jobs’ leadership lesson. And now, he’s passing down the same wisdom in welcoming the next face of Apple.
“I would say: Be yourself, keep a firm North Star on the values of the company,” Cook continued. “Because if you get the values right, if you keep the North Star in clear view, you may be blown off course a little bit, but eventually you will come back to........