STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

CIA-3

ISHDEV SINGH DHEER

1620217
5 BBA B
The leader I have chosen is Tim Cook who is currently the CEO of Apple which in today’s
time is regarded as the most valuable public company in the world. Tim Cook held the position
of CEO on 24th August 2011 after Steve Jobs death, since then there have been many debates
on the working style of the two and how has evolved as a company. A research published at
the University of Oxford characterized Cook's leadership style as paradigmatic of founder
centrism: explained as a founder's mindset, an ethical disposition towards the shareholder
collective, and an intense focus on exponential value creation. Down below we can see how
the company has evolved under the leadership of Tim Cook-
1. The market capitalization has more than doubled under Cook’s tenure.
2. Under Cooks tenure Apple has invested in new product lines like Beats, Apple Music
and Apple Watch and revenue from these ancillary products has about doubled under
Cook.
3. Jobs ran the company as if it was a small, founder- owned startup signifying that all
significant decisions flowed through Jobs for example Jobs directly supervises Apples
merger and acquisitions but Cook has adopted a more conventional way as now fewer
decisions flow through Cook directly hence enabling the company to handle more tasks
parallely.
4. One of Cook's first moves after taking over at Apple was to establish a matching-gifts
program. He also expanded Apple's mergers and acquisitions department, giving the
company the ability to consider several deals simultaneously without involving Cook
in the details.
5. Since taking over at Apple, Cook has tried to capitalize on Apple’s status as the only
technology company that is also a luxury brand, this can be seen through when Apple
hired Angela Ahrendts CEO of luxury brand Burberry and hire Paul Deneve, CEO of
Yes Saint Laurent to run the company’s retail operations.
6. Also under Cook’s leadership majority if the company’s are allowed to function as an
independent subsidiary rather than folding the company so acquired into Apple as in
the tenure of Steve Jobs, example can be Beats which was purchased by Apple in 2014
was allowed to run as an independent subsidiary.
7. Under Cook’s leadership the company has been to engage with the community in ways
it didn’t under Jobs. The company under Cook’s leadership has been able to institute a
matching programme for employees philanthropic donations and has made several
sizeable charitable contributions on its own example being project RED of the
 company. And under Cook, Apple has taken the lead in pushing back against the
government’s surveillance efforts.
8. Under Tim Cook’s leadership the company has become more operationally efficient as
according to some reports Cook continues to spur Apple to both streamline and
innovate with. Its manufacturing processes, bankrolling purchases of equipment and
other infrastructure with its own money to allow its supply chain and assembly partners
to improve efficiency and output.
9. Under Cook’s tenure Apple has been able to tap the Chinese market as Jobs before
never tapped the Chinese market. In order to better tap the Chinese market Cook has
signed a deal with Didi, a leading ride hailing service in China to expand and redefine
Apple’s supply chain, also he inked a deal with China Mobile the world’s largest
wireless carrier to carry the iPhone.
10. Cook has been able to diversify Apple’s core products as part of Apple’s financial
success stems from the fact that it manufactures a relatively small slate of products that
sell on a massive scale. Cook has deviated somewhat from this strategy by introducing
variants on the iPad (the iPad Mini) and the iPhone (the iPhone 5c) that serve as smaller
cheaper alternatives to Apple’s flagship devices.
11. Apple made few acquisitions in the Jobs era, and they were generally small.
Cook, on the other hand, has bought up 23 companies since taking the reins
12. Under Cook’s tenure some people have criticised that Apple now is more of a profit-
oriented company rather than innovative oriented company.
13. Under Jobs leadership Apple never really much focussed on enterprise sales but after
Cook taking over the charge the company has started taking over enterprise sales much
seriously this can be seen from the deal it has had with IBM to sell devices to the
corporate world. The iPad Pro is increasingly targeted at business users, reframing the
iPad from a consumer device—in which interest is declining—to a next-generation
business laptop.
14. The company’s products have long been exemplars of good industrial design, but
now Cook has incorporated the idea of seasons and collections for products such as
the Apple Watch (witness its collaboration with Hermès on bands). The refreshed
Apple Stores, in the hands of Burberry veteran Angela Ahrendts, also reflect this
influence: Accessories are presented less as tech doodads and more as fashion
products.
15. Steve Jobs had a mission: to popularize computers as “a bicycle for the mind,” and
to make them as beautiful as any other object that people care about in their lives.
Cook has made Apple a moral company, too—in his coming out and supporting
transgender policies; by fighting the FBI over consumer privacy; and in his
significant push to make Apple an environmental leader in a business that is
inevitably resource-intensive.
16. Under Cook’s leadership Apple has become a global financial power as The company
has $233 billion in cash on hand. It has spent approximately $117 billion on stock
buybacks in the last two-plus years. While some see these financial manoeuvres as
distractions, this is all part of Cook’s professionalization of the company.
17. Under Cook Apple has been trying to chase new frontiers like it is trying to foray into
cars, healthcare to original streaming content etc. Apple is making big-money bets on
lucrative markets that are crowded, complex, and unlikely to be dominated by any
single company.
18. The company under Cook’s rule has been not only trying to gain prowess only as device
company but also as a services company as the company generates 12% of its revenue
from digital services such as iCloud, Apple Pay, AppleCare, and the App Store, and
that part of the business is growing faster than hardware sales.