Tim Cook’s full name is Timothy Donald. Born in a middle-class family of America, Tim Cook was very intelligent in childhood. In class, they used to be counted among school children. The father was an ordinary worker in a ship company and the mother worked in a pharmacy company. It was a family of five, three brothers and parents. Despite all the difficulties, the parents took full care of the education of the three sons. After graduating early at Robertsdale High School, in 1982, he earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Auburn University.
Many people advised him to pursue a career in engineering, but he was interested in business. So, I decided to do MBA. After joining MBA from Duke University in 1988, he joined IT company IBM. Cook worked at IBM for nearly 12 years. During this time he was given responsibility as director in the company’s North American division. Now he was looking for change. After leaving IBM, he served as Vice President at Compaq Company. It was only six months while working at Compaq that an interesting incident occurred in Cook’s life.
Cook had a chance to meet Apple company founder Steve Jobs. This short meeting changed his life. Cook explains, “It was an interesting meeting with Steve. After just five minutes of conversation I had made up my mind that I have to work with him. This was the voice of my heart. I believe that joining the Apple Company was the best decision of my life. ”In March 1998, Cook became Senior Vice President of the Apple Company. He was given the responsibility of supply chain. Under his leadership, the company kept the prices of its products low and placed more emphasis on introducing great new products. In just a few days, his importance in the company started increasing. His decision resulted in huge profits for the company. Steve liked his style of work. He soon became one of Steve’s closest allies. In January 2007, Cook was made Chief Operating Officer of the company.
Meanwhile, Steve Jobs started feeling unwell. Before going on medical leave in 2004 and 2009, Steve gave him the responsibility of being the interim CEO of the company. Indeed, Steve was convinced that the company’s future was bright under Cook’s leadership. It is said that while Steve was undergoing treatment at the hospital and his liver transplant was being talked about, Cook offered to donate his liver, but Steve refused. It was a very emotional time for both Steve and Cook. During this time Steve was in the hospital and Cook was steadfastly handling the company’s responsibilities. After Steve’s death on August 24, 2011, Cook became the permanent CEO of the Apple company.
As soon as he became CEO, he came into the limelight due to his style of work. Cook loves a simple life apart from discipline. He sends an e-mail to his colleagues every morning at half past four. Every Sunday evening, through phone conversations with colleagues, decide the agenda for the next week. On a holiday, they can be seen buying vegetables in the market, drinking coffee in coffee bars or washing cars in workshops like ordinary people. He does not like being a boss in the office. He likes to work closely with the employees. However, he faced many difficulties initially. All the time he was compared to Steve. Questions were being raised whether Cook had the ability to be like Steve? Will he be able to take the company to the heights that Steve has led? Cook says, “After Steve left, we realized how important he was to the company. He had an amazing ability to deal with challenges. He knew how to deal with the greatest difficulty with ease. ”Managing a company like Apple was a big challenge.
There were many critics, who were questioning Cook’s ability and ability. But Cook focused on his work without caring for him. “I never paid attention to critics,” says Cook. I did what I thought was right. Focus on your work without caring about others, that’s the principle of my life. ‘Cook is a very altruistic human being. He has made substantial donations for climate change, poverty and education sector. Recently he has announced to donate his entire property. He said, ‘This is a small contribution from me towards a change in society. I believe that the real successful person is the one who thinks about others as well. It is the responsibility of those who are able to help those weaker than themselves. ‘