May 8, 2024 • 15 mins
Tim Cook picked up the mantle from Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple over a decade ago and grew it into a multi-trillion dollar company. Now, as Cook nears traditional retirement age, speculation abounds about who will succeed him.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman joins host David Gura to discuss the challenges of replacing Cook, his potential successors and how that decision will impact one of the best-known brands in the world.
Read more: Tim Cook Can't Run Apple Forever. Who's Next?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Every year, the top
executives at Apple, of course, one of the largest and
most influential companies in the world, are whisked away to
an idyllic retreat, usually in Carmel Valley that's about ninety
miles south of the company's headquarters in Coopertino, California. So
(00:24):
many of these execs travel by bus.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
They can't bring their family, they can't bring their assistance.
These are the one hundred most important people at Apple.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Bloomberg's Mark German has covered Apple for almost fifteen years,
and he says this annual meeting is one of the
most important dates on the company's calendar. It's something Steve
Job started.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
They sit in auditoriums, different rooms of this beautiful resort
in northern California. They are taught and shown all of
the goodness that's to come from Apple in the years
to come.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
It was at the retreat that Apple, so called Top
one hundred got a first look at the original iPad.
Mark says they saw the MacBook Air and the Apple Watch,
and got updates on the Apple Car project, which the
company just scrapped.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
This is where you go to learn about Apple's future.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
And while most of the focus is on product presentations
and prototypes, Apple senior leaders are also taking note of
who among them has been picked to make these presentations.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
I think the people at that event are probably always
naturally trying to figure out who's next in line, who's
in charge.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
That is, who will eventually replace Tim Cook, Jobs's handpicked successor,
has been the CEO of Apple for nearly thirteen years.
He was Jobs's deputy before that. At Apple, succession planning
is the elephant in the room, and even though Cook
hasn't indicated he plans to leave the company anytime soon,
(01:54):
Mark says, there is growing speculation about when that'll happen,
who will be its next chief executecutive, and whether that
person is in this group of Apple's most important people.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
We're nearing sort of the end of Cook's tenure at Apple,
probably right. He's going to turn sixty five next year.
He's older than most CEOs in the S and P
five hundred. He's been at Apple for twenty five years.
And Apple's at a precarious position because the executive team
where they likely would choose their next CEO from most
(02:27):
of the people on that executive team are all about
sixty years old or would probably be in their mid
to late sixties by the time Tim Cook retires, leaving
the company with very few reasonable options today.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
On the show, the challenge is of finding someone who
could do one of the most demanding jobs in business,
who's in the running, and how that decision will impact
a two point eight trillion dollar company in one of
the best known brands in the world. I'm David Gura,
and this is the big take from Bloomberg News. Tim
(03:04):
Cook has been the CEO of Apple for more than
a decade, and part of his job involves planning for
who will succeed him. Bloomberg's Mark German says, it's not
the easiest job to fill. Is that job description really
well fleshed out? In other words, what does an Apple
CEO need to be able to do?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
An Apple CEO needs to either be the visionary to
bring new products to market or needs to be able
to find who the visionary is and partner with that
visionary to bring those new products to market.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
It's a challenge that wasn't lost on Steve Jobs when
he tapped Cook for the job.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
You know the thing about Cook is that it is
all consuming. And I think one of the reasons that
Jobs made him the CEO, other than the fact that
he was the most qualified, probably by a long shot,
amongst the executive team at the time, is that Jobs
knew how all consuming the next era of Apple would be. Right,
and Tim's entire life, for the most part, based on
everyone who knows him, everyone you speak to about him,
(04:03):
is Apple.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Cook became Apple CEO in twenty eleven under intense scrutiny.
He took over for Jobs, the company's founder, who was
battling pancreatic cancer, and in October of that year, Cook
stepped into the spotlight to unveil a new version of
the iPhone.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Good morning, this is my first product launch since being
named CEO. I'm sure you didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
You can hear him cracking a joke to acknowledge what
a big moment this was. He was under immense pressure,
following in Jobs's footsteps.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
I love Apple, and I consider it the privilege of
a lifetime to have worked here for almost fourteen years.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
As Apple's chief operating officer. Cook worked side by side
with Jobs during a period when Apple grew at breakneck speed,
when it became much more than a computer company.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Just ten years ago, we launched the original i iPod
here and it went on to revolutionize the way we
listened to music.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Mark you covered that transition in twenty eleven. What can
you tell us about the relationship between Steve Jobs and
Tim Cook?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
They were close. I wouldn't say that they were best friends.
I would say in many ways they were partners. Steve
Jobs was the design mind, he was the person dreaming
up these new products, and Tim Cook was the execution guy.
He was the person, for all intentsive purposes who was
able to bring these products to market, get them manufactured,
(05:34):
get them into retail stores, and so forth. And then
when Steve Jobs stepped down and then ultimately passed away,
what Apple lost was sort of that visionary to dream
up new types of product categories, new designs, new user experiences.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Jobs died on October fifth, twenty eleven, one day after
Cook unveiled that new iPhone, and in the years that followed,
Cook made sure Apple continued to build on the runaway
success of that device.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
The Apple Watch for all intensive purposes is an accessory
or an extension of the iPhone. AirPods are an extension
of the iPhone and accessory to the iPhone. What Tim
Cook has done, He's taken the product lines that Steve
Jobs created and envisioned and supercharged them. When Steve Jobs passed,
there was only one iPad model, the iPad two. Today
(06:24):
there are five or even more iPad models available right now.
The iPhone went from one or two different models to
several different models. So what Tim Cook has been able
to do is squeeze so much juice out of the
lemons that are those original Apple form factors.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Under his leadership, Apple added products and services along with
new accessories. The company branched into movies and TV, introduced
an Apple credit card.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
At its core, I think Apple is still very much
a technology company, but they like to position themselves as
well as a lifestyle company.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Now, more than a decade into his tenure, do you
see this company as Tim Cook's Apple or is it
still Steve Jobs's Apple that Tim Cook is the steward of.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
I think it's actually a mix of both. At its
very core, Steve Jobs left the Apple with something, you know,
more than pretty good in the iPhone, and Tim Cook,
I would say, has probably made the most of what
he was left with. I don't think anyone could have
done a better job following in the footsteps as legendary
as someone like Steve Jobs.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
People worried Steve Jobs would be irreplaceable, but now there's
a sense Tim Cook's shoes will be hard to fill.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
So the question is Apple moving forward? Who is that
new person to lead Apple into a new era with
a new vision, with new types of products, And that's
really what Apple needs to come up with to create
its next fifteen years.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
There are a handful of names that come up in
conversations about CEO succession at Apple, but over the years,
as Mark has reported on this, there's been a clear
front runner.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
He can own the stage, he can talk the talk
with government officials from China to year up to the US.
If something happened unexpectedly to Cook, I don't think Apple
would miss a beat.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
So who is Apple's air apparent and who else is
waiting in the wings buying for the top job? That's
after the break. Before Tim Cook became Apple's CEO, he
was the chief operating officer under Steve Jobs, And when
it comes to who will replace Cook, his current COO
(08:29):
could easily be next in line.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
And to tell us about some progress in this area.
I'd like to invite out Jeff Williams.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Yeah, that's Cook introducing Jeff Williams at a product launch
in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Last year, we introduced research Kit, and our goal was
to use technology to solve some of the biggest problems.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Williams has been COO for almost a decade now. He
joined the company in nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Right now, he runs Apple's entire operations. He's in charge
of the Apple supply, He's in charge of Apple's health
care efforts. He's in charge of Apple Watch, hardware and
software engineering. He was in charge of the Apple Car,
He's involved with the Apple Vision pro headset, and he's
in charge of Apple's hardware and software design organization. So
he has so much on his portfolio already, and he
(09:17):
would be able to be a shoe in pretty easily
for Cook if something were to happen. A lot of
people have called him Tim Cook's Tim Cook.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
And like Cook, Williams grew up in the South. He
got an MBA from Duke and had a stint at
IBM before joining Apple. But there is something else these
two have in common. They're both in their early sixties.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
He's only two years younger than Cook.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
And that could make Williams his path to succeeding Cook complicated.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
If Cook retires in three to five years, you can't
name a sixty six year old Jeff Williams a CEO
of Apple. Right the street, the market, the employees, the
board probably wouldn't be terribly fond of that idea. You
can't set up someone for a two to five year
tenure as a new CEO of a company as big
and as important as Apple.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
This is not just an issue with Williams, though. When
you go down the list of other potential candidates among
Apple's top management, a trend emerges. Mark says many members
of the company's leadership team are also hovering around retirement
age and turnover at the executive level is pretty rare.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
When you're a senior vice president that at Apple, you're
essentially the CEO of a major division. Right You're at
one of the most successful companies in the world. You're
also getting paid twenty five million dollars per year as
an Apple senior vice president. So from a financial standpoint,
it's very worthwhile to stay around. But I think the
people on Apple's executive team, they're motivated by more than money.
(10:42):
I think there's a sense that a lot of these
folks are very much motivated by the power that comes
with being in that role, and so power is sometimes
hard to give up.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Mark says, if it's not Williams, there are a few
other candidates who are likely in the running. They're all
currently on the Apple payroll. Tim Cook himself has said
he hopes the board taps someone from within the company,
and they have their own trade offs. Finding a single
person who can do everything that an Apple CEO needs
to do is a real challenge. One potential candidate is
(11:15):
on his second stint at Apple.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Craig Federigi, who's in charge of software engineering, but Mark
says Federigi probably doesn't have the business acumen to run
the whole company.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
There's also Deirdre O'Brien, who oversees Apple's sprawling retail operation worldwide.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
And before that she was one of the company's top
executives on operations in sales.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
But according to Mark, Apple probably.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Wants to try something new for a new era and
not go with another operations or an HR person.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
But Mark has identified another candidate who with his age
and experience is a strong contender.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Everything that I have learned while reporting the story points
to a guy named John Turnas. He is not even
fifty years old. He's Apple's senior vice president of Hardware Engineer.
He joined Apple's executive team in twenty twenty one. He
has quickly risen through the ranks. He used to be
a VP in charge of Mac computer engineering. He eventually
(12:09):
added the iPad, added AirPods. More recently, he added the
iPhone and the Apple Watch, and now he's in charge
of basically all of the money making hardware for Apple,
and he's become an increasingly important face at the company.
He's been increasingly promoted in their marketing. He's dealing with
regulators in terms of rights and repair laws. So he's
becoming a bigger part of the Apple story.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Mark says, Turnis had a marque role this year at
that annual executive conference in Northern California, And just this
week Apple unveiled some new tech and Cook called on
Turnis at that event to introduce those new products to
the public.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
So here's John to tell you more.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Let's kick things off with iPad air.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Mark says Turnas's prospects of becoming Apple's next CEO get
better the longer Cook sticks around. There's no indication he
plans to retire anytime soon. Executives are not under the
same pressure they used to be to retire in their
mid sixties. Mark, I wonder if you could situate this
conversation in kind of a broader cultural sea change. We're
(13:14):
seeing Bob Eiger back at Disney in his seventies. That
must in some way sort of liberate Tim Cook to
look perhaps at a longer tenure at Apple.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Yeah, it's a very good point. Certainly, the next US
president is going to be in their eighties during their tenure.
You have Pat Gelsinger, who's the CEO of Intel. He
was named to that role three years ago when he
was about sixty. So certainly you do have some older
statesman there with Tim Cook, you know, one of the
older ones. And Apple appreciates, as some people tell me,
(13:45):
the people with gray hair there. That means they have
experience in wisdom, and they've been around the block a
few times. There is nothing that Tim Cook hasn't seen,
and wisdom goes a long way for being an Apple executive.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
For his part, Cook has a lot of unfinished business
right now. Apple has seen a slow down in sales.
The company is taking hits from regulators in the US
and the European Union, and after Apple's adventure in automobile
manufacturing came to a screeching halt, it's under pressure to
deliver something new. All of that and more is on
(14:18):
Cook's plate, and Mark says no one is pushing him
to step aside.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
There's no mandatory retirement age, and I would say that
even if there was, they'd rip that up or shred
it or light it on fire to let Cook stay
around as long as he wants to. Because he's been effective.
Wall Street loves him. The stock price has surely been
positively reflected by Cook's tenure, and so I think Tim
Cook is going to be the CEO of Apple as
(14:43):
long as he wants to be the CEO of Apple,
and he won't step down a day before that.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
This is the big take from Bloomberg News. I'm David Gerret.
This episode was produced by David Fox and Thomas lou
It was edited by state Sevanix Smith, Aaron Edwards, and
Nick Turner. It was mixed and fact checked by Alex Sagura.
Our senior producers are Naomi Shaven and Kim Giittleson. Our
senior editor is Elizabeth Ponso. Nicole Beemster Borr is our
(15:13):
executive producer. Sage Bauman is our head of podcasts. Thanks
for listening. Please follow and review The Big Take wherever
you listen to podcasts. It helps new listeners find the show.
We'll be back tomorrow.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Every year, the top
executives at Apple, of course, one of the largest and
most influential companies in the world, are whisked away to
an idyllic retreat, usually in Carmel Valley that's about ninety
miles south of the company's headquarters in Coopertino, California. So
(00:24):
many of these execs travel by bus.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
They can't bring their family, they can't bring their assistance.
These are the one hundred most important people at Apple.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Bloomberg's Mark German has covered Apple for almost fifteen years,
and he says this annual meeting is one of the
most important dates on the company's calendar. It's something Steve
Job started.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
They sit in auditoriums, different rooms of this beautiful resort
in northern California. They are taught and shown all of
the goodness that's to come from Apple in the years
to come.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
It was at the retreat that Apple, so called Top
one hundred got a first look at the original iPad.
Mark says they saw the MacBook Air and the Apple Watch,
and got updates on the Apple Car project, which the
company just scrapped.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
This is where you go to learn about Apple's future.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
And while most of the focus is on product presentations
and prototypes, Apple senior leaders are also taking note of
who among them has been picked to make these presentations.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
I think the people at that event are probably always
naturally trying to figure out who's next in line, who's
in charge.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
That is, who will eventually replace Tim Cook, Jobs's handpicked successor,
has been the CEO of Apple for nearly thirteen years.
He was Jobs's deputy before that. At Apple, succession planning
is the elephant in the room, and even though Cook
hasn't indicated he plans to leave the company anytime soon,
(01:54):
Mark says, there is growing speculation about when that'll happen,
who will be its next chief executecutive, and whether that
person is in this group of Apple's most important people.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
We're nearing sort of the end of Cook's tenure at Apple,
probably right. He's going to turn sixty five next year.
He's older than most CEOs in the S and P
five hundred. He's been at Apple for twenty five years.
And Apple's at a precarious position because the executive team
where they likely would choose their next CEO from most
(02:27):
of the people on that executive team are all about
sixty years old or would probably be in their mid
to late sixties by the time Tim Cook retires, leaving
the company with very few reasonable options today.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
On the show, the challenge is of finding someone who
could do one of the most demanding jobs in business,
who's in the running, and how that decision will impact
a two point eight trillion dollar company in one of
the best known brands in the world. I'm David Gura,
and this is the big take from Bloomberg News. Tim
(03:04):
Cook has been the CEO of Apple for more than
a decade, and part of his job involves planning for
who will succeed him. Bloomberg's Mark German says, it's not
the easiest job to fill. Is that job description really
well fleshed out? In other words, what does an Apple
CEO need to be able to do?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
An Apple CEO needs to either be the visionary to
bring new products to market or needs to be able
to find who the visionary is and partner with that
visionary to bring those new products to market.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
It's a challenge that wasn't lost on Steve Jobs when
he tapped Cook for the job.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
You know the thing about Cook is that it is
all consuming. And I think one of the reasons that
Jobs made him the CEO, other than the fact that
he was the most qualified, probably by a long shot,
amongst the executive team at the time, is that Jobs
knew how all consuming the next era of Apple would be. Right,
and Tim's entire life, for the most part, based on
everyone who knows him, everyone you speak to about him,
(04:03):
is Apple.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Cook became Apple CEO in twenty eleven under intense scrutiny.
He took over for Jobs, the company's founder, who was
battling pancreatic cancer, and in October of that year, Cook
stepped into the spotlight to unveil a new version of
the iPhone.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Good morning, this is my first product launch since being
named CEO. I'm sure you didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
You can hear him cracking a joke to acknowledge what
a big moment this was. He was under immense pressure,
following in Jobs's footsteps.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
I love Apple, and I consider it the privilege of
a lifetime to have worked here for almost fourteen years.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
As Apple's chief operating officer. Cook worked side by side
with Jobs during a period when Apple grew at breakneck speed,
when it became much more than a computer company.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Just ten years ago, we launched the original i iPod
here and it went on to revolutionize the way we
listened to music.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Mark you covered that transition in twenty eleven. What can
you tell us about the relationship between Steve Jobs and
Tim Cook?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
They were close. I wouldn't say that they were best friends.
I would say in many ways they were partners. Steve
Jobs was the design mind, he was the person dreaming
up these new products, and Tim Cook was the execution guy.
He was the person, for all intentsive purposes who was
able to bring these products to market, get them manufactured,
(05:34):
get them into retail stores, and so forth. And then
when Steve Jobs stepped down and then ultimately passed away,
what Apple lost was sort of that visionary to dream
up new types of product categories, new designs, new user experiences.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Jobs died on October fifth, twenty eleven, one day after
Cook unveiled that new iPhone, and in the years that followed,
Cook made sure Apple continued to build on the runaway
success of that device.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
The Apple Watch for all intensive purposes is an accessory
or an extension of the iPhone. AirPods are an extension
of the iPhone and accessory to the iPhone. What Tim
Cook has done, He's taken the product lines that Steve
Jobs created and envisioned and supercharged them. When Steve Jobs passed,
there was only one iPad model, the iPad two. Today
(06:24):
there are five or even more iPad models available right now.
The iPhone went from one or two different models to
several different models. So what Tim Cook has been able
to do is squeeze so much juice out of the
lemons that are those original Apple form factors.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Under his leadership, Apple added products and services along with
new accessories. The company branched into movies and TV, introduced
an Apple credit card.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
At its core, I think Apple is still very much
a technology company, but they like to position themselves as
well as a lifestyle company.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Now, more than a decade into his tenure, do you
see this company as Tim Cook's Apple or is it
still Steve Jobs's Apple that Tim Cook is the steward of.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
I think it's actually a mix of both. At its
very core, Steve Jobs left the Apple with something, you know,
more than pretty good in the iPhone, and Tim Cook,
I would say, has probably made the most of what
he was left with. I don't think anyone could have
done a better job following in the footsteps as legendary
as someone like Steve Jobs.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
People worried Steve Jobs would be irreplaceable, but now there's
a sense Tim Cook's shoes will be hard to fill.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
So the question is Apple moving forward? Who is that
new person to lead Apple into a new era with
a new vision, with new types of products, And that's
really what Apple needs to come up with to create
its next fifteen years.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
There are a handful of names that come up in
conversations about CEO succession at Apple, but over the years,
as Mark has reported on this, there's been a clear
front runner.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
He can own the stage, he can talk the talk
with government officials from China to year up to the US.
If something happened unexpectedly to Cook, I don't think Apple
would miss a beat.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
So who is Apple's air apparent and who else is
waiting in the wings buying for the top job? That's
after the break. Before Tim Cook became Apple's CEO, he
was the chief operating officer under Steve Jobs, And when
it comes to who will replace Cook, his current COO
(08:29):
could easily be next in line.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
And to tell us about some progress in this area.
I'd like to invite out Jeff Williams.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Yeah, that's Cook introducing Jeff Williams at a product launch
in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Last year, we introduced research Kit, and our goal was
to use technology to solve some of the biggest problems.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Williams has been COO for almost a decade now. He
joined the company in nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Right now, he runs Apple's entire operations. He's in charge
of the Apple supply, He's in charge of Apple's health
care efforts. He's in charge of Apple Watch, hardware and
software engineering. He was in charge of the Apple Car,
He's involved with the Apple Vision pro headset, and he's
in charge of Apple's hardware and software design organization. So
he has so much on his portfolio already, and he
(09:17):
would be able to be a shoe in pretty easily
for Cook if something were to happen. A lot of
people have called him Tim Cook's Tim Cook.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
And like Cook, Williams grew up in the South. He
got an MBA from Duke and had a stint at
IBM before joining Apple. But there is something else these
two have in common. They're both in their early sixties.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
He's only two years younger than Cook.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
And that could make Williams his path to succeeding Cook complicated.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
If Cook retires in three to five years, you can't
name a sixty six year old Jeff Williams a CEO
of Apple. Right the street, the market, the employees, the
board probably wouldn't be terribly fond of that idea. You
can't set up someone for a two to five year
tenure as a new CEO of a company as big
and as important as Apple.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
This is not just an issue with Williams, though. When
you go down the list of other potential candidates among
Apple's top management, a trend emerges. Mark says many members
of the company's leadership team are also hovering around retirement
age and turnover at the executive level is pretty rare.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
When you're a senior vice president that at Apple, you're
essentially the CEO of a major division. Right You're at
one of the most successful companies in the world. You're
also getting paid twenty five million dollars per year as
an Apple senior vice president. So from a financial standpoint,
it's very worthwhile to stay around. But I think the
people on Apple's executive team, they're motivated by more than money.
(10:42):
I think there's a sense that a lot of these
folks are very much motivated by the power that comes
with being in that role, and so power is sometimes
hard to give up.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Mark says, if it's not Williams, there are a few
other candidates who are likely in the running. They're all
currently on the Apple payroll. Tim Cook himself has said
he hopes the board taps someone from within the company,
and they have their own trade offs. Finding a single
person who can do everything that an Apple CEO needs
to do is a real challenge. One potential candidate is
(11:15):
on his second stint at Apple.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Craig Federigi, who's in charge of software engineering, but Mark
says Federigi probably doesn't have the business acumen to run
the whole company.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
There's also Deirdre O'Brien, who oversees Apple's sprawling retail operation worldwide.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
And before that she was one of the company's top
executives on operations in sales.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
But according to Mark, Apple probably.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Wants to try something new for a new era and
not go with another operations or an HR person.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
But Mark has identified another candidate who with his age
and experience is a strong contender.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Everything that I have learned while reporting the story points
to a guy named John Turnas. He is not even
fifty years old. He's Apple's senior vice president of Hardware Engineer.
He joined Apple's executive team in twenty twenty one. He
has quickly risen through the ranks. He used to be
a VP in charge of Mac computer engineering. He eventually
(12:09):
added the iPad, added AirPods. More recently, he added the
iPhone and the Apple Watch, and now he's in charge
of basically all of the money making hardware for Apple,
and he's become an increasingly important face at the company.
He's been increasingly promoted in their marketing. He's dealing with
regulators in terms of rights and repair laws. So he's
becoming a bigger part of the Apple story.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Mark says, Turnis had a marque role this year at
that annual executive conference in Northern California, And just this
week Apple unveiled some new tech and Cook called on
Turnis at that event to introduce those new products to
the public.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
So here's John to tell you more.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Let's kick things off with iPad air.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Mark says Turnas's prospects of becoming Apple's next CEO get
better the longer Cook sticks around. There's no indication he
plans to retire anytime soon. Executives are not under the
same pressure they used to be to retire in their
mid sixties. Mark, I wonder if you could situate this
conversation in kind of a broader cultural sea change. We're
(13:14):
seeing Bob Eiger back at Disney in his seventies. That
must in some way sort of liberate Tim Cook to
look perhaps at a longer tenure at Apple.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Yeah, it's a very good point. Certainly, the next US
president is going to be in their eighties during their tenure.
You have Pat Gelsinger, who's the CEO of Intel. He
was named to that role three years ago when he
was about sixty. So certainly you do have some older
statesman there with Tim Cook, you know, one of the
older ones. And Apple appreciates, as some people tell me,
(13:45):
the people with gray hair there. That means they have
experience in wisdom, and they've been around the block a
few times. There is nothing that Tim Cook hasn't seen,
and wisdom goes a long way for being an Apple executive.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
For his part, Cook has a lot of unfinished business
right now. Apple has seen a slow down in sales.
The company is taking hits from regulators in the US
and the European Union, and after Apple's adventure in automobile
manufacturing came to a screeching halt, it's under pressure to
deliver something new. All of that and more is on
(14:18):
Cook's plate, and Mark says no one is pushing him
to step aside.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
There's no mandatory retirement age, and I would say that
even if there was, they'd rip that up or shred
it or light it on fire to let Cook stay
around as long as he wants to. Because he's been effective.
Wall Street loves him. The stock price has surely been
positively reflected by Cook's tenure, and so I think Tim
Cook is going to be the CEO of Apple as
(14:43):
long as he wants to be the CEO of Apple,
and he won't step down a day before that.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
This is the big take from Bloomberg News. I'm David Gerret.
This episode was produced by David Fox and Thomas lou
It was edited by state Sevanix Smith, Aaron Edwards, and
Nick Turner. It was mixed and fact checked by Alex Sagura.
Our senior producers are Naomi Shaven and Kim Giittleson. Our
senior editor is Elizabeth Ponso. Nicole Beemster Borr is our
(15:13):
executive producer. Sage Bauman is our head of podcasts. Thanks
for listening. Please follow and review The Big Take wherever
you listen to podcasts. It helps new listeners find the show.
We'll be back tomorrow.
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