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Comment by helloworld | Hacker News Reader

In Tim Cook, it's interesting to see a leadership style that's so different from the Jobs/Ellison mold. Cook seems to have a very humble manner, and he emphasizes listening to and learning from people both inside and outside Apple.

In the startup world, I wonder whether founders can find success in emulating Cook -- or whether a harder-edged, harder-driving style is required.

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Cook has his edges. He's supposed to be a demanding, logical boss.

> One day back then, he convened a meeting with his team, and the discussion turned to a particular problem in Asia. “This is really bad,” Cook told the group. “Someone should be in China driving this.” Thirty minutes into that meeting Cook looked at Sabih Khan, a key operations executive, and abruptly asked, without a trace of emotion, “Why are you still here?” Khan, who remains one of Cook’s top lieutenants to this day, immediately stood up, drove to San Francisco International Airport, and, without a change of clothes, booked a flight to China with no return date, according to people familiar with the episode. The story is vintage Cook: demanding and unemotional.

http://fortune.com/2008/11/24/apple-the-genius-behind-steve/

I think about that story a lot because I'd like to know what happened in those thirty minutes. Presumably they continued to discuss the situation, and Cook's opinion of it worsened to where he demanded immediate action. It wouldn't make sense for Khan to leave the meeting and have to be caught up later on the situation he'd flown to China to resolve.

Less likely possibilities: was Cook talking to someone in the other direction and only noticed Khan? Was he thinking to himself Khan should leave immediately but wanted to give him some time to make the call himself?

I think it's important to realize that he didn't lose respect for Khan through that experience. He wasn't trying to put Khan down, or look for a reason to demote him.

Possibly Cook looked at it as a teaching experience for Khan.

I find this such a funny example. Because you know, driving immediately to the airport and buying a ticket is really going to make a difference. No- not really. That's not a logical request at all. It's just demanding.

Why do you say that? There are situations where a single part of the supply chain is holding up an entire launch, and minutes passing can cost a company millions of dollars.

Failure to plan is planning to fail. In this case, they should have addressed that earlier. All this guy did was fall on his sword for Cook.

That is true to literally 99% of the company on this planet. But not Apple.

http://www.everysecond.io/apple/

This is how things it is per second for Apple. Even flying with a Rocket to China is simply too slow.

Aside from all the other issues with this, you need a visa to get into China. And you need a ticket out to get in. I imagine this applies to you even if you're pretty high in Apple management.

Possibly he already had a visa.

The Chinese government issues 10-year multi entry visas for business and tourism.

> In the startup world, I wonder whether founders can find success in emulating Cook

Cook didn't start up Apple. I'm not saying his humble/listening approach can't work for startups, but it may not be practical when time/money are scarce. No doubt he feels pressure to perform, but he certainly isn't wondering where his next meal will come from, or if he'll be hirable again in the future, should he make a mistake and some new venture fails.

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