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Comment by caycep | Hacker News Reader

Here's the rub, there's a lot of "Cook is an unknown", "Jury is still out on Cook" type memes being populated by the media.

Cook has been running the company since the late '90s. I'd say he's a pretty well-known by now. Ruthlessly competent operations chief, who saved Apple from operational incompetence (by the "Adult Supervision" who fired Jobs in the first place), and probably the biggest reason why the iPod, iPhone, and iPad are successes - by giving Apple the capability to design (through operating capital), market and produce them, and make a margin on every unit they sell.

Apple being a black box due to secrecy, it's hard to tell what's going on inside, but by all we have seen, it's been pretty confident at doing what it feels it's good at. I doubt there's a "Jobs haunting" mentality there. But hey, if Yukari Kane wants to sell books...

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I think the main problem is that you could say exactly the same about Ballmer at Microsoft. He also ran Microsoft very well from an operations point of view.

What we know for certain is that Apple can still _execute_ very well and stay competitive in a certain market. The latest offerings of Macs, iPhones and iPads are ample proof of that.

The question which is still unanswered is whether Apple, with Tim Cook and the other leaders, has what it takes to stay innovative. It's too early to tell, and I think it's certainly to early to write a book about it.

Since Tim Cook has gone on record saying that we will wee new product categories within the year, my guess is that we'll know for certain in 2-3 years time.

Jobs haunts infinite loop because in his death we ascribe all and any kind of paranormality to him.

Innovation has came before Jobs, and it will come after jobs. One man alone does not hold lock and key to something as big as innovation.

If Apple is the only company that can put a screen in 7 billion people's hands and home, how is this not a testament to greatness?

Don't be the next Steve Jobs. Be Tim Cook. Be you.

What new products did Balmer bring in which would go from zero to being main profit generators?

Well, that's my point (although you could say Xbox was an exception). Tim Cook is very well known quantity when it comes to execution, just like Jony Ive is when it comes to product design, but for innovation, we don't know how the team stacks up.

Minor quibble: the Xbox was started under Gates, not Ballmer. It was publicly announced 2 months after Gates stepped down as CEO.

I think this fits with your larger point however: Ballmer was not a product visionary.

Sharepoint. I'm pretty sure that's multi-billion dollar business for Microsoft.

The weird restructuring, Windows 8 sales, share price, tablet and mobile sales and his leaving suggest otherwise. There aren't any comparisons like those with Cook.

Losing/Firing Forstall, Maps V1 regression, IOS 7 instability, Apple Applications regression/Stalls (Aperture falling further and further behind LightRoom, latest rev of iWorks lost a bunch of features), John Browett bizarre hiring.

Every leader has their share of Missteps, and Cook has had his.

Nearly all of those are software related - software is perhaps half of Apple, but is a very small part of their profit and revenue. That is in stark contrast to Microsoft. Browett - sure, a Cook misstep. How is Forstall anything other than Cook dealing to a problem of Jobs' creation? I'm not sure that one can seriously compare Cook and Ballmer. Maybe in 10 years, but not now.

Jobs was capable of keeping very powerful personalities in check, because, he was by his (for better or, as often was the case, much worse) the most dominant personality around.

Forstall, from everything I've heard about him on The Talk Show, and on ATP.FM, was very Jobs like in his high expectations for people, his ability to drive creations through his singular focus. What he wasn't, was collaborative. This was okay in the Jobs era, when collaboration wasn't really needed - everything was an extension of Job's desires (which also meant that those things that were not, tended to be neglected - mobileme).

Perhaps, after reflection, I don't know if I would call Forstall a Cook Problem, so much as a resource that could no longer be effectively harnessed in the Cook Era. Or, perhaps, he was the DRI (Directly Responsible Individual), who had to take the responsibility for the Maps V1 cruddy roll out.

That's well put. It is probably a mark of good management that the IOS7 roll out went as well as it did given the short time frame.

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