I have met Apple CEO Tim Cook a dozen times, over the years. We took selfies and chatted a bit, but I have to admit I don’t really know him. It’s not like I expect us to be friends, but I think Cook’s mysterious nature is a key part of his identity, and makes him, in a way, the perfect Apple CEO.
However, the company’s 50th anniversary tested Cook’s cipher-like nature, forcing him to do interview after interview where he was peppered with questions not only about Apple’s long history but about its motivations, past and present.
50 years of Apple
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Cook told me a few weeks ago that Apple doesn’t like to look back (although this week is very different). The same can be said of Cook. In 2019, Leander Kahney released a lengthy and authoritative biography of Tim Cook. It was a great and interesting read, featuring interviews with many past and present Apple executives, including former Apple Vice President of Environment, Policy, and Community Programs Lisa Jackson and Apple’s Global Head of Marketing Greg Joswiak. He wasn’t there then: an interview with Cook.
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While the longtime technology boss was happy to let others talk about everything from his entry as Apple CEO in 2011 to how other team members responded to his leadership, Cook remained mum.
Cook finally opened it
So a recent Esquire interview conducted at Apple Park shortly after the launch of the MacBook Neo is notable for what Cook said.
Writing about Kahney’s book, I said “Cook is too focused on Apple’s potential for good.” Diversity, equality, environmental impact, accessibility, health – these are all things that Cook and Apple take seriously, which is why Cook’s recent interaction with the Trump White House, an administration that seems to be against some of those things, has been very confusing for Apple fans.
Cook did not end up supporting the America First production push, an effort that many support, although they also believe that there are significant challenges involved in, say, bringing iPhone assembly to the US (currently done in China, Vietnam, and India). Apple has committed billions to bring parts of the process to the US, and as part of Apple’s interaction with the administration we have seen Cook appear at Trump’s second inauguration, he appeared at the White House with a gold gift for the president, and sat next to Trump as the President called him “Tim Apple.”
By witnessing this, some might think that Cook and Apple are tacitly supporting some of Trump’s policies on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), immigration, education, and women’s rights. Cook hasn’t said much, and Apple’s DEI plans are still in the works (other companies were quietly folding when Trump’s second term began).
Where Apple and Tim Cook stand
In the Esquire interview, however, Cook finally talks about the relationship — or at least how Apple’s values fit his work with the US President.
“I think you have to interact and interact with everybody,” he said. “I’ve interacted with both political parties in the US and people in the middle. I’ve interacted with governments all over the world, some of whom I have very different views on. But I think until you engage, you never know – you never understand – where the other person is coming from. And you have absolutely no influence.”
Apple, Cook explained, still believes in nature, education, accessibility, “treating everyone with dignity and respect.”
Without mentioning Trump by name, Cook acknowledged that people may see him meeting someone who has a “different opinion than him,” but Cook believes that’s a good thing. He added that when people don’t discuss their differences, their positions “become hardened. And I don’t think that’s good.”
Not quite satisfied that Cook had answered the question of whether his association with Apple and someone who might not share their views might suggest some degree of flexibility in those views, Esquire asked bluntly, “So, lest there be any confusion: Are your values the same as the day you got here?”
Cook replied, “Yeah, sure. Sure. They’re the same.”
The mystery of Tim Cook
The answer is obvious and unrepentant. Cook does not directly say, “I believe in climate change,” for example. But don’t say too much. It is sad to compare the founder of Cook and Apple with the former CEO, the late Steve Jobs, who wore his heart on his sleeve and did not suffer.
I went back to that biography, where I tried to learn who Tim Cook really is and what we might understand about his values. In a way, you can say you share the Apple values listed above. But in this book, two important features stand out that can help us understand how deeply he holds these principles.
One was the story he often told of seeing the Klu Klux Klan burn a cross on the lawn of an African American family’s home in Alabama. Cook once described it as an image that “was written forever on my mind, and will change my life forever.”
Another was his sexual orientation. Kahney’s biography doesn’t provide insight into what it was like to grow up gay in Alabama, but I think it’s fair to assume that Cook’s desire to see everyone treated with dignity and respect is based somewhat on that personal experience.
The takeaway here is that Cook may not have been someone else, but that his personality is so steeped in pragmatism that he sees no other way to navigate our rapidly changing and unpredictable world. Cook and Apple will talk and work with friends and, perhaps, with enemies, in the hope of reaching an understanding – but first with the goal of bringing Apple products, and spreading its values, around the world.
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