going on to serve as executive VP for worldwide sales and operations .
But when Cook joined Apple it was a very different company to today ’ s behemoth . It was in decline . There was no iMac , iPod , iPhone or iPad , nor streaming services . Its product range was jaded and unfocused .
Yet less than a year after Cook joined , Apple was reporting profits . As the visionary Jobs came up with one eradefining product after another , Cook made sure they were always available , and in huge numbers . An early Cook ploy was to buy US $ 100mn of holiday season air freight , months in advance . This cut out competitors , and left them scrambling to ship products during the holiday season . But he realised very early in his Apple career that the company ’ s supply chain was unwieldy , over-complex and unresponsive , and so he moved Apple to a just-in-time ( JIT ) manufacturing model - a process he had overseen in his time at IBM .
Cook pared back the number of supply chain vendors from more than 100 to 24 , reduced the number of warehouses by half and established relationships with contract manufacturers . Cook loathes inventory , telling Forbes he finds it “ fundamentally evil ”. “ Inventory is like dairy products ,” he has also said . “ No one wants to buy spoiled milk .”
Thanks to his JIT supply model Apple is able to turn over its inventory once every five days . Apple ’ s ability to launch , manufacture , and ship millions of iPhones globally like clockwork - with virtually no inventory surplus - is held to be a miracle of the JIT model .
Cook ’ s supply model may have been severely tested by the global pandemic , but then what supply chain hasn ’ t been ?
On a personal level , one thing Cook shares with Jobs is a fierce work ethic ; he starts work at 4am every day .
“ It ’ s the one time of the day when I ’ m in control ,” he has said . “ Things happen throughout the day that kind of blow you off course . The morning is yours .”
As CEO he also stays in touch with Apple ’ s customers .
“ I read an extraordinary number of customer emails ,” he says . “ It keeps my hands on the pulse of what customers are feeling , thinking and doing .”
Little wonder that during his tenure as CEO , Cook has doubled the company ' s revenue and profit , and the company ' s market value has increased from US $ 348bn to $ 1.9tn .
Steve Jobs may have built Apple , but it is Cook who has extended it .
18 February 2022