Thomas FlynnMrs. PiatakFinancial Literacy Period A4 January 2018Apple and It’s CEO, Tim Cook Apple’s CEO Tim Cook was born in Robertsdale, Alabama on November 1, 1960 to father, Donald and mother, Geraldine and was born in the middle of three sons. Cook attended Auburn University and received a degree in industrial engineering in 1982.
Cook then attended Duke University where he earned an MBA from the school of business in 1988. He then worked at IBM for twelve years before serving executive roles at Intelligent Electronics and Compaq. Following his time at these several companies Cook joined Apple in 1998 and was named CEO in 2011 following the death of one of the companies founders, Steve Jobs. “Fresh out of graduate school, Cook embarked on a career in the field of computer technology. He was hired by IBM, where he moved up the ranks to become the corporation’s North American fulfillment director, managing manufacturing and distribution functions for IBM’s Personal Computer Company in both North and Latin America. Following a 12-year career at IBM, Cook in 1994 became chief operating officer of the Reseller Division at Intelligent Electronics. After three years he joined the Compaq Computer Corporation as vice president of corporate materials, charged with procuring and managing product inventory. His time there was short-lived, however: After a six-month stint at Compaq, Cook left for a position at Apple” (Cook -Business… 19-28).
Apple was started in the late 1970’s when three men came together and created the Apple II series of computers. These men were Steve Jobs, Mike Markkula and Steve Wozniak. This line of computers was the first line of successful personal computers. This lead to the creation of the Apple Lisa made in 1983 and then the Apple Macintosh in 1984 which started the transformation of Apple into a power house. Steve Jobs left the company in 1985 after a dispute with the Apple board, but eventually re-joined the company in 1996 as the CEO. When Steve Jobs came back to the company he had a big role in creating much of the computer market was dominated by Windows PC’s. Apple’s computers were more expensive and were mainly only being used by people in creative lines of work such as advertising, design and creation of movies.
“…that all changed when the iPod came along in November of 2001. Out of nowhere, Apple was suddenly on everyone’s lips. The idea that thousands of songs could be stored digitally on one small device much smaller than any Walkman or CD player was mind-blowing. Steve Jobs had spearheaded a product that literally changed the way music was played and shared” (Suggett 36-40).
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This invention changed the way many people looked at Apple as a company. Everyone wanted the newest Apple product and the release of the Iphone in 2007 made Apple the company that everyone else wanted to be like. Apple had become the powerhouse that we know it as today. Even with this now excellent reputation, in 2010 Apple released the Ipad which struggled initially, but by 2011 there were 15 million Ipads on the market cementing it as another huge success for Apple. “The health of Steve Jobs had been in question since around 2006, when his gaunt, frail appearance and lackluster delivery were the focus of his WWDC keynote address. In actuality, Jobs had announced his condition (pancreatic cancer) to his staff in mid 2004. Between 2003 and his death in August 2011, Jobs underwent many procedures and therapies to try and beat the cancer, but it was too aggressive.
He stepped down as CEO of Apple on August 24th, 2011, and died just a few weeks later on September 11th” (51-56). With the tragic death of Steve Jobs Apple had to move on as a company and continue to live up to its household name. Since the release of the Ipad there have been no big releases of new products by Apple. Pretty much all of the products that have been released since 2010 have just been updates to existing products. There have been new products like the Apple Watch and Apple Pen, but have not even come close to the great reception that products in the past have seen.
Also there has been lots of controversy over the removal of the headphone jack in the newest models of the Iphone angering many consumers and causing much debate over whether the former CEO, Steve Jobs, would have never approved of this drastic change.Apple’s future is very uncertain and no one knows what to expect from the monster company. Apple stock is currently trading at $172.
26 per share which is down just a few dollars from the record high of trading at $177.20 per share. This means that, “…despite people across the world becoming increasingly tired of what Apple has to offer on the innovation front, their products are still excellent performers, and the industry standard in design, creativity, film, music, and other such avenues” (74-76). No one knows if Apple will ever be able to come up with a product that was as revolutionary and groundbreaking as the Ipod, Iphone, or Ipad.
“…it’s worth noting that in all of those instances, products already existed that did very similar jobs. Apple, and Steve, added the lightning in a bottle, but none of these were completely original” (78-80).
So based on this there are several possibilities for products Apple could venture into producing such as the 3D printer, smart home, and self driving car, but the truth is no one knows where Apple is headed in the future.Personally, I did not invest in this company prior to researching and writing about it. I wish that I could have been able to invest in the company when it was first started out because it grew from a small garage into this mega company and almost legendary figure in the business world. The gains from investing in this company when it was first starting out would be immense based on how much the stock is worth now. With one single stock currently trading $172.
26 per share, like I mentioned earlier, if you had bought stock early on your gains would clearly be massive. After concluding my research I do not think that I will invest in Apple because of again that high price per stock. The price of the stock is very high and that is a lot of money to be putting into one company and it would be at high risk to decrease. Another reason I would not invest in Apple is because of the uncertainty in where the company will go from its current position. Since the death of the former CEO Steve Jobs all of the new products Apple has produced have been pretty much failures. The ones that were sold were based on the reputation Apple has built, but that can only take the company so far.
Eventually, if Apple continues to put out bad products, people will stop buying them and Apple will decrease drastically in value causing a big loss of money for investors in the company. Yes, there are possibilities that Apple could come out with yet another revolutionary product, but in my opinion it is too much of a risk to take on a company that has been riding its previous reputation ever since the death of one of the companies founders. Works CitedAppleInsider. “Apple CEO Tim Cook Talks Chinese Supply Chain, Censorship and More in Interview.
” AppleInsider, AppleInsider, 6 Dec. 2017, appleinsider.com/articles/17/12/06/apple-ceo-tim-cook-talks-chinese-supply-chain-censorship-and-more-in-interview. Melin, Anders, and Alex Webb.
“Apple’s Tim Cook Gets 74% Bonus Boost After Sales, Profit Rebound.” Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, 27 Dec.
2017, www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-27/apple-ceo-cook-gets-74-bonus-boost-after-sales-profit-rebound. Ritchie, Rene. “Tim Cook: The Latest on Apple’s CEO.” IMore, IMore, 11 Sept. 2017, www.
imore.com/tim-cook. Suggett, Paul. “Steve Jobs and Apple.” The Balance, www.
thebalance.com/industry-spotlight-steve-jobs-38936. “Tim Cook.
” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 29 Dec. 2017, www.biography.com/people/tim-cook-20967297.
