Tim’s Time

Yesterday, Tim Cook announced his timeline for stepping down as Apple’s CEO . I felt like I should write something about this, but I wasn’t sure what. I fell back into thinking about Cook’s time by the numbers. When Tim Cook steps down from his CEO position in September of this year, he will have had the longest stint as Apple’s CEO. Steve Jobs co-founded Apple and was the Chairman of the Board for a time, but never held the title of CEO until after his ouster and return in 1997. Even then, he was interim CEO (or iCEO) until January 2000. If we include his interim period, Jobs was CEO for 14 years and 6 months. Cook took over from Jobs in August of 2011, and will have been CEO for 15 years and 1 month when he steps down. Pretty close to a third of Apple’s total existence. Cook has always been a logistics guy. He started at Apple in 1998 as the SVP of Worldwide Operations, and became Chief Operating Officer in 2005. During his time as CEO, he’s focused on increasing profit margins,…