Tim Cook

Nous savons tous qu’Apple, et plus précisément son CEO, Steve Jobs, attache une attention particulière à ce culte du secret générant un effet de surprise. Celui-ci présente un double avantage :

-          Dans le secteur des hautes technologies, la concurrence est très féroce et c’est un moyen d’attirer l’attention sur un évènement particulier et de le mettre en valeur.

-          Ce culte du secret génère énormément de buzz sur la toile. Ce système induit une diffusion exponentielle : blogueurs ou grands journaux n’hésitent pas à faire suivre les rumeurs.

Voici l’avis de Tim Cook, Chief Operating Officer (COO) :

« Yeah, that is a great question. The executive team of the company spends a lot of time thinking and discussing how to retain and recruit the best talent in the world, because at the end of the day—I know it’s a cliche—but people are our most important asset by far, and it’s people that deliver innovation, which is key to us. And so what else do we do other than that? Well, we are the most focused company that I

know of, or have read of, or have any knowledge of. We say no to good ideas every day; we say no to great ideas in order to keep the amount of things we focus on very small in number, so that we can put enormous energy behind the ones we do choose, so that we can deliver the best products in the world. In fact, the table that each of you are sitting at today, you could probably put every product on it that Apple makes, and yet Apple’s revenue last year

was over $40bn. I think the only other company that could say that is an oil company.

And that is not from just saying « yes » to the right product which gets a lot of focus—it’s saying no to many products that are good ideas, but

just not nearly as good as the other ones. I think that this is so ingrained in our company that this hubris that you talk about, that happens to companies that are successful but then decide that their sole role in life is to get bigger, and they start adding this and that and this and that, I can tell you the management team of Apple would never let that happen. That’s not what we’re about. So, focus on people, and ensuring that it’s a small list of things to work on and putting all of our wood behind those things, that’s the magic behind us. »

Tim Cook a aussi récemment été interviewé par David Bailey, de chez Goldman Sachs, sur les produits mobiles. Je vous recommande de prendre le temps d’écouter son opinion sur le sujet.

Source : TheAppleBlog et le blog de Steve Chazin

« Team,

I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.

I look forward to seeing all of you this summer.

Steve »

Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple Inc.

Sur ces mots, nous ne pouvons que souhaiter qu’un excellent rétablissement à cet icône de la Silicon Valley et espérer qu’il pourra reprendre sa place en pleine forme qui, j’en suis sûr lui manque déjà…

Tim Cook engage donc la responsabilité de la direction du groupe, et non Phil Schiller que certains (dont moi) pouvaient imaginer prendre la relève.

Tim Cook et Phil Schiller

Suite à cette annonce, voici la réaction de Walt Mossberg du Wall Street Journal :

David Pogue, chroniqueur du New York Times, a aussi réagi à cette annonce, ainsi que Michael Arrington, éditeur du blogue Techcrunch.

Notons tout de même qu’à la suite de cette annonce,gr l’action d’Apple a perdu 8%.

Photo : New York Times

Je ne ferai pas la présentation « produits » car tout le Web en parle, mais vous exposerai plutôt mon opinion générale sur cette conférence de presse.

Lire la suite du billet »