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Tim Cook Has Made Three Big Mistakes So Far at Apple

This article is more than 10 years old.

Since Steve Jobs died, a lot of people have become Steve Jobs experts – telling us what he would and wouldn’t have done, if he were still alive.

Image via CrunchBase

There’s also been a cottage industry of pseudo-succession planning experts, declaring that Tim Cook isn’t up to the “innovative” challenges of running Apple (AAPL) in the way that Steve Jobs was.

I’ve always defended Tim Cook as a fantastic choice for CEO.  I’ve also pointed out that I believed Steve Jobs’ greatest achievement would be seen as the management team he left behind him to run Apple.

Scott Forstall was a key member of that team, as the head of iOS software.  He’s now gone.

I asked Horace Dedieu earlier today what he thought about the news of Forstall’s ouster.  He replied (via Twitter):

“Seems like a good plan. Apple’s biggest threat is corrosive politics and the entropy that follows. But I have no data.”

I don’t have any data either – like the rest of us – yet, I think Horace is probably spot on in his assessment of what happened and why.

So, in time, I expect history to judge Cook’s decision to elevate Jony Ive and remove Scott Forstall from the company as the correct one.

That said, I don’t think I’d be doing a fair job as an Apple commentator if I didn’t point out that, although I think Tim Cook’s been a great CEO so far at Apple, he’s not perfect.

In fact, if you’re counting at home, he’s made three big mistakes so far in the 13 months since Steve Jobs died.  Let’s review them.

1. Hiring John Browett as head of Apple Stores last Spring.  It must kind of suck for Browett to get up this morning and read that people are receiving his sacking with universal praise.  The truth is his hiring was a head-scratcher from the start.  The CEO of the UK’s Dixons to run Apple Stores?  Was the CEO of Dollar General (DG) unavailable? And, yet, Tim Cook defended the hiring back in February by saying: “I talked to many people and John was the best by far. I think you will be as pleased as I am.”  I guess not. Who were the other candidates that Browett bested “by far”?   I guess the critics were right to worry that Browett would start nickel-and-diming the stores and its employees.  And that’s exactly what he did.  This was the first big hire of Cook’s post-Jobs and he blew it.  I’ve read several people say, “well, at least Cook realized the mistake quickly and fixed it.” They are absolutely right.  Many other lesser CEOs would have stuck by “their guy” for another couple of years. But it is worrisome that Cook was so off base on this hire. You can’t help but worry about his instincts for other hirings and firings (especially when Forstall happened so soon).

2. Handling Bob Mansfield’s retirement and now promotion as head of “Technologies.”  Bob Mansfield retired in June.  In August, he said he’d come back to work on contract (which was very lucrative) for future products. Now, in October, he’s essentially been promoted to take on a new “Technologies” group which involves semiconductors as well as other wireless teams.  Cook has said he’d stay on at least another two years.  I have no inside dope on Mansfield as a manager.  However, for a 51 year old to retire (maybe I’m old fashioned but isn’t that a little young to retire for a rock star SVP at the most valuable company in the world?), unretired, and then get promoted, it makes me wonder what’s been going on behind the scenes for the last 6 months with management?  Shouldn’t Cook have had an orderly plan for how the team was going to run?  If Forstall was stepping out of line, I can understand that, but Mansfield makes you think Cook was just not plugged in closely enough with what was going on at the team.  Before any press release from Apple got approved to go out saying Mansfield was retiring, Cook should have been talking closely with him to understand what was up.

3. Being Accountable for Maps and Siri.  I’m a big believer in both Maps and Siri long-term for Apple.  I have defended them when critics have complained about their quality over the last year, saying things like Steve Jobs would never have approved them for release (even though he green-lit both).  It’s obvious that Apple’s had to deal with PR headaches from both products.  To me, Apple Maps seemed like the bigger embarrassment with so many seemingly obvious errors allowed to appear at launch.  All those happened under Forstall’s watch.  So maybe part of his ouster is due to Cook wanting to make an accountability example from him.  However, where was Cook on both these products.  He’s got a lot on his plate, but he’s got to be up in Forstall’s grill on where things stand with both products on a regular basis.  There were apparently lots of developer feedback about problems with Maps that were ignored. Why? Did Cook know that? If not, why not?

Maybe Cook would acknowledge these mistakes if you talked with him privately.  Maybe he’d even say that he’s learned his lesson from giving his team too much autonomy and for hiring Browett.  Maybe he’d say that yesterday’s moves were all about correcting his mistakes from the past year and better situating the company for the next 10 years.

And he’s probably right.  I am confident in Apple moving forward with these changes.

However, only an ostrich wouldn’t try to learn from his mistakes.  I sincerely hope Tim Cook takes a long look at himself in the mirror with what’s gone on in the past year.

So, now it’s on you, Tim. Make it work.

* Postscript: Some readers rightly point out that Mansfield might haver "retired" in June due to conflicts with Forstall and that Cook might have turned this around leading to Forstall's dramatic departure. I actually think that's more than likely.  So, kudos to Cook if he did this - as well as addressing the other "mistakes" on this list.  But they were still mistakes. Even if it happened that way with Mansfield, Cook should never have let it get to that point. he should have been discussing this privately months earlier.

My point in this post isn't to rub Cook's nose in his mistakes. I hate that commentary on Apple gets bifurcated into either praise or scorn. I'm a huge Apple fan and bull - same for Cook - but no one is infallible.  Apple can be a better company if it got more regular criticism from its fans.

[Long AAPL]