By your own metrics Cook is Nadella. The stock more than doubled under his tenure and the installed base for Apple products has grown massively since 2011 (to 1.4 billion). More people than ever own Apple products.
Their latest 'new' venture which is the TV play is basically derivative of Netflix and Amazon. Going into finance with the credit card thing is semi-interesting but it was also the thing that killed GE (they became a finance company and lost sight of what made GE great, the best products [1]).
The Beats acquisition was an excellent investment and their Airpod's business is doing amazing. So that's something. They need more of that IMO... if they need anything at all.
[1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/ge-powered-the-american-century...
Nothing wrong with that. It doesn't imply a lack of innovation as well. They provide a good enough improvement on all software, hardware and service fronts to keep customer buying year on year.
A lack of a new breakthrough product doesn't mean lack of innovation from Apple. In my opinion it only means two things:
- The technology is not there yet for a new "iPhone" type of breakthrough.
- The expectation of people on Apple is so high considering their success in the past decade.
Jedberg's point is that strong operational CEOs are great at getting more users for existing products. Visionary CEOs are great at inventing new products that can capture new markets the company hasn't previously been in before. The only major new product Apple's introduced under Tim Cook's tenure has been the Apple Watch, which in actual usage is more like an accessory to the iPhone than a new product category. He did a great job growing Apple's existing iPhone, iPad, and Macbook businesses, but a less great job introducing new ones.
See also the a16z essay "Ones and Twos":
https://a16z.com/2010/12/16/ones-and-twos/
Cook is a Two, as are Eric Schmidt, Sundar Pichai, Steve Ballmer, Sheryl Sandberg, and Dara Khosrowshahi. Ones include Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Andy Rubin, Travis Kalanick, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerburg. Nadella is shaping up to be a One, though I'm not entirely sure on this (I haven't been following Microsoft closely).
It’s amusing to see people try to give the Apple Watch and AirPods short shrift because they’re both extremely successful products that only look small next to the iPhone (and ignores Cook’s role in that as well). The Apple Watch is bigger than the iPod at its peak and is something that actually makes a dent in the universe at a level other Apple products don’t. There have been dozens of stories about customers and their Apple Watch saving their lives or alerting them to a latent medical condition [1].
To understand Tim Cook’s importance to Apple you have to understand that Jony Ive was already at Apple for several years before Jobs returned and Apple was headed to bankruptcy. Cook is who actually built Apple into the machine that could execute, and it’s why he was officially named CEO in 2011. He was the unofficial CEO for years before that.
Actually it’d be more accurate to say he’s a founder of Apple 2.0
[1] https://9to5mac.com/2019/07/19/apple-watch-prompts-heart-sur...
If you consider that he inherited the fear of break up from the anti-trust stuff, you'll understand he was fighting with one arm tied behind his back.
Nadella basically reorganized stuff around, slimmed the company down and focused big on CLOUD, AI and Blockchain - the new fads.
It’s a rough approximation of “lost the entire consumer business”.
Look at Microsoft. When Gates left, Ballmer took over, and did great things for the company financials. Profits and revenue were consistently up year after year. But the company stagnated product-wise and lost favor among enthusiasts and investors. He left the stock 10% worse than when he got there, despite the profits and revenue.
But since Ballmer left, Nadella has done an amazing job continuing the profit and revenue story while also winning back the hearts and minds of developers and investors with some great new products and product vision.
Apple needs a Nadella -- a long time insider who has a strong product vision.