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[CyberPanda]

Several years ago, Leander Kahney released a well-received biography of Jony Ive, outlining how the publicity-shy "genius behind Apple's greatest products" came to play such a prominent role at Apple. Kahney painstakingly researched Ive's background, interviewing numerous friends and acquaintances from various stages of his life to put together a portrait of Apple's design guru.

Kahney has now returned with another biography of an Apple executive, and this time he has his sights focused on CEO Tim Cook. Like Ive, Cook is an intensely private person, but Kahney spoke with a number of friends and family members, as well as former coworkers and even a few current Apple executives to learn more about the leader who has had the gargantuan task of following Steve Jobs.

While Apple has had some considerable successes under Cook, some have been critical of the direction the company has taken under his leadership, whether it be product missteps, a perceived lack of innovation, or changes in the company's focus. Kahney finds little to dislike about Cook's tenure, however, as is made immediately clear by his book's title: Tim Cook: The Genius Who Took Apple to the Next Level.

Kahney centers his book around six values he argues "provide the foundation" for Cook's leadership at Apple: accessibility, education, environment, inclusion and diversity, privacy and security, and supplier responsibility.

After a quick look at Cook's 2011 elevation to the CEO position and the death of Steve Jobs, the book delves into Cook's history, starting with his upbringing in Alabama and his time at IBM and Compaq.

The book then looks at his decision to join Apple upon the return of Jobs when the company was still on the brink of bankruptcy, and his operations prowess that saw Apple streamline and outsource its manufacturing, radically improving efficiency and allowing for the scale of growth Apple was to experience.

The bulk of the biography covers Cook's time as Apple CEO, highlighting his transition into the role and some of the early major product announcements like iPhones, Apple Pay, the Apple Watch, and more. The book's focus then turns to broader themes like Cook's emphasis on the environment and sustainability, privacy and the fight with the FBI over creating a backdoor into iOS, and efforts at increasing diversity.

The book wraps up with a look at Apple Park and the company's work on self-driving car technology, and ultimately asks whether Cook is the best CEO Apple has ever had. Analyst Horace Dediu believes that he is, arguing that Jobs was "always the head of product" and "never really a CEO." That emphasis was needed when Apple was fighting for survival, but as Apple got back on its feet, Jobs largely turned over the day-to-day operation of the company to Cook, and Cook's generalist perspective has been what the company needs now that it has matured.

While the book does highlight a few missteps along the way, The Genius Who Took Apple to the Next Level is overall a glowing portrait of Cook and the job he has done leading Apple. You can agree or disagree with that conclusion, but either way, it's an interesting look at one of the most important figures in Apple's history and a story that hasn't really been told at length until now.

With material drawn from those who knew Cook in his early days, as well as current and former Apple executives like Lisa Jackson, Greg Joswiak, Deirdre O'Brien, and Bruce Sewell, Kahney does a good job of weaving new bits of information into parts of the narrative that are already well known.

If you're interested in hearing more from Kahney about his book and the process of writing it, we held an "Ask Me Anything" session with him in our forums earlier today. Stop by our forums to see what questions our readers had for him and what he had to say.

Penguin Books has also graciously agreed to offer ten copies of Tim Cook: The Genius Who Took Apple to the Next Level as part of a giveaway. To enter to win, use the widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winners and send the prizes. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, following us on Instagram, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page. By request of the publisher, only U.S. residents who are 18 years or older are eligible to enter.

The contest will run from today (April 9) at 7:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 7:00 a.m. Pacific Time on April 16. The winners will be chosen randomly on April 16 and will be contacted by email. The winners will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before new winners are chosen.

For those interested in purchasing the book, it launches next Tuesday, April 16, but you can pre-order now through Amazon, Apple's Book Store, and other outlets.

To enter the contest go to this link:

https://www.macrumors.com/2019/04/09/tim-cook-biography-kahney/

 

[Mista]

Well he deserves recognition. But they shouldn’t forget Steve just because he’s gone

 

[CyberPanda]

Well he deserves recognition. But they shouldn’t forget Steve just because he’s gone

I personally think Steve did a better job, and only thing Tim has made happy are his investors.

 

[Mista]

I personally think Steve did a better job, and only thing Tim has made happy are his investors.

True that. It’s how I see it too. Steve was revolutionary and Tim despite being good, he’s kissing the Chinese ass and shitting on the whole world.

 

[nush]

He's more stable than Jobs, but I wouldn't say anywhere close to being as creative.

 

[jufonuk]

Well he deserves recognition. But they shouldn’t forget Steve just because he’s gone

Woz4lyfe

 

[Tesseract]

i'll put my faith in the engineering team, not the 'conductor' of the orchestra

meh at the face and figure status of apple's ceos

 

[odhin]

Tim Who? Tim Apple you mean?

 

[KonradLaw]

Lol...he's a good CEO..but genius? Lmao.

 

[Rentahamster]

He did a good job of taking Steve Jobs' ball and running with it, and many of Apples' metrics are positive, so he is talented and very competent. But I don't think he's necessarily a "genius" for it. Maybe he'll surprise me in a few more years.

 

[Trojita]

He's a finance guy that has stagnated innovation within the company. Genius who took Apple to the next level? What a joke.

 

[CyberPanda]

He's a finance guy that has stagnated innovation within the company. Genius who took Apple to the next level? What a joke.

Agreed. I miss Jobs.

 

[Trojita]

Agreed. I miss Jobs.

He was right about one thing.

 

[CyberPanda]

He was right about one thing.

I loved when he used to get mad at his staff on stage.

 

[Ownage]

wat

 

[TeamGhobad]

the google watch failed, so where is the genius? the fact that he raised the prices of all apple products or the fact that iphone is losing market share to asian companies? where is the genius?

 

[iconmaster]

Capable, sure. I have to acknowledge that Apple Watch, AirPods and HomePod are all significant new products introduced under him, so there is still some innovation going on. (I checked: Jobs may have known about Apple Watch very early in its development, but likely had almost no involvement with it due to the timing of his death.)

Compared to Steve Jobs, though... well I guess anyone would pale next to Jobs.

the google watch failed

I assume you mean Apple Watch. It's probably not a failure; but it's definitely hard to gauge how much of a success it is. I see a fair number of ordinary folks wearing them. Just today that included an employee at the local bank. But I don't know.

 

[Trogdor1123]

The things he does would make jobs roll over in his grave.

 

[Pagusas]

Friends working at Apple love him, they feel stable and happy in their careers, he empowers great managers and directors and has pushed a culture of speaking up and empowerment to all employees. I could care less about the rest, they are happy so I like him.

 

[Sorcerer]

Apple May be profitable under Cook, but they have also become incredibly stale.

 

[Ovek]

All Apple has done under Tim is release embarrassing lazily designed products that I can’t imagine for a second Steve would have ever signed off on, and continuing down the extremely anti-consumer path of making the products impossible to repair whilst touting how “green” they are.

He has also made internal investigations team that handles leaks to the press significantly more, and I hate to use the term more “gestapo”. Tim apparently like his staff to work under a umbrella of fear but then so did Steve.

At the end of the day Tim is a business man, a good business man true but he will never be a product visionary that in my opinion Apple needs. Apple today is all to willing to follow market trends rather than taking the risk on new ideas.

 

[Trogdor1123]

I just remembered that under cooks leadership that they are making foundation in a tv series. If that's good,all is forgiven!

 

[LMJ]

If genius means ripping your customer base off at every opportunity than sure,

if it means making virtually no breakthroughs technology speaking for the last 5 years or bringing out software updates your competitors have been using for nearly a decade and acting like you created them than sure...

If it mean having the so-called Geniuses at your shops cheat their customers off on a continual basis when it comes to laptop, phone, and everything else repair / replacements so that your company can sqeeze a few more pennies into the already multiple billion dollar company you are than sure...


Tim Appl..er Cooks Apple is a joke of what the company was once known for...but hey $$$$$$$$$$