3 ms·

You have to pay for talent. How many people in the world have the talent to run a $2.4 trillion company effectively.

by Ecstatify 5y ago

lexapro 5y ago
Probably not just this one guy?
- amelius 5y ago
  It's easy to find 10x programmers in comparison. 10x CEOs are much harder to find.
  - consp 5y ago
    > 10x CEOs are much harder to find Considering how much CEOs who lose massive a mounts at companies get rehired elsewhere I seriously doubt that in most cases a monkey with a typewriter would do worse. Plenty of possible CEOs to hire and easy to find, they just don't have the connections to get hired because they are in the Zoo. (/s if sarcasm was not effectively implied)
    - amelius 5y ago
      But he didn't lose massive amounts. He (well, he and his company) made massive amounts.
- Tenoke 5y ago
  No but the other guys at that level also already have offers for very high amounts so you can't get any of them if you aren't paying large sums.
blunte 5y ago
No doubt he's done a good job, but he also inherited a great company which was obviously already full of great people. He has done surprisingly well during his time there, but Apple has shifted more into a monopolistic, protectionist company with declining software/hardware quality compared to when Steve Jobs was running it. From an investor standpoint, he's done quite well. And since his reward is based on stock value, I'd say he's earned it. But I wouldn't say he's 100X or more talented than an average experienced business leader.
- s1artibartfast 5y ago
  >But I wouldn't say he's 100X or more talented than an average experienced business leader That's not the relevant metric. An extra 0.0003X growth pays back the 750 million for a 2.4 trillion dollar company.(750mil bonus/2.4 T market cap) If he is 1.0003 X better at growing value than the average CEO, it was worth it from the financial perspective. The argument that Tim cook a 1.0003X CEO is a lot easier to make.
code_duck 5y ago
We have absolutely no idea since only a truly tiny fraction will ever have the chance to try.
thow-58d4e8b 5y ago
Likely hundreds of thousands of people. The burden of proof ought to be on him/his proponents. From the rather scant publicly available material, I've never heard the man say anything profound, original, nor any other sign of exceptional competence. That's not bad in and of itself, not everyone has to be a controversial thinker, especially not a CEO of an established company that's minting gold every day. But we have no evidence that his level of ability is somehow beyond the reach of mere mortals. Yes, Apple has ballooned in valuation. The question is how much of this is attributable to Tim Cook, how much to other Apple employees, how much to external factors (e.g. tech bubble) and how much of it is just sheer inertia.
- thehappypm 5y ago
  I like to point out here that a lot of companies have been ruined by incompetent leadership. Ballmer as CEO of Microsoft made a ton of boneheaded decisions.. think about how poorly Vista was received, and how he didn’t lead the company towards an iPhone. Satya Nadella takes over, steers the ship towards services and cloud, literally billions worth of better leadership.

You have to pay for talent. How many people in the world have the talent to run a $2.4 trillion company effectively.

lexapro 5y ago

Probably not just this one guy?

amelius 5y ago
It's easy to find 10x programmers in comparison. 10x CEOs are much harder to find.
- consp 5y ago
  > 10x CEOs are much harder to find Considering how much CEOs who lose massive a mounts at companies get rehired elsewhere I seriously doubt that in most cases a monkey with a typewriter would do worse. Plenty of possible CEOs to hire and easy to find, they just don't have the connections to get hired because they are in the Zoo. (/s if sarcasm was not effectively implied)
  - amelius 5y ago
    But he didn't lose massive amounts. He (well, he and his company) made massive amounts.
Tenoke 5y ago
No but the other guys at that level also already have offers for very high amounts so you can't get any of them if you aren't paying large sums.

blunte 5y ago

No doubt he's done a good job, but he also inherited a great company which was obviously already full of great people. He has done surprisingly well during his time there, but Apple has shifted more into a monopolistic, protectionist company with declining software/hardware quality compared to when Steve Jobs was running it. From an investor standpoint, he's done quite well. And since his reward is based on stock value, I'd say he's earned it. But I wouldn't say he's 100X or more talented than an average experienced business leader.

s1artibartfast 5y ago
>But I wouldn't say he's 100X or more talented than an average experienced business leader That's not the relevant metric. An extra 0.0003X growth pays back the 750 million for a 2.4 trillion dollar company.(750mil bonus/2.4 T market cap) If he is 1.0003 X better at growing value than the average CEO, it was worth it from the financial perspective. The argument that Tim cook a 1.0003X CEO is a lot easier to make.

code_duck 5y ago

We have absolutely no idea since only a truly tiny fraction will ever have the chance to try.

thow-58d4e8b 5y ago

Likely hundreds of thousands of people. The burden of proof ought to be on him/his proponents. From the rather scant publicly available material, I've never heard the man say anything profound, original, nor any other sign of exceptional competence. That's not bad in and of itself, not everyone has to be a controversial thinker, especially not a CEO of an established company that's minting gold every day. But we have no evidence that his level of ability is somehow beyond the reach of mere mortals. Yes, Apple has ballooned in valuation. The question is how much of this is attributable to Tim Cook, how much to other Apple employees, how much to external factors (e.g. tech bubble) and how much of it is just sheer inertia.

thehappypm 5y ago
I like to point out here that a lot of companies have been ruined by incompetent leadership. Ballmer as CEO of Microsoft made a ton of boneheaded decisions.. think about how poorly Vista was received, and how he didn’t lead the company towards an iPhone. Satya Nadella takes over, steers the ship towards services and cloud, literally billions worth of better leadership.