Tim Cook: Execution Machine
By: M.G. Siegler
Tags: Tech, Business, Manufacturing, Tim Cook, Apple

Probably a bit unfair, but this is a clever cover by Bloomberg Businessweek for their Tim Cook profile by Austin Carr. I already highlighted the Warren Buffett quote. But a few other bits:

Cook’s innovation was to force Foxconn and others to adapt to the extravagant aesthetic and quality specifications demanded by Jobs and industrial design head Jony Ive. Apple engineers crafted specialized manufacturing equipment and traveled frequently to China, spending long hours not in conference rooms as their PC counterparts did but on production floors hunting for hardware refinements and bottlenecks on the line.

I feel like this is a nice, succinct way to highlight a massive (and massively overlooked) strength of Cook. Sure, he may not have the product vision but he is the one who was able to take that vision and execute on it in a way never seen before at scale. The iPhone is not what it is today if it was constantly backordered or far worse: faulty because the insane design requirements made it nearly impossible to build. Cook translated the form into function.

Contract manufacturers worked with all the big electronics companies, but Cook set Apple apart by spending big to buy up next-generation parts years in advance and striking exclusivity deals on key components to ensure Apple would get them ahead of rivals.

And he such translation with incredible foresight. The locking up of parts years ahead of the competition also enabled the iPhone to scale. Which sounds obvious but was probably the single most important thing he did.

At the same time he was obsessed with controlling Apple’s costs. Daniel Vidaña, then a supply management director, says Cook particularly fussed over fulfillment times. Faster turnarounds made customers happier and also reduced the financial strain of storing unsold inventory. Vidaña remembers him saying that Apple couldn’t afford to have “spoiled milk.” Cook lowered the company’s month’s worth of stockpiles to days’ and touted, according to a former longtime operations leader, that Apple was “out-Dell-ing Dell” in supply chain efficiencies.

“Out-Delling-ing Dell” is a nice foil to this.

Three people familiar with the company’s supply chain say there was an Apple employee whose job consisted of negotiating the cost of glue.

I love that it’s sourced three different ways. Was the Glue Guy the Blevinator?

Jobs loved to point out that Apple’s product lineup was so unrelentingly spare it could fit on a small table. At the time of his death, Apple sold two iPhones and one iPad; today it offers seven iPhones and five iPads. Cook also added high-priced products that amounted to accessories for the flagship mobile devices, such as AirPods and the Apple Watch.

On one hand, it’s hard — probably impossible! — to argue with the results. On the other, Apple is saying a lot more “yes’s” these days. And again, they probably should be! It’s just a contrast.

Beyond those and more quick shots at the “exceptionally boring” Cook, the main takeaway of this piece is that Apple’s U.S. plant in Texas — yes, the one Donald Trump infamously took credit for — is a bit of a disaster. The political upside makes the headache worth it for Apple, but anyone hoping for Apple to actually bring manufacturing back to the U.S. probably should not hold their breath.