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== Overview ==
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🏆 '''Assessment and legacy.''' Commentators have argued that Cook transformed Apple from a company closely identified with a single charismatic founder into a durable institution defined by process discipline, enormous scale and an expanding set of social commitments. His tenure has been described as a "quiet cultural revolution" in which a methodical operations executive from small-town Alabama turned Apple into a multi-trillion-dollar enterprise while keeping its products central to everyday life, becoming the firm's longest-serving CEO and a prominent example of operational leadership in contemporary corporate history.<ref name="reuters-cultural" /><ref name="observer-retirement" /><ref name="cliffsnotes">{{cite web |url=https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-notes/29225724 |title=Story - leadership |publisher=CliffsNotes |accessdate=2025-11-20}}</ref>
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== Notable quotes ==
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I think AI is profound. And so it will change everything. Hardware is a portion of that, software is a portion of that, and there should be huge growth in all of the above. Our move is to keep innovating and to keep pushing forward. We want to bring Apple Intelligence into China and are working on doing that.<ref name="MetroTV2025">{{cite AV media |people=Cook, Tim |title=Apple CEO Tim Cook visits China, expresses optimism |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKNKt9CcJBI |publisher=MetroTV |date=October 2025 |access-date=2025-12-27}}</ref>
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When we launch a product, we're already working on the next one.<ref name="60Minutes2015">{{cite AV media |people=Cook, Tim; Rose, Charlie |title=Inside Apple (Part One) |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-apple-tim-cook-charlie-rose/ |publisher=CBS News (60 Minutes) |date=December 2015 |access-date=2025-12-27}}</ref>
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Today's factories are so much more modern. And in 10 years from now, today will not look that modern, because we will keep advancing.<ref name="ChinaDaily2024">{{cite web |last=Ma |first=Si |title=Apple CEO: China's supply chain is most critical to firm |url=https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202403/20/WS65fb01fba31082fc043bdcba.html |website=China Daily |date=March 2024 |access-date=2025-12-27}}</ref>
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We have to have ethical AI, just like we have to have ethical data privacy and data collection. There's an intersection of those two as well, right? Both are paramount and have to be worked on.<ref name="Handelsblatt2021">{{cite web |title=Tim Cook defends himself against Mark Zuckerberg |url=https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/01/29/tim-cook-says-privacy-one-of-the-top-issues-of-the-century |website=Handelsblatt |date=January 2021 |access-date=2025-12-27}}</ref>
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We weren't first on the MP3 player; we weren't first on the tablet; we weren't first on the smartphone. But we were arguably the first modern smartphone, and we will be the first modern smartwatch—the first one that matters.<ref name="FastCompany2015">{{cite web |title=Everything Can Change Except Values |url=https://9to5mac.com/2015/03/18/tim-cook-on-steve-jobs/ |website=Fast Company |date=March 2015 |access-date=2025-12-27}}</ref>
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Honestly, I don't think anything revolutionary that we have done was predicted to be a hit when released. It was only in retrospect that people could see its value.<ref name="FastCompany2015" />
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There's no supply chain in the world more critical to Apple than that of China.<ref name="ChinaDaily2024" />
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It's the partnership between Apple and Chinese companies that really makes things happen. We make it where one plus one equals three, instead of two.<ref name="ChinaDaily2024" />
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I believe in engagement. I believe that you can always find things to work on together. And we've found many things to work on together.<ref name="CBSChina2023">{{cite AV media |people=Cook, Tim |title=Apple CEO Tim Cook on doing business in China |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prxi0LYp8yc |publisher=CBS News |date=September 2023 |access-date=2025-12-27}}</ref>
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I don't think of life as leverage. I think of life as relationships and engagement.<ref name="CBSChina2023" />
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We abide by the laws of the country that we're in and so we respect their laws and their customs.<ref name="CBSChina2023" />
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We love to partner with people that are wicked smart, that have flexible teams that are product based, that push us and we like to push them. And so those partners we work the best with.<ref name="WSJJapan2014">{{cite web |title=Japan Is an Important Market |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3WZx2um2iI |website=WSJ Japan |date=February 2014 |access-date=2025-12-27}}</ref>
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Our objective over time is to take nothing from the Earth to make our products. This is a big idea—of not having to mine anything—is to use all recycled material.<ref name="DuaLipa2023">{{cite AV media |people=Cook, Tim; Lipa, Dua |title=Tim Cook: What it takes to run Apple |url=https://podcasts.musixmatch.com/podcast/dua-lipa-at-your-service-01hjz7abr0w71n49nd313anaf7/episode/tim-cook-what-it-takes-to-run-apple-the-worlds-largest-01hfefyc2cp7z7naa7angf1dk6 |publisher=Dua Lipa: At Your Service |date=November 2023 |access-date=2025-12-27}}</ref>
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If you zoom out many years into the future and you ask what was Apple's greatest contribution to humankind, it will be in health.<ref name="NothingButTech2025">{{cite AV media |people=Cook, Tim |title=Apple CEO Tim Cook Interview: Revealing What's Next! |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFATM2u2Exw |publisher=NothingButTech |date=September 2025 |access-date=2025-12-27}}</ref>
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I really believe that if you zoom out many years into the future and you ask what was Apple's greatest contribution to humankind, it will be in health.<ref name="9to5Mac2025">{{cite web |title=Tim Cook told us how Apple will change the world |url=https://9to5mac.com/2024/12/31/tim-cook-apple-change-the-world-taking-shape/ |website=9to5Mac / WIRED |date=December 2025 |access-date=2025-12-27}}</ref>
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I think having an iPhone every year for those people that want it is a great thing. And what we do is we allow people to trade in their phone. And so we then resell that phone if it's still working. And if it's not working, we've got ways of disassembling it and taking the materials to make a new iPhone out of.<ref name="Brut2023">{{cite AV media |people=Cook, Tim |title=Tim Cook speaks to Brut (Environment & Values) |url=https://www.brut.media/in/videos/science-technology/technology/tim-cook-speaks-to-brut |publisher=Brut. |date=October 2023 |access-date=2025-12-27}}</ref>
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It can be done. And it can be done in a way that others can replicate, which is very important for us. We want to be the ripple in the pond. We want people to look at this and say, "I can do that, too," or "I can do half of that." We want people to look at this and rip it off.<ref name="CBSDickerson2023">{{cite AV media |people=Cook, Tim; Dickerson, John |title=Apple CEO Tim Cook on creating a clean energy future |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/apple-ceo-tim-cook-on-creating-a-clean-energy-future/ |publisher=CBS Sunday Morning |date=September 2023 |access-date=2025-12-27}}</ref>
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I want to see that it pencils out because I want people to copy it. I know they are not going to copy a decision that's not a good economic decision.<ref name="CBSDickerson2023" />
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We believe privacy is very important and increasingly even more important. So we advocate for privacy being a fundamental human right.<ref name="CanalPlus2022">{{cite AV media |people=Cook, Tim |title=Clique X: Tim Cook (Full Interview) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTLPxp6MqL4 |publisher=CANAL+ |date=June 2022 |access-date=2025-12-27}}</ref>
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I think [privacy] is so precious. And I think it is so very important because if we view that we're being tracked all the time, it begins to affect our fundamental behavior. We begin to act differently. We begin to express ourselves differently if we view that we're under surveillance all the time.<ref name="CanalPlus2022" />
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I see privacy as one of the most important issues of this century.<ref name="CanalPlus2022" />
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Kids are born digital, they're digital kids now. And it is, I think, really important to set some hard rails around it. We make technology to empower people to be able to do things they couldn't do, to create things they couldn't create, to learn things they couldn't learn.<ref name="GQ2023">{{cite web |title=Tim Cook on Shaping the Future of Apple |url=https://justin.searls.co/links/2023-04-10-tim-cook-on-shaping-the-future-of-apple-gq/ |website=GQ (Global) |date=April 2023 |access-date=2025-12-27}}</ref>
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Call us naive, but we still believe that technology made by people for people and with people's well-being in mind is too valuable a tool to abandon.<ref name="Handelsblatt2021" />
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Generally speaking I am not a big fan of regulation. I'm a big believer in the free market. But we have to admit when the free market's not working. And it hasn't worked here. And I think it is inevitable that there will be some level of regulation.<ref name="Axios2018">{{cite web |title=Apple CEO Tim Cook calls new regulations “inevitable” |url=https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/es/date/2018-11-19/segment/02 |website=Axios on HBO |date=November 2018 |access-date=2025-12-27}}</ref>
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Technology is good or evil depending upon the creator. And many times it's not that the creator set out to do evil. It's that there wasn't an anticipation of these negative things that [it] could be used for.<ref name="Axios2018" />
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The web in some areas has become a dark place. And without curation, you wind up with this firehose of things that I would not want to put into an amplifier.<ref name="Vox2018">{{cite web |title=Interview with Kara Swisher & Chris Hayes |url=https://www.loopinsight.com/2021/04/06/transcript-of-tim-cook-interview-on-kara-swishers-sway-podcast/ |website=Vox (Recode) |date=April 2018 |access-date=2025-12-27}}</ref>
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We don’t think the government has the authority to do this. The All Writs Act was written over two hundred years ago... a very open ended kind of thing that was clearly meant to fill in the crevices of laws that didn’t exist yet in the country.<ref name="TIME2016">{{cite web |title=Full Transcript of TIME’s Interview with Tim Cook |url=https://time.com/4261796/tim-cook-transcript/ |website=TIME |date=March 2016 |access-date=2025-12-27}}</ref>
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This is about a government OS, the new operating system without the security controls. The thing that they want me to invent, that key can turn millions of locks.<ref name="TIME2016" />
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We’re in this bizarre position where we’re defending the civil liberties of the country against the government. Who would have ever thought this would happen?<ref name="TIME2016" />
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The government should be pushing for more encryption. That it’s a great thing. It’s like the sun and the air and the water. It’s a superb thing.<ref name="TIME2016" />
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I try to be one that really deeply believes in collaboration. Our ideas bouncing off of one another creates a bigger idea than either one of us could generate on our own.<ref name="DuaLipa2023" />
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I think curiosity is a trait that I love. I love people that ask questions, that are so curious about how things work and how people think.<ref name="DuaLipa2023" />
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I think there's still a glass ceiling. It's bizarre that it's like that. I do think there's still a ceiling for not only LGBTQ but for women, for people of color. We have more work to do.<ref name="DuaLipa2023" />
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My own deep belief is that everybody should be treated with dignity and respect. If you start from that angle, a lot of other problems kind of go away.<ref name="DuaLipa2023" />
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I care very much about our users, and I strongly believe that if they're happy over the long term, other things will take care of itself. We don't really look at the stock.<ref name="Brut2023" />
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A company should have values because a company is a collection of people. And people should have values, so by extension, a company should.<ref name="Brut2023" />
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Every launch, I try to come to Fifth Avenue because it's sort of the center of the world, and the enthusiasm is so incredible there.<ref name="TimesOfIndia2024">{{cite web |title=Apple CEO on iPhone launches: "It's an out-of-body experience" |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/apple-ceo-tim-cook-on-iphone-launches-its-an-out-of-body-experience/articleshow/113635299.cms |website=Times of India |date=September 2024 |access-date=2025-12-27}}</ref>
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I always hate the word normal in a lot of ways, because what some people use to describe normal equals straight. Some people would use that word in that kind of way.<ref name="GQ2023" />
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We try to get people tools in order to help them put the phone down. Because my philosophy is, if you're looking at the phone more than you're looking in somebody's eyes, you're doing the wrong thing.<ref name="GQ2023" />
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We're not doing the beauty contest kind of thing. That's not Apple.<ref name="Vox2018" />
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I think as is the case in most huge problems that are complex, we should not all sit around waiting for government to tell us what to do.<ref name="Vox2018" />
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Stock price is a result, not an achievement by itself. For me, it's about products and people. Did we make the best product, and did we enrich people's lives?<ref name="FastCompany2018b">{{cite web |title=Why Apple Is the World’s Most Innovative Company |url=https://www.macrumors.com/2018/02/21/tim-cook-says-apple-focuses-on-products-and-people/ |website=Fast Company |date=February 2018 |access-date=2025-12-27}}</ref>
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We say no to good ideas every day. We say no to great ideas in order to keep the amount of things we focus on very small in number.<ref name="FastCompany2018">{{cite web |title=Why Apple Is the World’s Most Innovative Company |url=https://www.everythingsupplychain.com/tim-cook-quotes-ceo-apple/ |website=Fast Company |date=February 2018 |access-date=2025-12-27}}</ref>
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Steve [Jobs] felt that most people live in a small box. They think they can't influence or change things a lot. I think he would probably call that a limited life. And more than anybody I've ever met, Steve never accepted that.<ref name="FastCompany2015" />
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We have no problem spending ten figures for the right company... that's in the best interest of Apple in the long-term. None. Zero.<ref name="WSJJapan2014" />
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