Does Apple love its chief executive Tim Cook? Apparently so, according to a recent survey, which rated his performance at 97 percent.
Jobs site Glassdoor.com said the score was two points higher than Steve Jobs' 95 percent approval rating for his March 2010 to March 2011 performance. (Jobs stepped down from the position in 2011.) Cook is followed by Ernst & Young CEO Jim Turley and Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs, with both reaching 95 percent, and American Express CEO Ken Chenault and Google CEO Larry Page, both trailing with a 94 percent approval rate. (You can check out the full list here.)
While some may be shocked that Cook slid so easily into his new position, we don't think anyone should be surprised. Cook was likely highly competent and steeped in Apple culture enough not to cause too much upheaval. But does this mean that Apple has embraced Cook and any new ideas?
Cook said he planned on running Apple as it had been in the past, but he also has made some subtle tweaks that clearly would not have happened under Jobs. Tim Cook gave a charitable donation match to employees, decided to give its shareholders dividends and was the first Apple CEO to make a trip to China to visit its supply chain. These were all things that marked him as a different leader than Jobs. And it wasn't a bad thing. In fact, it could be argued all three decisions were fundamentally good ones.
While we believe some were scared of someone other than Jobs being in charge, Cook has made the position his own in a careful, methodical way. We'll see how he scores next year after a few more changes.
