Tim Cook Built the Apple Empire. What's Next for His Successor?

**Ryan Knutson** (0:06)
The first time our colleague Rolfe Winkler met Apple CEO Tim Cook, Rolfe was on crutches, and he had his jaw wired shut.

**Rolfe Winkler** (0:15)
I've told this story to a lot of people.
Years ago, I was riding the subway late at night with a friend, we were reading an iPad, a guy runs on the subway, grabs it. I reacted, ran after the guy, stupid.

**Ryan Knutson** (0:27)
Wow, bold.

**Rolfe Winkler** (0:28)
One of his friends jacked me in the side of my head, and all I remember is crawling around on the ground, looking around for a missing one. It felt like a missing tooth. Later in the hospital, they told me, oh, no, you're not missing a tooth, that's your jaw broken in half.

**Ryan Knutson** (0:44)
A few days later, Tim Cook came to the Wall Street Journal office for a meeting.

**Rolfe Winkler** (0:48)
I planted myself across the table from Tim and said through Jawswire Chat, Tim, a lot of people are stealing iPhones. Is there anything you guys can do to try to discourage theft? Like that.
And Tim was very, very nice and he said something, you know, we take this very seriously and, you know.

**Ryan Knutson** (1:12)
Fast forward several years and Rolfe's jaw is fully healed. And Tim Cook is about to retire.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:19)
The end of an era for Apple, the CEO stepping down, Tim Cook transitioning to the executive chairman.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:26)
He stepped into that role nearly 15 years ago, replacing Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:31)
Cook will hand over leadership to John Ternes, the company's head of hardware engineering.

**Ryan Knutson** (1:37)
How big of a deal is this announcement?

**Rolfe Winkler** (1:40)
Well, you know, if you had to tell me which CEO job is higher profile in the world, I'm not sure you could name one. Apple is a unique company. Most of us have multiple Apple devices. Our iPhones are basically a lobe of our brain at this point. It's hard to overstate the impact this company has on everybody's lives and what the CEO job means in terms of its importance.
When he took over, this was a company that was worth $300 billion. As of today, it's worth $4 trillion, which is a monumental increase in market capitalization.

**Ryan Knutson** (2:26)
How much pressure is there on the shoulders of his successor, John Ternes?

**Rolfe Winkler** (2:31)
Well, I mean, gosh, the hardest thing for him is how do you increase value for a company that's already trading at $4 trillion?

**Ryan Knutson** (2:41)
When Tim Cook took over as CEO, there was one big shadow, that of Steve Jobs. Now, when John Ternes takes over, there are two big shadows.

**Rolfe Winkler** (2:49)
Two big shadows. Stepping into the shoes of these two predecessors is got to be tough.

**Ryan Knutson** (3:01)
Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business and power. I'm Ryan Knutson. It's Thursday, April 23rd.
Coming up on the show, Tim Cook's legacy at Apple and the new guy set to replace him.

**SPEAKER_6** (3:30)
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**Ryan Knutson** (4:05)
When Tim Cook took over as Apple CEO 15 years ago, he had some big shoes to fill. Steve Jobs had redefined tech with the iMac, the iPod, and eventually the iPhone.

**Rolfe Winkler** (4:19)
These are not three separate devices.

**SPEAKER_4** (4:23)
This is one device.

**Tim Cook** (4:29)
And we are calling it iPhone.

**Rolfe Winkler** (4:35)
Jobs was the iconic technology CEO. He had defined the way humans interact with computing devices for 30 years almost, maybe more.

**Ryan Knutson** (4:50)
Here's Cook talking about Jobs, who died of pancreatic cancer shortly after Cook took over.

**Tim Cook** (4:56)
His name is still on the door. And we still, if you think about the things that Steve stood for at a macro level, he stood for innovation.

**Rolfe Winkler** (5:10)
So that was quite a legacy for Tim to match. And he didn't try.
He didn't try to be the innovative product visionary that Jobs was. He handed that off to others, and he really focused on operations.

**Ryan Knutson** (5:27)
Before becoming CEO, Cook made a name for himself at Apple by overhauling its supply chain.