John Ternus is putting his stamp on Apple by focusing on the company's design work, with the CEO taking an almost Jobsian approach to make design great again. The era of Tim Cook as Apple CEO was one of growth, with sales and manufacturing the core of his tenure at the top. Under the rule of Ternus, design is becoming a top priority once more for the company, as Ternus aims to add more to the company by strengthening its weaker areas.
Writing in Sunday's "Power On" newsletter for *Bloomberg*, Mark Gurman writes about a conversation between Ternus and Cook, and how Ternus needed to be himself as CEO instead of emulating Cook. To Ternus, it was an apparent turning point. Cook had spent his tenure as CEO working on where he could generate "the most value for Apple," Ternus told employees. Therefore, Ternus believed he had to do the same, while still being himself.
The result is that areas Cook focused on, such as financial strategy and the supply chain, are being handled by CFO Kevan Parekh and COO Sabih Khan. Ternus, who is very much an engineer, is instead working closely with chief hardware officer Johny Srouji and hardware engineering leader Tom Marieb. At the same time, he's also taking a lot more time to look at design, which has fallen behind since the departure of Jony Ive in 2019.
A Jobsian change, Ternus has previous experience working with the design studio, in his role as head of hardware engineering. After becoming CEO, he has become even closer to the design teams, and has reportedly worked hands-on in the studio numerous times a week. This is a stark contrast to Cook, who very much focused on the other areas of the company that he knew best. Cook only visited the studio for about an hour once a month, the report said. Cook's arms-reach approach to design was also a big departure from his predecessor, Steve Jobs.
Source: AppleInsider · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing