Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'The job itself is a lonely job'

Just a few weeks before Apple unveils the next iPhone, Washington Post published a long interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook. In it, Tim Cook reflects on his first five years as CEO and discusses the future of the company as well.

On being asked, what exactly has changed in the last five years, since Jobs, Tim Cook stated that, “The company is four times larger [by revenue since 2010]. We’ve broadened the iPhone lineup. That was a really key decision, and I think a good one. We’ve gone into the Apple Watch business, which has gotten us into wellness and in health. We keep pulling that string to see where that takes us. Lots of core technology work has been done.”

Cook believes in not being a traditional CEO. He says, “I think of a traditional CEO as being divorced from customers. A lot of consumer company CEOs — they’re not really interacting with consumers.” He also added that the “CEO job is lonely”.

When asked about the company’s long-term growth prospects, Cook stated that in today’s products, the company has services such as iCloud, App Store, Apple Pay and others, which over the last 12 months grew about $4 billion to over $23 billion [in sales].

When asked about his mistakes made during his tenure as CEO, Cook reportedly stated the comments made to Fast Company regarding Maps, but also discussed the hiring of John Browett to lead Apple's retail team.