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00:00You get a call from Steve Jobs. There was a sparkle in his eye that I'd never seen in a CEO before. Did your friends tell you this was not a good idea. They thought I was nuts. Warren Buffett still uses an old flip phone. I told him that I'll personally cut all the hall to do tech support for you expose your own personal life with it. I thought I'm making the wrong call. Why was it called the Apple Watch and not the I. I kind of like the EV. What is that. Well you're the CEO. So how would you fix your time please. People wouldn't recognize me if my tie was fixed but it just seemed too sweet. All right I don't consider myself a journalist and nobody else would consider myself a journalist. I began to take on the life of being an interviewer even though I have a day job running a private equity firm. How do you define leadership . What is it that makes somebody tick quite a reception you got here. I thought it was for you. No it's for you. You've now been the CEO of Apple since spent July of 2011. The earnings are up about 80 percent. So have you ever thought you can't do better than this and maybe you should just say well I've done a great job and now I'm going to do something else with my life. We view the the stock price and revenues and profits as a result of doing things right on the innovation side. On the creativity side focusing on the right products treating customers like their jewels and focusing on the user experience. I don't even know the numbers that you just quoted. This is not something that I that's not even in my orbit to be honest. Well so when you announce your quarterly earnings analysts always say well we didn't sell as much much of this product as that we thought they would. So does that bother you. It did at one time. It doesn't anymore. The we run Apple for the long term. And so it's always struck me as bizarre that there's a fixation on how many units are sold in a 90 day period is we're making decisions that are multi-year or kind of kind of decisions and so we try to be very clear that we do not run the company for people that want to make a quick buck . We run the company for the long term. Well one of the shareholders who recently surfaced is having bought 75 million additional shares. Is Warren Buffett. Are you pleased to have him as a shareholder. I'm overjoyed. I'm thrilled because Warren is focused on the long term. And so there is we're in sync. It's the way we run the company it's the way he invests. And yeah. So I could not be happier. Well have you thought about this Warren still uses that old flip phone. I know he has no smartphone. Have you thought how much more your stock could go up if he actually used the product. I'm I'm I am working on it. And I told him that I'll personally come out on the hall to do tech support for. So you're now in a building that was designed and inspired initially by Steve Jobs Apple part Apple part and you've moved in recently. Steve had the vision that the workplace should facilitate people working together having these common areas that people could work together and run into each other without planning on doing it . And at the level of ideas and creativity and innovation that would come out of that would be phenomenal. And we're seeing that and you're convinced standing up working is better than sitting down. We have given all of our employees a hundred percent standing. If you can stand for a while and then sit and so on and so forth this is much better for our lifestyle with this yeah. We could get the set up by standing up for Dax so let me ask you about how you came to this position. So you grew up in Alabama a very very small rural town between Pensacola and Mobile on the Gulf. And you grew up where you are star athlete where your star scholar where you are a tech nerd . What were you. Well I would say I was a star anything. I worked hard at school I had some reasonably good grades did benefit I got in my childhood was being in a family that was a loving family and a public school system that was good. And you know that's a huge benefit. And honestly a benefit that many many kids don't have these days. We went to Auburn and how did you do there. I did. I did pretty good. I did pretty good. I really got into engineering in a big way and in industrial engineering and so then you went to work for IBM. I did. Yes. I started as a production engineer out designing manufacturing lines. And at that time robotics were beginning to take off. And so we were we were focused on automation. I wouldn't say we successively focused on it but I learned a lot from going through that as well. So you were there for about 12 years and then you joined another company called Compact. Yes. So your compact which at the time I think was one of the biggest manufacturers of personal computers. They were they were the number one at the time. So you're there for about six months and you get a call from Steve Jobs or somebody working for him saying Can you come and join Apple Apple was modest compared to compact. Why did you take the interview and why did you join Apple. Yeah it's a good question. Steve had had come back to the company and was essentially replacing the executive team that was there at the time. And I thought you know this is an opportunity to talk to the guy that started the whole industry. And Steve met me on Saturday and it was like just minutes into talking with him. I want to do it which I was totally shocked myself but I there was a there was a sparkle in his eye that I'd never seen in a CEO before in there was he. He was sort of turning left when everyone else was turning right. It was almost it almost on everything that he talked about. He was doing something extraordinarily different than conventional wisdom. Many people were were abandoning the consumer market because they were just it was a bloodbath Steve was doing the exact opposite. He was doubling down on the consumer. At the time everybody else the conventional wisdom said Go put your money in storage and servers. And I thought it was brilliant. And so with talking with him and the type of questions he asked we're all so different. And you know I I did literally before I left there thank you. I hope he offers me a job because I really want to do this. Did your friends tell you this was not a good idea . They thought I was nuts. They thought I was nuts again conventional wisdom was you're working for the top personal computer maker in the world. Why would you ever leave. You've had a great career ahead. And there was it wasn't a decision that you could kind of sit down and do the engineering kind of analysis saying Here are the pluses and here the minuses because that analysis would always say stay put it was this through a voice in your head that was saying Go West young man go west . Despite the fact that there was no state income tax in Texas and there is in California you still said you going to go west. So in hindsight this was the best professional decision of your life. ISE so maybe the best decision of my life. I'm not sure you need to put professional Steve Jobs health is such that he couldn't continue to be the CEO. I thought honestly my my thought at that time was he was gonna be chairman and he would do that forever. And unfortunately it turned out that so you go there and what is your job and Apple running worldwide operations and the company that Tom was struggling in many different areas and operations is no different. Our economies of scale didn't lend itself to us doing manufacturing and in different places like we like existed in the company at that time. And so we found partners that were expert at manufacturing and we maintained the sort of the intellectual knowledge of how the process and obviously all of the design of the product . When you got there and you're working for Steve was it better than you thought worse than you thought . More challenging than you thought. I found it to be liberating is the way I would describe it because it's you could you could kind of talk to Steve about something very big. And if it resonated with him he would just say okay. And you could do it. And so it was like of you know like a total revelation for me that a company could run like this because I was used to these layers and bureaucracy and studies and you know studying things and sort of the paralysis that companies can get into. And Apple was totally different than that. I realized that if I couldn't get something done I could just go to the nearest mirror and look at it. And that was the reason Steve Jobs health was such that he couldn't continue to be the CEO. He told the board that and you were announced as the CEO I think around July of 2011 something around there when you became the CEO did you feel you had that Steve would say here's what I was interested in doing and you fulfill my goals or did you feel you had your own view on what you should do and how did you balance the two you're succeeding a legendary figure. It's not so sequential is that we have a really open company and so most of us could finish the other person Senates as even when we might disagree with them. And so it wasn't a matter of Steve having this secret file or something. He was always sharing his ideas all the time. And so very different than that. And I thought honestly my my thought at that time and I know people are telling me you're just not very smart . But my view at that time was he was going to be chairman and he would do that forever and that we would figure out the you know the sort of the relationship change there and that's what I thought. And you know unfortunately it didn't turn out that way. Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone. You have a product that is the most successful consumer product in the history of mankind which is the iPhone. There was a sense that it was a profound product . It was a game changer. If you go back and watch the keynote that Steve announced it you can feel his passion in and the way the way he described. I still remember it like it was yesterday. So how many iPhones have now been sold well over a billion. So there are 7 1/2 billion people on the face of the earth so one out of every seven people has one or less. Well some people probably about more than one along the way. I hope so anyway. Well while you do have new ones coming out every so often. So is it if I buy a new iPhone should I expect another one in two years or you should expect that Apple is going to keep innovating and and you should jump on the train now though because because life is so short . OK. Well I know I have been here and I have my iPhone here actually and I do use it and I love it. And one time when you and I were in China I couldn't quite work something and I asked you to help me and you said look I normally don't do texts but people were nice and and it did work. I came out with the Apple Watch not too long ago. Why was it called the Apple Watch and not the high watch because you have iPhone iPod iPad. Why not. I watch . Did you ever think of that or and I'm sure you must have thought of it. I'm sure it's a novel idea. But I'm just curious. It was something that we thought of. It wasn't a crazy question. So no it wasn't a crazy question at all an Apple Watch one out. Well I kind of like the Apple Watch. What is that. Well you're the CEO so Apple CEO says something. OK. So how are they doing. They're doing fantastic. Cellular is now on the watch. You don't have to travel with your iPhone you can just use your watch. One of the my best moments of the day is to go through my e-mails that are from users and I get so many each week from people that found out they have a heart problem from their watch. It's alerting you if you've been sitting and your heart has climbed to a level that doesn't make sense relative to the activity that you've been doing. Suppose you don't want to know if you have a heart problem. Well we think most people do because you can go seek help. And certainly David so many people have written and said the watch alerted me to a problem. I took an action and went to the cardiologist he told me that if I had not gone there I wouldn't be alive. So you say you go through your e-mails and then when he e-mails you directly I can't see you can't I'm sure they do. Will you How could you respond all those e-mail. I can't. But but it doesn't mean that I can't read a fair number of those myself because I think it's important to sort of keep your hands on the pulse of the user. Have you ever thought that maybe you could run for president of the United States because I think you know the president is something that you'd love to be president but not ever wrong. And that should never happen in our country. And so that kind of eliminates today let's talk about some of the values that you've been espousing. One is a privacy. We see privacy as a fundamental human right. And so to us it's right up there with some of the other civil liberties that make Americans what they are. He has defines us as Americans and we see that this is becoming a larger and larger issue for people. And so our our talks on this is we we take a minimum amount of data from customers only that which we need to to provide it a great service and then we work really hard to protect it with encryption and so forth. You've also talked about the importance of equality. Yeah. Why is that important to you as I look at the world. Many of the problems of the world come down to the lack of equality. It's the. It's the fact that it's the kid that's born in one ZIP code who doesn't have a good education because they happen to be born in that zip code. It's someone that is maybe an LGBT community that is fired because of that. It's someone that has a different religion than the majority and therefore they're ostracized in some way. It's very simply I think if one day you could wave a wand and everybody in the world would treat each other with dignity and respect. There are many many problems that would would go away with that. So you exposed your own personal life a bit. You know the privacy that you've said other people should have you kind of gave up some of your privacy. Why did you do that . Well I did it for a greater purpose is that it became clear to me that there were lots of kids out there that were not being treated well including in their own families and that kids need someone to say oh they did OK in life and they're gay. So it must not be a life sentence in some kind of way . And when we're getting these nodes it would tug on my heart even more. And it got to the point where I thought I'm making the wrong call by trying to do something that is comfortable for me which is to stay private that I needed to do something for the greater good. And so that's why. No no regrets now you're obviously in the public eye. Recently you had a meeting with President Trump. What was the meeting with President Trump like. You know I wouldn't want to say what he said. What I talked about was I talked about trade and the importance of trade and how I felt that two countries trading together make the pie larger and that it's true. I think undoubtably true that not everyone has been advantaged from that in either country. And we've got to work on that. But I I felt that tariffs were not the right approach there and I showed him some more analytical kinds of things to demonstrate why. We also talked about immigration and the importance of fixing the dreamer issue. Now you know we're only one court ruling away from a catastrophic case there. So do you think you made progress on these issues. I hope so and I hope so. Apple has roughly 260 billion dollars of cash more or less. What do you intend to do with that cash. We're going to create a new site a new campus within the United States. We're going to hire 20000 people in so we're going to spend 30 billion and CAC acts over the next several years. And so we're what number one we're investing in investing a ton in this country. We're also going to buy some of our stock because we view our stock is a is a is a good value. So your dad your parents lived to see your success. My my mother passed away three three years ago and my father still was. So your mother in law is in it. Your mother lived to see you be the CEO. She did. And did she say mom you're great. I always knew you'd be successful and can you help me with my iPhone. Can you help this. Well I did get both of them on I pad and I finally convinced my father to start using iPhones and so but they honestly they treat me like they did 20 years ago and 40 years ago 60 years ago. He calls with tips about what to do or tell you how to do things or if I do something. He doesn't think it's good he tells me about it. So yeah I saw you on that show you are very good so I'm hoping you edit this well . You're obviously a pretty public figure. You were not before . Have you ever thought that maybe you could run for president United States because you know you've seen the president up close. I'm not political . Right. I I love focusing on the policy stuff but in the dysfunction kind of an inn in Washington between the legislative branch and and so forth I think that I can make a bigger difference in the world. Doing what I'm doing and I appreciate the comment but I think yeah. You know the president is something that you'd love to be president but not ever run . And that should never happen in our country. And so that kind of eliminates me of all the CEOs that I know that have run major companies you are the lowest ego kind of most self-effacing person I've seen in this kind of position. So have you ever noticed that you're different than the other people were CEOs. And how do you maintain this self-effacing kind of modest demeanor when you're running the biggest company in the world. What would you when you work at Apple there is a high expectation on every one to perform and to contribute and because of that high bar and you never quite get there including the CEO including every job in there. And so I'd never feel that way very long if I ever felt that way. Well thank you for taking the time today and I say you're having me . You're the first person I've interviewed without a tie on and so I was in your honor and I'm going to sleep in a tie. ISE .

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The David Rubenstein Show: Tim Cook

Apple CEO Tim Cook talks about working with Steve Jobs, the values at Apple, including privacy and equality, and if he'd run for president. He speaks with David Rubenstein on "The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations," taped May 13. (Source: Bloomberg)

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