How Apple Was Reinvented, and What Team Cook Has Brought Us

In the wake of the launch of two new iPhones and also the Apple Watch, many would say that Apple CEO Tim Cook has brought the company he took over from Steve Jobs into a new era. In an extensive interview with Businessweek, Cook and several other Apple executives talked about the ways in which the company has changed in the last three years, and what's going to happen going forward.

Some of the details that come out in the interview are already well known - for instance, the fact that Steve Jobs' office has been left untouched after his death in 2011. "It felt right to leave it as it is," Cook told Businessweek. "That's Steve's office."

The interview also reveals a company that's more reactive to the market. The iPhone 6 Plus in particular is a big departure for Apple, and a clear reaction to the popularity of phablets. But the Apple Watch could also fall into the same category. A lack of new product lines had been dogging Apple since Cook took over, and things could have reached a breaking point with the company's stock dropping by 40 percent last year. According to Businessweek, this made Cook "accelerate the Watch project." Apple's Jony Ive told Businessweek, "It's probably one of the most difficult projects I have ever worked on."

There is also a lot of interesting detail about the changing culture at Apple. From the small, "renegade" teams that made the Macintosh and the iPhone to a large team that blends various disciplines together to make the Apple Watch, the company has gone through some clear changes.

"We would never have gotten there in the old model," Cook said. These new products are reminders "of why we exist. The things we should be doing at Apple are things that others can't."

The Watch is just one of the big new changes that Apple has brought in. The other one is Apple Pay, an NFC-based mobile payments service. Users will be able to pay for their shopping by holding a finger against the Touch ID fingerprint scanner, instead of having to take out their credit cards. The idea isn't exactly new - the concept was first extolled by Sony as far back as 1989, and NFC was approved as a standard as far back as 2003. The technology came to Android in 2010, with the Nexus S.

But Apple has been able to garner large scale support for its payment system and this could be a game changer in a way that technology alone can't be. Apple has secured at least 200,000 retail locations in the US for the launch of Apple Pay, including including Bloomingdale's, Duane Reade, Macy's, McDonald's, Sephora, Staples, Subway, Walgreens and Whole Foods Market. With support for credit and debit cards from American Express, MasterCard and Visa, issued by banks including Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citi and Wells Fargo, Apple has accounted for 83 percent of the credit card purchase volume in the US.

Apple is famous as a company that finds its own way, so to see the company working towards joint solutions, both inside and outside, is a big change. As Businessweek points out, this was not how Apple functioned under Jobs. Businessweek writes:

The company Cook inherited was broken up into specialized groups devoted to hardware, software design, marketing, and finance, all working separately and sharing little information with each other; they didn't need to because the overarching vision resided in Jobs's head.

Under Cook, this would change, and he told Businessweek of some of the benefits of this change - it's made it possible for features like Continuity, where you can take a call on your iPad or send messages from your Mac, seamlessly switching between your different devices.

"We would never have gotten there in the old model," Cook said. These new products are reminders "of why we exist. The things we should be doing at Apple are things that others can't."

Of course, these culture changes also brought culture clash. As Businessweek reports, some senior people left Apple because of the changes:

To one former senior designer, accustomed to spitballing sessions with Jobs to go over details as minute as the look of screen icons, the company no longer has the same allure. He says he left because Apple grew too large and that products once created in small groups are now done in sprawling teams. Others chafe at Cook's insistence on financial discipline; in meetings once devoted to the hallowed act of reviewing products, he asks managers pointed questions about spending and hiring projections, says a person involved. Staff from finance and operations now sit alongside engineers and designers in product road map sessions with key component partners.

Team Cook

The biggest changes that have emerged, it is clear, lie in the personality of the organisation. Apple might not have let go of its secrecy or high end products, but in other ways, Businessweek reports that the company has gone through a lot of change.

You can see this in the kind of responses that people outside Apple gave Businessweek for the article. Ginni Rometty, IBM's chief executive, called Cook the "hallmark of a modern-day CEO. It's all about clarity of vision and knowing what to do and what not to do." Carriers say there is more of a personal touch. "Tim's a tough negotiator," said Glenn Lurie, CEO of AT&T Mobility, who's been working with Cook since before the release of the iPhone in 2007. "He's a very consistent guy, and that makes it a lot easier to do business with him."

Cook "is comfortable enough to say 'we need help here,' and then he goes out and gets it," said Jimmy Iovine, who became a part of Apple when it acquired Beats Electronics.

The tone inside the company is equally positive. Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at Apple, told Businessweek that the core Apple team is not likely to fragment. "A lot of us at Apple are here because we love the products," he said. "We think we are making the best products we have ever made as a company." Other executives shared similar sentiments with Businessweek.

"I feel damn proud to be working as a part of Tim's team," said Eddy Cue, Senior Vice President for Internet Software and Services. "If he gets a little bit of recognition from the outside world, that is great. He deserves a lot more than he is going to get."