Tim Cook: Apple’s CEO Is No New Jobs
蒂姆·库克：苹果CEO并非新挑战
史蒂夫·乔布斯声名远扬，并带领苹果奇迹般成长。其继任者库克比乔布斯更加深居简出和平易近人。蒂姆·库克正在改变苹果，苹果公司目前正从以乔布斯为中心转变为普通的企业，库克的做法有时会与乔布斯的理念截然不同，如乔布斯一直反对的派发股息和回购股票活动等。而在成为苹果CEO后首次公开亮相的D10年度全数字化大会上，苹果现任掌门人亦明确表示将不会完全效仿乔布斯的做法。
When Steve Jobs appeared at the Wall Street Journal’s annual All Things Digital conference, he’d always be himself: brilliant, insightful, and arrogant. Even when he was dissembling, which he frequently did in his interviews with the conference hosts Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, his performances were captivating.
当史蒂夫·乔布斯出现在《华尔街日报》的年度全数字化大会上时，他总是有自己的风格：才华横溢、见解非凡，还有点骄傲自负。即使当他在掩饰时，他的表现也很有魅力，在与会议主持人沃尔特·莫斯伯格和卡拉·斯韦什尔的访谈中，他经常如此。
It was less so on Wednesday evening when Tim Cook, who became Apple’s CEO just before Jobs’ death last fall, took the stage in southern California1 . Cook is brilliant, and was plainly at ease in front of an array of tech industry luminaries and financiers. And I didn’t hear any outright lies. But with a few exceptions, during the 90-minute interview, his performance was a master class of evasion and cliché2 .
当去年秋天在乔布斯离世之前成为苹果总裁的蒂姆·库克周三晚上登台接受在南加州举行的数字化大会采访时，他的表现没有乔布斯那么明显。库克很有才华，在众多高新技术产业杰出人物和金融家面前表现得游刃有余。我并未听到任何明显的谎言。但也有一些例外，在90 分钟的采访中，他表现得就像一个满口陈词滥调的推托大师。
In its own way, though, the Cook interview was the most illuminating public appearance to date of one of the world’s most influential and powerful corporate heads. To those who have been watching, this may have been no surprise. But to a wider audience that will watch the video in months to come, Cook will come into clearer focus.
然而，就其本身而言，这次对库克的采访是迄今为止全球最有影响力及权势的企业高管中最具启发性的一次公开露面。对那些一直在观看采访的人而言，这可能一点都不意外。但对更多将在未来几个月观看该采访录像的外界观众而言，库克将会越来越受到人们的关注。
Cook has ample justification for his evident self-confidence. Under Jobs, his work as Apple’s chief operating officer—chiefly, in turning the supply chain into one of Apple’s most important competitive advantages—set a modern standard. Apple has gone from strength to strength, with stunning results generated primarily from the sale of its mobile devices, the iPad and iPhone. It’s possible that Apple could become the first company to be worth $1tn (though I think it’s unlikely).
库克有充足的理由表现得信心十足。在乔布斯的带领下，作为苹果首席营运官，他的工作——主要在于将供应链转变成苹果最重要的竞争优势之一的过程中——制定了现代标准。苹果越来越强大，主要从移动设备iPad 和 iPhone 的销售上取得了令人炫目的成绩。苹果很可能成为第一家市值一万亿美元的公司（尽管我认为这不太可能）。
The Apple CEO made it clear that he is not attempting to be a new Steve Jobs. Echoing material from Walter Isaacson’s authorized Jobs biography, published shortly after his death, Cook reminded the audience that his predecessor had insisted that he not run Apple in a “What would Steve do?” manner. Where Jobs largely succeeded in extending his famous “reality distortion field3” to cover this high-octane crowd, Cook plainly knew he could never accomplish the same effect.
苹果总裁明确表示，他并不打算成为一个新的史蒂夫·乔布斯。库克对《乔布斯传》中的内容作出回应，提醒观众说，他的前任曾坚持要他不应该以“史蒂夫会如何做” 的方式来经营苹果，这本书由乔布斯授权的作者沃尔特·艾萨克森所撰写，在乔布斯离世不久后出版。在乔布斯将其著名的“现实扭曲力场” 影响至富有活力的人群这一主要成功领域上，库克很清楚他永远不可能达到同样的成就。
Still, Cook certainly emulated several of Jobs’signal qualities at the conference. Asked about Apple’s penchant for secrecy, Cook said the company was “going to double-down4 on secrecy on (upcoming) products”, though he said the company will be more open about its supplier and environmental processes5 .
然而，在会上，库克必定仿效了乔布斯的几个显著特点。当问及苹果的保密倾向时，库克表示公司“将加倍关注（未来）产品的保密性”，但他也表示公司对供应商及其产品生产过程中的环境将不那么保密。
While it’s common for CEOs to recite talking points and little else in such circumstances, Cook went beyond that. He exuded disdain for the give-and-take6 of the interview format—again and again, ducking questions he considered inconvenient or heading into territory Apple considers a deep secret. And when Fortune magazine’s Adam Lashinsky, who wrote a smart book on Apple’s methods without any cooperation from the company7, asked Cook to describe his own best and worst qualities as a CEO, the response was a casual rebuff.
尽管在这种情况下公司总裁一般都会背诵谈话要点，其他什么内容都没有，但库克犹有过之。他对采访一问一答的形式显得很是不屑——不断回避他觉得不便回答的问题，或是把问题引入苹果要极度保密的范围。当《财富》杂志的亚当·拉什斯基要求库克描述他作为总裁最好及最糟的性格特点时，库克的回答却是一种漫不经心的拒绝，亚当·拉什斯基曾在没有苹果公司配合的情况下写过一本饶有趣味的关于苹果策略的书。
There were moments, though, when the audience got more substance. Apple recruited Cook back in 1998. Cook was deeply skeptical. But in his first meeting with Jobs, it took just five minutes before he was convinced to jettison a comfortable executive post at Compaq (later bought by Hewlett Packard) in order to join a then-struggling Apple. Jobs described a strategy—moving squarely into consumer electronics when other computer companies were racing toward the enterprise (large customers)—that was compelling.
但是，也有一些时候观众了解到了更多的实质内容。苹果1998 年曾向库克发出过聘请，当时库克深感怀疑。但在他和乔布斯的第一次会面中，仅用了5 分钟时间，他就被说服为了加入当时正挣扎求存的苹果而放弃了康柏（后来被惠普公司收购）舒适的高层管理职位。乔布斯当时描述了一种令人信服的战略—— 趁其他电脑公司还在面向企业（大型客户）竞争时，直接进入消费性电子产品。
When you’re following the herd8, Cook said, “you’re destined to be average, at best.” Seduced by Jobs’ ideas and uncompromising demand for excellence, “I decided to throw caution to the wind9 and do this.”
库克认为，当你人云亦云时，“也就注定了你的平庸，至多如此”。受乔布斯的想法和对卓越品质不懈追求的诱惑，“我决定抛诸一切去做。”
Apple’s small shifts under Cook have included a program whereby the company matches employees’ charitable contributions10, a big change from Jobs’ adamant (and, I believe, misguided) belief that corporations and philanthropy should not mix. He persuasively made the case11 that Apple’s new approach spreads the wealth more efficiently than the traditional corporate-giving model. He’d make an even better case if he let shareholders—the actual owners—do the same with some of the company’s billions in cash, though the new dividend program is useful in itself.
在库克领导下，苹果的细微变化包括为员工慈善捐款补贴的项目，这与乔布斯认为企业与慈善不应该混为一谈这一固执的看法（我认为是被误导了） 截然不同。他令人信服地证明了苹果的新做法在均财富方面较之传统的企业赠予模式更为有效。虽然这个新的分红计划本身非常有效，但他甚至更好地证明了如若让投资人—— 实际拥有者—— 用公司数十亿美元现金中的一部分做同样的事情，情况会更好。
What emerged, ultimately, from Cook’s appearance was what he undoubtedly intended to display: a man of supreme self-control, plus equally supreme confidence in the company’s future. Given the nature of such events, expecting anything deeper was probably wishful thinking. But when it was Jobs on the stage, however one felt about him, we did get more—much, much more.
库克的出场最终所表现出来的无疑就是他想展示的那一部分：极度律己的人，再加上对公司未来前景同等的自信。考虑到这些事件的性质，期待更进一步的内容很可能是痴心妄想。然而， 如果是乔布斯在台上的话，无论对他是什么样的感觉，我们确实能得到更多的东西——会多得多。
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