Is Tim Cook a Good Leader?

Who is more effective at strategic decision-making, Leaders or Manager?  Leadership and Management employ different skills and methods to decision making and obtaining goals.   Some feel both have different methods; however, achieve the same results.  Some argue there is no difference between the two. Other organizations may feel one skill or decision-making method is more effective over the other.  Organizations that foster both leadership and management decision making methods are more successful than those that only rely on a traditional management style of decision making. 

                                                                                                           

Leadership can have a profound impact on strategic decision-making and the lives of individuals, communities, competition, markets, society, and culture.  Leaders inspire and motivate people to a cause.  Leaders have positive character and ethics, and their ability to be a good leader has typically developed and grown from their life experiences.  Leaders can inspire a nation to follow, an individual to change, communities to band together, lead a company to defeat the competition and a culture to change. 

Managers want something.  Managers get the tasks and the goals accomplished with systems, procedures, structure, process, and policy.  Managers get results through enforcing the guidelines through implementing systems, best practices, standards, rules, and processes (Watson, 1983).  Managers manage tasks, and processes, projects, systems, deliverables, and staff.  Managers provide structure for individuals, communities, society, and culture.  Managers run the established play book for competition and strategic decision making, often making decisions based on structure and guidelines. 

When it comes to strategic decision-making leaders are more apt to driving the strategy decisions, and managers are more apt for helping to carrier out the strategic plan to execute the strategy.  A leader who has been placed in a Win -Lose situation will be more apt to identify the issues in the true face of reality, make the hard decisions, absorb the consequences and willing to support their people and work along side of them until the missions is accomplished.  Leaders are inclined to make wok exciting by encouraging an organization style that is intuitive, highly personal and tied in closely to the “carrots” that motivate key players to perform (Watson, 1983). 

Leaders will make sure their key people are taken care of, ensuring they have what they need, and leaders will be there alongside them with them during difficulty to get the job accomplished.  A famous example is an Air Force general was retiring and during the retirement ceremony his troops were lined up outside the tent where the general was standing inside.  During the ceremony it began to rain.  The general stopped the ceremony, ran to get his raincoat, and stood outside in the rain with his troops during the remainder of the ceremony.  

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple was named the World’s greatest leader by Fortune magazine.  Tim was a former operations manager for Apple and took the helm following Steve Jobs, and had the challenge of being a leader in the shallow of Steve’s reputation.  Tim grew into this own strength as a leader by focusing on the strategy of focusing on the existing strengths of the organization and a lack of interest in micromanaging.  Tim faced a number of challenges and took continued criticisms from the media, showed his leadership in his words of “I am not running for office. I don’t need your vote. I have to feel myself doing what is right.  I think that is a much better way to live”.   Tim has democratic management style looking for consensus among leaders for strategic decisions, is an advocate of human rights, using the strengths of Apple to grow in the market and giving back to the community.  Tim was big into philanthropy and had a plan to give his wealth away to give back to the community (Gamble J., Peteraf M., Thompson A., Strickland L. 2018). 

References:

Watson, C. (1983).  Leadership, Management, and the Seven Keys. 

Gamble J., Peteraf M., Thompson A., Strickland L. (2018). Charting a Company’s Direction, Its Vision, Mission, Objectives, and Strategy. 

Khan, H. (2020). Stop Managing and Start Leading. Retrieved from lbry.tv: https://lbry.tv/@BusinessBalls:9/Stop-Managing-and-Start-Leading-by-Hamza-Khan-:b?r=4C7183PFXyVQhgoDpSvTHumsqoXrgADC

Sinic S. (2020). Management versus Leadership. Retrieved from: https://lbry.tv/@Business:5/Management-vs.-Leadership:7?r=4C7183PFXyVQhgoDpSvTHumsqoXrgADC

Apple's Business Strategy and Climate Change

Apple Inc. has made great strides in helping reduce their impact on global climate change. According to Apple.com (2019), “each device is measured by its impact on our carbon footprint and how environmentally friendly – and safe – its materials are (para. 3). At Apple, each year we issue a public environmental responsibility report to show our progress toward environmental sustainability. Apple’s environmental plan, according to Apple.com’s (2019) environmental responsibility report, us and a significant number of our suppliers’ power comes from 100% renewable energy sources. We are sourcing our products with renewable and recycled materials and expect to move to fully using recycled materials for all of our products. We are decreasing the energy use of the products we sell and are focused on continually reducing our carbon footprint. We are attempting to transition into a zero-waste company. We are composting, reusing, and recycling. Research is being conducted on how to reduce and eliminate what is unable to be recycled or composted. Research is being conducted on better sourcing of chemicals. We strive to understand how the chemicals we use affect the environment and people. We have a Regulated Substances Specification that encompasses every chemical that is used by Apple and our suppliers. Through this we place restrictions on the use of certain substances. We are constantly looking to innovate our products to reduce harmful materials. According to Worland and Alter (2019), the current Republican presidential administration strongly disbelieves in the effect of global climate change; however, the Democrats have debated and scientist of strong evidence to support that climate change is happening and humans are contributing to it. Worland and Alter (2019) also state that “more than 70% of Americans now understand that climate change is taking place” (para. 5). Regardless of what the legislation dictates, most of society understands that climate change is necessary and company’s that exhibit good stewardship toward the environment will have a more favorable public perception. Here at Apple, we will continue to improve our environmental stewardship and reduce our effect on global climate change. Climate change legislation will undoubtedly change the products consumers have access to purchasing. With stricter laws on climate change, it is drastically changing our culture. It will make consumers and businesses alike more conscious of how we are affecting the planet, but the current laws do not place a strong emphasis on climate change, but many companies are taking the proactive approach as you stated. With the inevitable increase of the strictness of climate change legislation, companies that are taking the proactive approach and going above what current legislation dictates are going to more profitable in the future.  It is fascinating to me that Apple is not only focused on reducing their impact on climate change, but are so aware that they understand how to make their clothes regionally to accommodate that athlete's competing in that region. That truly is understanding your customer's needs from a business standpoint. It really helps maintain their brand and competitive advantage. If the GDP does fall, the preparation Apple is doing now will help the company through the economic downturn.  References Apple.com (2019). Environmental responsibility report. Retrieve from https://www.apple.com/environment/pdf/Apple_Environmental_Responsibility_Report_2019.pdf Worland, J., & Alter, C. (2019). A New Climate for Climate. TIME Magazine, 193(12), 30–34.