Tim Cook's Advice to Apple's Next CEO

Tim Cook is stepping down as CEO of Apple this year, and John Ternus will take his place. Here are Cook's pieces of advice for Apple's next CEO.

Tim Cook was asked what he would say to his successor

When Steve Jobs handed over the CEO seat to Tim Cook, his main piece of advice was to never ask what Jobs would do.

Instead, Jobs told Cook to "do the right thing."

Ben Cohen, in The Wall Street Journal, asked Tim Cook, around the 50th anniversary of Apple, "What is the one thing you would tell the person who comes after you?"

Cook already knew that the person would be John Ternus.

And he gave a thoughtful and comprehensive answer published today.

Tim's answer, according to the WSJ video, was as follows:

I would probably say the same thing.

If you try to get into someone else's mindset, you can become paralyzed.

So I would say: "Be yourself. Hold a firm North Star to your company's values. Because if you set your values right, and you can see your North Star clearly, you might stray a bit off the path but eventually you will come back to the right one. And I have always seen that to be true."

You can see part of Cook's response here on YouTube. The full video is available in Cohen's article.

The article is also available on Apple News for anyone with a News+ or Apple One Premier subscription.

What do you think about Tim Cook's advice to Apple's next CEO? Let us know in the comments.