Business | The great successor’s second act

Apple has had a successful decade. The next one looks tougher

As Tim Cook celebrates his tenth anniversary at the helm, the world’s most valuable company faces fresh challenges

|CUPERTINO

THE APPLE will surely fall, even if ever so slowly. When Tim Cook took the helm from Steve Jobs, the firm’s co-founder, a decade ago, even the most boosterish of Apple fanboys worried that the company was destined to decline. Without Apple’s original Willie Wonka, the digital chocolate factory was about to be run by an automaton who made his career organising global supply chains and scrutinising spreadsheets. How could someone with so little dazzle inspire Apple employees to continue creating “insanely great” products, in Jobs’s famous formulation?

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “The great successor’s second act”

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