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As announced earlier today, Tim Cook sat down at the Fortune CEO event to speak with Fortune editor Adam Lashinsky. Cook addressed Apple's controversial involvement in social issues, the focus of the company on privacy, and much more.
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Social problems
In regards to Apple's involvement in social issues, Cook explained that he only expresses his opinion when it's something that Apple has learned about it. For example, he touted the number of immigrants and people on DACA at Apple as a basis for constantly talking about the need for an immigration reform.
Cook also said that businesses are a collection of people, and so by extension should have values. When Mr. Lashinsky insisted that people say that businesses should focus solely on commercial things, Cook said it was not something he believed.
"For Apple, we have always had the idea of changing the world.I've appeared a number of years ago that you do not do this by staying silent about the important things. For us, this has been the main problem.
There is no formula for when you speak and when you do not speak. The way I think about it is if it's something on which Apple has particular expertise. I do not want Apple to be another talking head. We should only talk when we have some knowledge to bring about. Do we have the right to talk about this problem? Do we have a standing?
I do not think business should only deal with commercial things. Business for me is nothing more than a collection of people. If people should have values, then by extension a company should have values.
We have a lot of immigrants working at Apple. We have the first generation, and at some point we are all immigrants. If you look at the number of people we have on DACA, we have over 300 people. I want to get up for them. We have several thousand people on our team who are on H1B and who are caught in the green card backlog.
This gives us both a perspective to share on the importance of having different perspectives when leading a global business with global customers.
In the end, Cook said that it's easy to jump to immigration numbers, but what's important to remember, is that people facing these problems are real people with real feelings:
For me, people come quickly to the numbers. There are real people behind that with real feelings and they are a central part of the United States. I think we have a significant position there. The diversity of our business, where it's never enough and you can never reach the end here, if you're kidding yourself. We have many different people from different places. We accept people from everywhere.
In the end, that's what human rights are all about. It is about treating people with dignity and respect. These are topics on which we think we can add something. We do not go into politics with all this. We stick to politics: how are people treated, what is the politics of immigration. These are things we adhere to. We work with people from both parties and not parties. At times, a party will like what we do, other times, the other will do it. "
Lashinsky then asked Cook about his comments last week on separating families at the border. At the time, Cook called such separations "inhuman" and "heartbreaking".
For Lashinsky, the CEO of Apple said that he simply said what he thought and did not try to do the "normal pivot of the CEOs." Cook said that he compares the situation to those who came to the country under the DACA program.
"I said what I thought, I guess I could have taken the CEO's normal pivot, that I'm not particularly good.If you think of people here on DACA, they were quite In the same situation, somebody brought them, those who brought them may have been illegal at the time, remember this situation and think, would you like these two to be separated? this make sense?
I look at this and I think it's square in dignity and respect. I felt we needed to say something. "
Cook was sure to point out that Apple sticks to its own values to avoid joining the "dreadful silence of the good people category". He said that Apple was not putting money into politics and that it was not at all in agreement with Super. PACs in general:
"We stick to politics, I think if you do that, most people will respect it, and even if people do not agree, they will respect what you do.
I think you're wondering is it worth your business. If something happens that does not match the values of your business, I think you have to talk. If you do not, then you are in the awful silence of the good people category. And that's something I never wanted to be separated from.
We do not put money into politics. I totally disagree with the companies or the overall concept of CAPs in general, or people who do not vote by putting money into politics in general. Apple does not do it.
Apple does not give a dollar to political campaigns. We discuss the privacy policy, we discuss the immigration policy, we discuss the tax reform of companies. I think most people look at it and say it makes sense. "
Privacy
Lashinsky then asked Cook about Apple's commitment to privacy, to which he again criticized companies that build a "detailed profile of people."
We felt strongly about privacy when no one cares. We did not wake up one morning with the media that focused on privacy and we said, "Oh, let's do that." We can see that establishing a detailed profile of people would likely cause significant damage over time. It could be used for too many bad things.
Apple News
Earlier today, Apple announced that Apple News will present a section dedicated to the mid-term elections of 2018 in the United States. The company claimed that it would be "factual" content. Speaking to Lashinsky, Cook explained that Apple's still focused on conservation and that it was time for the company to expand to cover the news.
Cook has criticized some news coverage that tries to "enrage people". He also noted that if people disagree with the content that is presented in Apple News, they have a variety of other sources at their disposal.
"If you start at the macro level, we've always believed in conservation. The App Store has been running since 2008. We felt compelled to review the apps and make sure they were doing what they wanted." They said: Since the early days, we have been criticized, but we had the impression that it was our store and it said something about us.
We took this same vision for News because we saw that the news was getting a little crazy. This does not mean that people have to use only Apple News. You can go where you want. But for Apple News, we felt that the best stories should be selected by a human. Do not be political at all or check the views, but make sure that you do not choose the content strictly to enrage people. "
The Apple CEO has also touted that Apple will have a handful of people writing exclusive content for Apple News:
"We will choose from a wide variety of outlets, considered from conservative to liberal in the middle, if there is such a thing anymore.We are going to have different people who will write exclusively for that.I think we can make a contribution here.
I do not criticize people who do something different, but Apple has always been for curation. We have always believed in quality, not in quantity. Whether you think about our products, or anything. If people like it, they can go to this section of Apple News, so they can get news from a variety of different sources. "
Dependence on technology
The conversation then turned to Apple's emphasis on digital health and technology addiction in iOS 12, with Cook explaining that it became clear to the company that some people spent too much time on their devices. He added that it was never the goal of Apple that people abuse its products:
"I think it has become clear to all of us that some of us spend too much time on our devices.What we tried to do is think about how we can help with that. We've never wanted people to abuse our products, we want people to be empowered and able to do things that they could not do otherwise. "
With features like Screen Time, Cook said that it was important to give users the opportunity to meet their specific needs because everyone uses their devices for different tasks:
As we struggled through this, we thought that this is not an area where you can say that 30 minutes a day is good for everyone as with exercise. Some people use their phone or iPad to read books or listen to music in the background or as a TV. There are so many different cases, so what we do is that you can get a report showing where you spend your time.
Personally, Cook said the new iOS 12 features have pushed him to monitor the notifications he's been receiving and greatly reduced:
That made me reduce the notifications a lot because I was starting to monitor the number of notifications I was getting, and at first glance it seemed like it was crazy. In some cases, they become a traffic driver for people. I've reduced the number of notifications I received. I watched how many times I took my phone.
Apple's long-term focus
Tim Cook also spoke to Apple's long-term goal, saying that it does not focus on making decisions for investors in the short term and that almost all of its decisions are multi-year. He also noted that while he was king for a day, he would get rid of the 90-day income release requirement:
"You have to have a high-level management team that is willing to put aside the stock price, because if you make a decision based on short-term investors, you're sure to make bad decisions. tone in the organization.
The investments we make are all multi-year. They are certainly not conducive to a 90-day cycle. If I were king for a day, the 90 day earnings would be rinsed off. What you have to do is look in the mirror and say, "I'm going to take the temperature." But if you're a short-term investor, I'd really advise you not to come in. "
Things ended with Lashinsky asking Cook how long he left as Apple's CEO as he approached his seven years at the helm. "It's the privilege of a lifetime to be at Apple, and I hope that I have a good time," Cook said.
What do you think about Cook's comments? Do you agree with his philosophy of being involved in social issues? Let us know (in a civil way) in the comments.
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