蒂姆•库克怎样改变苹果

    今年二月，在一位花旗银行（Citibank）调查分析师的带领下，一群投资人访问了苹果公司（Apple）。首先，苹果首席财务官皮特•奥本海默做了45分钟的介绍，然后参加会谈的约15位投资人受到了苹果独一无二的招牌式“款待”——他们被领到苹果加州库柏蒂诺总部循环圈4号（4 Infinite Loop）公共会议中心的会议大厅内，屋里的点心是“三片过期的饼干和两瓶健怡可乐”。

    除了寒酸的点心外，以上一切都是硅谷大型上市公司的例行路数，即通过接待访问来与公司的大股东进行交流。那天真正震撼到苹果投资方的是，在奥本海默开始演讲大约20分钟后，首席执行官蒂姆•库克窜进了屋子，安静地坐在后排，做了一个对苹果首席执行官来说不同寻常的举动——聆听。中间，他没有查过一次邮箱，也没有打断奥本海默的发言。

    首席财务官说完后，当时就任首席执行官刚刚5个月的库克起身发言了。他迈着自信的步伐走到前排，用他标志性的精干风格主持了会议。“他处于完全的主动之中，而且很清楚自己是谁、想要什么，”一位投资者说。“他正面回答了每一个问题，没有任何回避。”他甚至提供了一些苹果官方公布的绩效数据之外的东西。在回答怎么看待Facebook时，他认为这个暴发户邻居“是与苹果最为相似的公司，”他并补充自己十分尊敬Facebook，两家可以有更紧密的合作。在最近一场财务业绩电话会议上，库克还谨慎地夸奖了另一家竞争对手兼合作伙伴亚马逊（Amazon），称其为与苹果“属不同类的”、“具备很多不同优势的竞争者”，并称其逐渐对iPad构成竞争的Kindle电子书“将有很大销量”。

    库克在去年冬天的那次投资者会议中最了不起的地方在于，换作史蒂芬•乔布斯的话，他根本就懒得现身。这位去年八月辞去首席执行官并于六周后逝世的传奇合伙创始人很少会屈尊接见投资者，那是时任首席运营官蒂姆•库克的工作之一。如今蒂姆•库克的举动昭示了一场微妙却显著的变化——多年来投资者首次受到首席执行官的关注，而这也是库克自掌帅近一年来为苹果注入的诸多变化之一。既与华尔街又与政府官员关系和睦、首次向股东分红、首创员工慈善匹配计划，把这些放在一起，蒂姆•库克的管理思想逐渐变得清晰起来。

    In February of this year, a group of investors visited Apple as part of a "bus tour" led by a research analyst for Citibank. The session started with a 45-minute presentation by Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer, and the 15 or so investors who attended the session were treated to Apple's unique brand of hospitality: They met in a threadbare conference room in Apple's Town Hall public conference center at the 4 Infinite Loop building in Cupertino, Calif., where the refreshments consisted of "three stale cookies and two Diet Cokes," in the words of one participant.

    All that, save the meager refreshments, is routine for big public companies in Silicon Valley, which use the check-ins as opportunities to communicate with large owners of their stock. What shocked the Apple (AAPL) investors that day was that CEO Tim Cook popped into the room about 20 minutes into Oppenheimer's talk, quietly sat down in the back of the room, and did something unusual for a CEO of Apple: He listened. He didn't check his e-mail once. He didn't interrupt.

    After the CFO finished, Cook, at that point chief executive of Apple for all of five months, stood to offer his remarks. He strode confidently to the front of the room and held court in the no-nonsense style that has become his trademark. "He was in complete control and knew exactly who he was and where he wanted to go," says one of the investors. "He answered every question head-on and didn't skirt any issue." Cook even offered some color that went beyond expanding on Apple's already disclosed performance data. Asked his opinion of Facebook (FB), Cook called the neighboring upstart "the one company that is closest to being like Apple," adding that he had huge respect for Facebook, with which Apple could work more closely. (More recently Cook doled out guarded praise for another competitor/partner, saying on a financial results conference call that Amazon (AMZN) is "a different kind of competitor" that has "different strengths" from Apple and that "will sell a lot" of Kindles, the gadget that is increasingly competitive to Apple's iPad.)

    Here's what's most remarkable about Cook's appearance that day last winter: Steve Jobs wouldn't have bothered. The legendary company co-founder, who stepped down as Apple's CEO last Aug. 24, six weeks before his death, rarely deigned to meet with investors. That was one of Tim Cook's tasks as chief operating officer. It's a subtle but significant change -- investors now have the CEO's ear for the first time in years -- and it's one of many Cook has instituted at Apple as he approaches his one-year mark at the helm. Taken together -- his rapport with Wall Street as well as government officials, his decision to grant a dividend to shareholders, the creation of a program to match employee gifts to charity -- Tim Cook's stewardship of Apple is beginning to come into focus.