Tim Cook’s Strategy: Senior Employees Who Barely Work

Mark Gurman, Bloomberg’s Apple insider, frequently shares intriguing insights about the company’s office culture. He discusses topics ranging from Apple’s decision to cancel a potentially lucrative project to maintain its premium image, to the billions spent on initiatives that may not enhance its products.

However, the latest revelation is quite different: Apple CEO Tim Cook retains senior employees on the payroll to inspire confidence in the company.

You might wonder how this works. To understand this, we need to revisit the time shortly after Steve Jobs’ death, just six weeks after Cook took over as CEO.

It seems that the practice of keeping seasoned Apple veterans is not a new one. Following Jobs’ passing, Bob Mansfield expressed a desire to leave the company.

As a significant figure in Apple’s hardware engineering division, Cook feared that Mansfield’s exit might unsettle shareholders. Instead, Cook persuaded Mansfield to stay on for what were likely substantial financial incentives. Although Mansfield remained with Apple, he did very little work until he eventually became involved with the Apple Car project, according to Gurman.

In 2015, Cook had to use a similar strategy for Apple’s renowned designer, Jony Ive. Although I have expressed a desire to leave, he was retained on the payroll while being permitted to work just one or two days a week. He ultimately departed in 2019 to establish his own firm, but not before Apple had spent years asserting that Ive was deeply engaged with the company.

According to Gurman, this strategy was also applied to Phil Schiller when Apple introduced the “Apple Fellow” title, a position Schiller still holds today while overseeing the App Store. What’s particularly noteworthy is that the company continues to use this approach nearly 13 years after Jobs’ passing.

A recent instance is the planned departure of Apple CFO Luca Maestri in 2025. Although Maestri will no longer be the CFO, the company intends to retain him for advisory roles to Tim Cook, among other responsibilities.

While Apple is certainly financially secure, being one of the largest and most cherished companies globally, one might question the effectiveness of maintaining senior employees on the payroll for minimal work. It seems unlikely that the departure of someone most people may not even be familiar with would significantly impact public interest in such a massive corporation.