Apple CEO Tim Cook: Forbes’ Victoria Murphy Called Him “Unlikely Successor” In 2004

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Apple CEO Tim Cook, Apple Founder and CEO Steve Jobs’ pick to replace him prior to his passing (both shown above), can look back and laugh at Victoria Murphy (now Victoria Murphy Barrett) an Associate Editor with Forbes Magazine to this day, who, in 2004 let loose with a character assassination that basically said he wasn’t executive material, as if she should know how to judge.

In a 2004 article called “The Song Remains The Same,” wherein Murphy tried to paint Apple as not really heading in a great direction, even as the iPod was an amazing success, tossed out this completely wrong and very insulting observation of Cook:

But who could replace the Valley Svengali who personifies the Apple myth? In contrast to reassuringly public successions at Intel, Microsoft and Dell,Apple has no number two. “That’s a box we don’t belong in,” says Apple spokeswoman Katie Cotton. Sales chief Timothy Cook (heard of him?)is running things in the interim, but he is an unlikely successor, a worker bee with 12 years at the Evil Empire: IBM.

Wow. Roll that sentence in bold around a few times in your head. First, Victoria Murphy Barrett implies that because no one had ever heard of Tim Cook he should not be considered as a possible successor to Steve Jobs. Second, she calls him a “a worker bee with 12 years at the Evil Empire: IBM” – so what?

Victoria Murphy Barrett:

Then, in the same article, Murphy offers that Apple should be broken up; saying it’s worth $15 billion in that state.

Then Came The iPhone And iPad

Obviously, Victoria was far too myopic to see that Apple’s turn in making the iPod was not only for the better, but an obvious forecast of the future. The iPhone revolutionized communications and the iPad put steroids on the previously tiny Tablet Market. Tim Cook’s time at IBM and his “worker bee” approach paid off, as Apple’s supply chain management made it the envy of the business World.

While Murphy could’s see Tim Cook at the next boss, fortunately for Apple, Steve Jobs did.

And Apple, which started in a garage at 2066 Crist Drive, Los Altos, California, is now worth $600 billion.

Stay tuned.

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