Replacing Steve Jobs: How Apple CEO Tim Cook has fared five years later

Five years ago today, Steve Jobs officially passed the CEO torch on to Tim Cook. From the Wall Street Journal:

Now Apple is the world’s largest company by market value and remains one of the most influential. Its $53 billion in net income last year was greater than the combined earnings of technology behemoths Facebook Inc., Google’s parent Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. Apple recently sold its billionth iPhone.

Let that soak in. These are amazing accomplishments, proud laurels for any CEO, especially when you consider that Apple has, at the same time, fought harder than most large companies for social and environmental change.

At the same time, though, Apple’s growth is slowing, its stock is stagnating and it is facing more concerns than ever about its future. Underscoring all of this is one key question that Mr. Cook will likely never escape: Are Apple’s best days behind it?

That second paragraph is indeed key. Not the question, but the phrase “will likely never escape”. Five years in, and Tim Cook is still looked upon suspiciously, as an interloper riding on Steve Jobs’ coattails. Sadly, for many, that will never change.