• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
TechApple

Why a Former Employee Thinks Tim Cook Made Apple ‘Boring’

By
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
Down Arrow Button Icon
January 18, 2017, 12:12 PM ET
Apple Inc. Debuts New MacBook Computers
Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., speaks during an event at the company's headquarters in Cupertino, California, U.S., on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. Apple Inc. is expected to debut new Mac computers, ending a drought without an update for its oldest product category ahead of the holiday sales period. The upgrades will be the first since 2015, save for the 12-inch MacBook receiving a new rose gold finish and slightly faster processors in April. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesDavid Paul Morris — Bloomberg via Getty Images

One of Apple CEO Tim Cook’s former employees doesn’t have much nice to say about his old boss.

In a series of tweets this week, a former Apple engineer named Bob Burrough, who recently founded a 3D printing company named Bilt It, said that Cook has dramatically changed Apple in ways that he believes stifles innovation and fundamentally alter the corporate culture late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs created.

“The very first thing Tim did as CEO was convert Apple from a dynamic change-maker into a boring operations company,” Burrough said in a tweet this week. He added in a subsequent tweet that the company’s corporate culture is “vastly different today than it was five years ago.”

Cook was appointed Apple’s (AAPL) CEO in 2011, succeeding Jobs, who stepped down during his battle with cancer. Over the years, Cook has put his mark on Apple’s culture, focusing it more on charitable donations than it had in the past. Cook has also doubled down on environmental initiatives.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter

Cook has tried to maintain secrecy—an Apple hallmark when Jobs was leading the company—but leaks continue to surface to the chagrin of Cook and his team. The Apple chief executive’s reign has also been characterized as one without a major new product on the scale of the iPhone or another similarly popular device.

However, Cook has also grown Apple’s revenues and profits to mew heights and the company’s cash coffers are busting at the seams. By nearly all measure, Apple is financially healthier now than ever.

But Apple has also lost some of the allure it once enjoyed under Jobs, and some have blamed Cook for that. Even Apple’s top executives have acknowledged that Cook is a much different person than Jobs.

“Steve was in your face, screaming, and Tim is more quiet, more cerebral in his approach,”Apple’s senior vice president of Internet software and services Eddy Cue told Fast Company in an interview in August. “When you disappoint Tim, even though he isn’t screaming at you, you get the same feeling. I never wanted to disappoint Steve, and I never want to disappoint Tim. [Other than them,] I have that feeling with, like, my dad.”

For more about iPhone, watch:

Burrough in his tweets and in an interview with CNBC that those differences have fundamentally changed Apple. He went so far as to tell CNBC that Apple is now operating like Palm, another company he worked for that eventually folded its smartphone business after the iPhone proved too difficult to compete with.

“Working at Palm, the teams were highly organizational, [hierarchical] and responsibilities were siloed,” Burrough said. “There was a clear sense that each person had a clear responsibility, and rarely deviated from it. When you went to someone for help solving a problem ‘not my job’ was a common response.”

But in his interview with Fast Company last year, Cue rebuffed claims that Cook’s Apple isn’t innovative. In fact, he said that innovation is as alive under his current boss as it was under the iconic Steve Jobs—something Burrough doesn’t see.

“The world thinks we delivered [a breakthrough] every year while Steve was here,” Cue said. “Those products were developed over a long period of time.”

About the Author
By Don Reisinger
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
Fortune Secondary Logo
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

OpenAI logo is seen in this photo illustration with the South Korean flag in the background
AIOpenAI
‘Could it kill someone?’ A Seoul woman allegedly used ChatGPT to carry out two murders in South Korean motels
By Catherina GioinoMarch 2, 2026
4 hours ago
Sam Altman speaking into a mic.
AIOpenAI
OpenAI’s Pentagon deal raises new questions about AI and mass surveillance
By Beatrice NolanMarch 2, 2026
4 hours ago
iran
AIIran
Iran has the intent—and increasingly the tools—for AI-powered cyberattacks
By Sharon GoldmanMarch 2, 2026
6 hours ago
AITech
Anthropic’s Claude overtakes ChatGPT in App Store as users boycott over OpenAI’s $200 million Pentagon contract
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezMarch 2, 2026
6 hours ago
dave ricks
AIScience
Tech giants see a cure for cancer in AI. But Eli Lilly’s CEO finds it ‘not particularly good’ at solving biology or chemistry problems
By Jake AngeloMarch 2, 2026
7 hours ago
Photo of a young man holding a smartphone having his face scanned
LawSocial Media
Social media companies are fighting the ‘age verification trap’ as collecting biometrics on kids violates privacy rights
By Catherina GioinoMarch 2, 2026
8 hours ago

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Middle East
U.S. military gives Iran a taste of its own medicine with cheap copycat Shahed drones, while concern shifts to munitions supply in extended conflict
By Jason MaMarch 1, 2026
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Success
MacKenzie Scott's close relationship with Toni Morrison long before Amazon put Scott on the path to give more than $1 billion to HBCUs
By Sasha RogelbergMarch 1, 2026
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
Your grandparents are the reason the U.S. isn't in a recession right now. That won't last forever
By Eleanor PringleMarch 1, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
AI
American schools weren’t broken until Silicon Valley used a lie to convince them they were—now reading and math scores are plummeting
By Sasha RogelbergMarch 1, 2026
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Health
Gen Z men are eating ‘boy kibble,’ the human equivalent to dog food, to load up on protein cheaply
By Jake AngeloMarch 1, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Slack cofounder says workers and CEOs can get stuck doing 'fake' work like pre-meetings and slideshows
By Emma BurleighMarch 1, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.