• 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
  • 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

Blazing hot IPOs, an AI agent craze, and a new word for ‘token’: Here’s what’s happening in the world of Chinese AI
AsiaChina
Blazing hot IPOs, an AI agent craze, and a new word for ‘token’: Here’s what’s happening in the world of Chinese AI
By Nicholas GordonApril 12, 2026
7 hours ago
Intuit was an AI pioneer. Why its stock became a SaaSpocalypse casualty
InvestingSoftware
Intuit was an AI pioneer. Why its stock became a SaaSpocalypse casualty
By Geoff ColvinApril 12, 2026
12 hours ago
Artemis III will practice docking Orion with lunar landers in Earth orbit next year while Musk’s Starship and Bezos’ Blue Moon compete for Artemis IV
InnovationNASA
Artemis III will practice docking Orion with lunar landers in Earth orbit next year while Musk’s Starship and Bezos’ Blue Moon compete for Artemis IV
By Marcia Dunn and The Associated PressApril 12, 2026
12 hours ago
$12 billion crypto company boss says Gen Z ‘create an absurd amount of chaos’ and make him want to pull his hair out—but he’s betting on them anyway
SuccessGen Z
$12 billion crypto company boss says Gen Z ‘create an absurd amount of chaos’ and make him want to pull his hair out—but he’s betting on them anyway
By Orianna Rosa RoyleApril 12, 2026
16 hours ago
mueller
CommentaryEntrepreneurship
I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. Here’s what I had to unlearn to build a $1 billion business
By Samuel MuellerApril 12, 2026
16 hours ago
grantham
Investingbubble
Legendary investor says the AI boom masks a deeper crisis: Falling sperm counts, shrinking populations, and vanishing resources
By Nick LichtenbergApril 12, 2026
16 hours ago

Most Popular

'This is the last warning.' Iran threatens U.S. warships after they throw down the gauntlet for winner-take-all Strait of Hormuz
Politics
'This is the last warning.' Iran threatens U.S. warships after they throw down the gauntlet for winner-take-all Strait of Hormuz
By Fortune EditorsApril 11, 2026
1 day ago
A 93-year-old refused to sell her home to the Masters golf course that’s spent $280 million on expansion: ‘Money ain’t everything’
Real Estate
A 93-year-old refused to sell her home to the Masters golf course that’s spent $280 million on expansion: ‘Money ain’t everything’
By Fortune EditorsApril 12, 2026
16 hours ago
'People are trying to be creative': Tariff-battered American companies are so cash-starved they are using refund claims as collateral for loans
Economy
'People are trying to be creative': Tariff-battered American companies are so cash-starved they are using refund claims as collateral for loans
By Fortune EditorsApril 12, 2026
20 hours ago
The 'affordability economy' has created a housing market nobody predicted: Prices collapsing in the Sun Belt, soaring in the Rust Belt
Real Estate
The 'affordability economy' has created a housing market nobody predicted: Prices collapsing in the Sun Belt, soaring in the Rust Belt
By Fortune EditorsApril 11, 2026
2 days ago
Palantir CEO says AI ‘will destroy’ humanities jobs but there will be ‘more than enough jobs’ for people with vocational training
Future of Work
Palantir CEO says AI ‘will destroy’ humanities jobs but there will be ‘more than enough jobs’ for people with vocational training
By Fortune EditorsApril 11, 2026
2 days ago
Here's how a U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz could work. 'This is a big task, and it's a big gamble'
Politics
Here's how a U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz could work. 'This is a big task, and it's a big gamble'
By Fortune EditorsApril 12, 2026
10 hours 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.