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

Trendingnow

1

After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup

2

Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock

3

Current price of oil as of June 23, 2026

1

After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup

2

Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock

3

Current price of oil as of June 23, 2026
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
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

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
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

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
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
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
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

steve
Commentary250 Years of Innovation
Steve Case: America was built by entrepreneurs. Here’s how we keep that edge for the next 250 years
By Steve CaseJune 24, 2026
3 minutes ago
(left to right) Andrew Berman, Tal Peretz, and Vitor Balocco
AIVenture Capital
Exclusive: Vinod Khosla wanted ‘every available dollar’ of Runlayer’s funding round. It just raised $30 million to govern the agent workforce
By Lily Mae LazarusJune 24, 2026
33 minutes ago
t
CommentaryWhite House
Trump mistakes the bully pulpit for bullying leadership — history’s villains were never heroes
By Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Steven TianJune 24, 2026
33 minutes ago
As marketers grapple with AI, business leaders at Cannes Lions say human creativity and authenticity matter more than ever 
Europecannes lions
As marketers grapple with AI, business leaders at Cannes Lions say human creativity and authenticity matter more than ever 
By Sam BirchallJune 24, 2026
49 minutes ago
geoff
AIBook Excerpt
I interviewed the ‘Godfather of AI’ in 1983 and didn’t grasp the power of his approach to AI. Did he?
By Robert WrightJune 24, 2026
1 hour ago
The founding team at Seltz, a startup trying to reinvent web search for AI agents, pose for a group photo with San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge in the background.
Startups & VentureVenture Capital
Exclusive: Seltz, a startup rebuilding web search for AI agents, raises $12.5 million in seed funding
By Jeremy KahnJune 24, 2026
2 hours ago

Most Popular

After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup
Success
After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJune 23, 2026
1 day ago
Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock
Banking
Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock
By Jim EdwardsJune 23, 2026
1 day ago
Current price of oil as of June 23, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of June 23, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 23, 2026
24 hours ago
Meet the 2 men putting New York's $300 billion pension fund in play for the first time in 20 years
Investing
Meet the 2 men putting New York's $300 billion pension fund in play for the first time in 20 years
By Nick LichtenbergJune 22, 2026
2 days ago
Texas and Charlotte used to build huge McMansions—now they're copying the California design tricks they once mocked
Real Estate
Texas and Charlotte used to build huge McMansions—now they're copying the California design tricks they once mocked
By Sydney LakeJune 22, 2026
2 days ago
Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: 'You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness'
Success
Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: 'You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness'
By Sydney LakeJune 21, 2026
3 days 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.