Tim Cook’s last memo as Apple chief echoes the one he sent in 2011

Tim Cook ended fifteen years as Apple’s chief executive the same way he began them, with an email to all staff. He sent the farewell note on August 31, his last day in the job. In it he gave employees the credit for the company’s success, praised his successor John Ternus, and told staff he was not leaving Apple, only stepping away from a job he had loved deeply. Ternus became chief executive on September 1, and Cook became executive chairman.

The note was first published by 9to5Mac and picked up by MacRumors. It says little about business and a lot about who Apple is. Cook wrote that Apple had made it possible to “leave a dent in the universe”, a phrase from Steve Jobs. He summed up his approach to management in four words: “Culture triumphs over everything.” He also posted in public that his title would change but his feeling for the Apple community would not.

Ternus joined Apple’s product design team in 2001 and ran hardware engineering before this promotion. He replied with his own memo on the morning of September 1. He described Cook as a leader who acted on his values with decency and kindness. He said he was honored to run what he called the greatest company in the world, and he pointed staff to the product event set for September 9. The same message confirmed that Johny Srouji takes a new job as chief hardware officer, and that the engineer Laura Legros has returned to the company.

Cook’s farewell follows his own memo of 29 August 2011

For people who write internal communications, the two memos make a useful pair. Cook’s letter closely follows the one he sent on August 29, 2011, when he took over from Jobs, who was dying, and promised employees that the founder’s culture was built into the company. As Fast Company notes, both letters mention Jobs, stress that things will carry on, stay hopeful, and reassure staff that the departing boss is not vanishing. The handover involved more than email. A farewell gathering for around 200 people on August 23 included a performance by OneRepublic.

Choosing Ternus, a product engineer rather than an operations specialist, is itself a message. Staff have spent a decade hearing about supply chains and money from services. Ternus built his first memo around products already being developed and ideas not yet made real, which is a clear contrast with Cook’s reputation for running operations.

As chairman Cook will handle Washington and Beijing for Apple

Reports say Cook’s chairman job centers on dealing with governments, including in Washington and Beijing. That keeps the person at Apple with the most political experience in place, while Ternus focuses on the September 9 launch. It is also no accident that both memos reached the press within hours. At a company the size of Apple, an email to all staff is a public statement with an internal audience, and it is written that way.