We’re on the face of the Earth to make great products

Apple earnings call, January 21, 2009. The company has recently announced that Steve Jobs will take a medical leave of absence for the second time, again leaving Tim Cook in charge. Asked how it’s gonna be, Tim Cook delivers a famous line.

There is an extraordinary breadth and depth and tenure among the Apple executive team. And these executives lead over 35,000 employees that I would call all ‘wicked smart’. And that’s in all areas of the company, from engineering, to marketing, to operations, sales, and all the rest. And the values of company are extremely well-entrenched.

You know, we believe we’re on the face of the Earth to make great products, and that’s not changing.

We’re constantly focusing on innovating. We believe in the simple not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution. We believe in saying no to thousands of projects to that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us. We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollinization of our groups which allows us to innovate in a way others can not. And frankly, we don’t settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit where we’re wrong, and the courage to change. And I think regardless of who is in what job, those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do extremely well. And I would just reiterate a point Peter made in his opening comment, that I strongly believe that Apple is doing the best work in its history.

Tim Cook

Apple earnings call January 21 2009