Business Part 15: Apple CEO Tim Cook on Career Planning

  • 投稿カテゴリー:Business

Warm Up

—- **FOR NEW STUDENTS**————————————————

  1. What industry do you work in and what is your role?
  2. What are your responsibilities in your role/position?
  3. Can you describe to me the function of your workplace/company?
  4. How many departments, how many offices. National or International?
  5. What is the Minimum requirements for employment i.e Education or Experience?
  6. How many opportunities are there to ‘move up the ladder’?
  7. What is the process for changing job roles i.e Interview? Test?

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General discussion about your workweek:

  1. Current projects? Deadlines? Opportunities?
  2. Anything of interest happening?

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Listening

Before the video: Teachers will read the following questions aloud, please prepare for listening!
After the video: Did you get it? If not, please tell your teacher specifically which part you didn’t understand. Let’s review the video again 🙂
  1. How long has it been since Tim cook graduated?
  2. What type of plan was he asked to make?
  3. What was his journey like?

Key Words and Phrases

  1. What’s interesting is that it is now 25 years since you got your MBA and as part of your MBA experience, you were asked to write a 25-year plan. How did that work out for you?
  2. There was a professor,  I think his name was Dr. Nailor. Does that sound right?  – Tom Nailor. And, he was a great professor and one of the things that he’d ask us to do was to write a 25-year plan.  Maybe some of you have had to do this.
  3. And, it was more of a personal plan.And, normally I would never remember this, but I was doing a commencement address a few years ago and I was scrambling for some old things, and I found, in a box, this plan.
  4. This plan had turned yellow because of age, but I looked at it and I would say it was reasonably accurate for all of 18 to 24 months after it was written. And, there was nothing, not a single thing on it that was accurate post that, not a single thing. Zero!
  5. I think that the lesson there is, at least for me, maybe you guys will be different, maybe you have much more insight into what you may be doing, but for me the journey was not predictable at all.
  6. It goes sort of back to the Lincoln quote, is the only thing I believe you can do is prepare. And, the world is going to change many times. The environment is going to change many times, The companies that you work for are going to ebb and flow,
  7. you may wind up in the same company, you may not, You may wind up in the same career, you may not. You may wind up with the spouse you’re married to now, you may not. There are lots of things in your life. I hope that one doesn’t change. But, there’s lots of things that change
  8. I think that you sort of have to have a north star.  And, stay with the north star and let those things go on about you and sort of find your, find your journey.
  9. on tim cook:
  10. His first position was Senior Vice President for worldwide operations. In relation to the role, Cook was quoted as saying: “You kind of want to manage it like you’re in the dairy business. If it gets past its freshness date, you have a problem”.
  11. Cook closed factories and warehouses, and replaced them with contract manufacturers; this resulted in a reduction of the company’s inventory from months to days. Predicting its importance, his group invested in long-term deals such as advance investment in flash memory from 2005 onward, guaranteeing stable supply of what became a key iPod Nano, then iPhone and iPad component.Cook’s actions were credited with keeping costs under control and, combined with the company’s design and marketing savvy, generated huge profits.
  12. Jobs and Cook proceeded to forge a strong partnership, and rescued the company from its death spiral, which took it from $11 billion in revenue in 1995 down to less than $6 billion in 1998 … Under their leadership, the company went from its nadir to a remarkable $100 billion today

Discussion

  1. Have you ever created a career plan?
  2. Perhaps in university, upon graduation or during the formative years of your career? (5, 10, 20years )
  3. How closely do your current career match your plan?
  4. – What were some elements unpredictable
  5. Where do you see your self in 10 years / 20 years?
  6. What advice would you offer to a past self?
  7. Specifically relating to your career.

key words and phrases

  1. commencement address  a speech given to graduating students, generally at a university, generally in the United States.
  2. scrambling = perform (an action) or achieve (a result) hurriedly, clumsily, or with difficulty.
  3. sort of / Kind of / ‘ish’  = partly, to some extent, somewhat
  4. Lincoln Quote = “I will study and prepare myself, and someday my chance will come.”
  5. – Lincoln was the 16th president from 1809 – 1865 = he was the president during the american civil war. Americas bloodiest war and largest moral, constitutional and political crisis.
  6. Other Quotes :
  7. Tending the garden is a relaxing pastime, but it does not prepare one for the inevitable battles of life. It is easy to be calm in a serene setting.
  8. To be calm and serene when under attack is much more difficult; therefore, I tell you that it is far better to be a warrior tending his garden rather than a gardener at war. – chinese proverb
  9. “‘Another such victory, and I am undone’ Pyrrhus
  10. -Pyrrhic victory
  11. ebb and flow – a recurrent pattern of coming and going or decline and regrowth. “the ebb and flow of state politics and power”. natural order of things
  12. wind up / end up = arrive in specified state, situation, or place. conlusion
  13. North star = brightest northern star, used as a reference point in navigation and astronomy for 1000’s of years. “Follow your North Star” means stick to your important mission of life and try to accomplish it.
  14. Saavy = shrewdness and practical knowledge; the ability to make good judgements.
  15. Forge = create (something) strong, enduring, or successful.
  16. death spiral = a rapidly worsening situation, typically one that ends in disaster
  17. nadir = the lowest or most unsuccessful point in a situation (nadier)

Answers

1.25 years since you got your MBA

2. it was more of a personal plan

3. not predictable at all.

Script

00:16 – What’s interesting is that
00:18 it is now 25 years since you got your MBA
00:22 and as part of your MBA experience,
00:24 you were asked to write a 25-year plan.
00:28 – I was. – How did that work out
00:29 for you?
00:33 – There was a professor,
00:36 I think his name was Dr. Nailor.
00:38 Does that sound right? – Tom Nailor.
00:39 – Yeah, Tom Nailor.
00:40 And, he was a great professor
00:43 and one of the things that he’d ask us to do
00:45 was to write a 25-year plan.
00:47 Maybe some of you have had to do this.
00:49 And, it was more of a personal plan.
00:52 And, normally I would never remember this,
00:58 but I was doing a commencement address a few years ago
01:01 and I was scrambling for some old things,
01:04 and I found, in a box, this plan.
01:08 And, this plan had turned yellow because of age,
01:12 but I looked at it
01:14 and I would say it was reasonably accurate
01:17 for all of 18 to 24 months,
01:21 after it was written.
01:23 And, it was nothing, there was nothing,
01:29 not a single thing on it that was accurate post that,
01:32 not a single thing.
01:34 Zero!
01:37 And, I think that the lesson there is,
01:40 at least for me, maybe you guys will be different,
01:42 maybe you have much more
01:45 insight into what you may be doing,
01:48 but for me the journey
01:52 was not predictable at all.
01:57 And, it goes sort of back to the Lincoln quote,
02:00 is the only thing I believe you can do is prepare.
02:04 And, the world is going to change many times.
02:06 The environment is going to change many times.
02:09 The companies that you work for are going to ebb and flow,
02:13 you may wind up in the same company, you may not.
02:15 You may wind up in the same career, you may not.
02:17 You may wind up with the spouse you’re married to now,
02:20 you may not.
02:22 There are lots of things in your life.
02:24 I hope that one doesn’t change.
02:26 But, there’s lots of things that change,
02:28 and I think that you sort of have to have a north star.
02:34 And, stay with the north star
02:37 and let those things go on about you,
02:40 and sort of find your, find your journey.