Another job for Apple CEO Cook: Helping Nike turn around

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When Tim Cook launched his tablet computer at Apple’s California headquarters in May, he had more than just a new iPad line in mind. The hint is on his feet: a pair of one-of-a-kind Nike sneakers designed specifically for Cook on the iPad.

Cook, Apple’s chief executive and the longest-serving member of Nike’s board of directors, is helping guide co-founder Phil Knight and executive chairman Mark Parker through the world’s largest sportswear company, which has been in business since 2005. The hardest year since joining. In the first half of this year, there was a wave of layoffs in the shoe factory’s offices.

Months after the iPad launched, Cook offered advice on how to handle leadership changes. John Donahoe, the former boss of eBay Inc. who Cook backed for the top job at Nike, retired after just four years in the role. Cook then helped recruit Elliott Hill, a returning Nike veteran, as the company’s new chief executive.

Over the past 19 years, Cook has become one of Nike’s closest outside advisors and is the company’s lead independent director. During his tenure, he has been a sounding board on issues ranging from China to technology operations to the appointment of key new executives, according to current and former Nike and Apple employees. They declined to be identified discussing sensitive company matters.

Now, through his role as director, Cook is helping Nike weather its biggest turmoil in decades. Sales fell 10% last quarter and the company withdrew its full-year guidance, hoping to wipe the slate clean for Hill. It postponed an investor day event scheduled for November to give the new chief executive more time to develop a turnaround strategy that Cook and board members would need to approve.


When Cook joined Nike’s board of directors in 2005, he was still Apple’s chief operating officer and Steve Jobs’ right-hand man. At the time, the two companies were about to enter into their first partnership — creating a pedometer sensor that would sit on the bottom of Nike sneakers and send your fitness data to your iPod. Knight was delighted to welcome him and his technical expertise, declaring Cook “a tremendous asset.” As chief operating officer, Cook is responsible for Apple’s dealings with partners and suppliers, the Mac division, customer service and support, as well as day-to-day operations of the company during and while Jobs is away sick. Jobs stepped down in August 2011, and Cook was named CEO. Member Parker. Cook subsequently became more involved as lead independent director and currently chairs the company’s compensation committee.

Today, Apple and Nike are close partners in the Apple Watch space, with the two companies selling co-branded models with unique straps and dials since 2016. Nike is also offering its own set of fitness features that Apple Watch owners can install on their devices. Even before Apple’s smartwatch debuted, Cook was known as a user of the FuelBand, the Nike-developed precursor to today’s more powerful wearables that was discontinued months before the Apple Watch launched in 2014.

As Cook’s career rose, he and Knight grew closer. In a speech at Stanford University, Knight called Cook “a great collaborative leader.” He also wrote a Time 100 profile of Cook in 2021, saying the Apple CEO “is able to think tactically and strategically in an industry very different from his own.” Years later, Cook Knight’s memoir “Shoe Dog” was casually recommended to pop star Dua Lipa on her podcast.

For most of Cook’s tenure on the board, Nike has been a stable, growing company with few leadership changes. That all changed in 2019, when disappointing financial performance and a series of sexual harassment allegations against Parker’s subordinates upended the then-executive’s tenure. Parker was not implicated and today serves as executive chairman.

In an effort to modernize its e-commerce operations, Nike appointed Donahoe as its new CEO. The former eBay leader had a decades-long relationship with Knight but also considered Cook an ally. Nearly a decade ago, the Apple chief executive advised Donahoe on how to deal with activist investors like eBay’s Carl Icahn and Elon Musk. At Nike, Donahoe called Cook a mentor and sounding board.

Cook’s arrival was noted by employees at Nike’s global headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., who said the Apple CEO occasionally backed off design suggestions for retail stores and encouraged the company to focus on core products rather than saturating the market. This is in line with Apple’s long-term strategy under Jobs and Cook. As expected, Cook also weighed in on Nike’s online technology efforts.

In 2021 and 2022, Nike has been involved in China controversy, and Cook has some experience with this because China is Apple’s supply chain base and one of its most important markets. Cook has addressed some of the region’s controversies, ranging from conditions at suppliers to alleged violations of labor laws.

As Nike invests in revamping its digital ecosystem in China, including online stores, apps and WeChat mini-programs, executives at Nike’s technology unit often cite Cook’s strategy of complying with the law in the regions where it operates.

Last month, Hill secured Cook’s endorsement while evaluating CEO candidates. A former intern who spent three decades crawling around the Nike org chart has retired and is now in charge, in line with Cook’s strategy at Apple to keep familiar companies around for as long as possible Senior executive of culture. Knight thanked Cook for his efforts.

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