American Fortune Life

The governance of Apple's board of directors has been the focus of external attention. In recent years, the company has encountered a number of problems, including options retroactivity, the mystery of Jobs' health, and the suspicion cloud surrounding the CEO succession plan.

Within Apple, Jobs has been pressuring the board for a long time. According to what Andy learned from many people, when Apple was in trouble in 1997, one of the conditions for re-entry put forward by Jobs, who had been expelled earlier by Apple, was to require most of the company's directors to resign.

At that time, there were only two directors on the Apple board who Jobs had asked to remain. As soon as Jobs returned to Apple and regained power, he blamed the original board for "screwing everything up."

Since then, Jobs has been in close control of the company and the directors have rarely challenged his actions. Just like this year, when Jobs concealed his health, the problem became even more obvious.

After significant wasting, Jobs took sick leave for nearly six months beginning in early January 2009, with little explanation. Outside, I'm afraid Andy knows that Jobs is preparing for a liver transplant, and Apple and investors have no idea.

It's enough to see how much Jobs is controlling Apple!

At present, most of the Apple Board members, who are carefully selected by Jobs, not only have no objection to Jobs, but also have great respect for Jobs, who is considered a genius.

The Apple Board currently has only six members, including Jobs, one of the smallest boards of Fortune 500 companies, and investors have been urging Apple directors to be more independent of the strong Jobs, despite Apple's continued disclosure of outstanding financial results.

An independent board represents the interests of shareholders and can challenge the CEO when needed.

Jerome York, a senior director of Apple and chairman of the Board of Auditors, was very averse to Jobs' cover-up of his health, and on the phone, persuading Andy that the only reason he didn't resign at the time was because he didn't want the outside world to speculate about his resignation. Andy said quite frankly that he wished he had resigned.

However, he also admits that once he leaves, the Apple Board will have less power to oversee and constrain Jobs.

“ Andy, I sincerely hope you can join the board of directors, and while it's only part-time on the nomination committee for the time being, your participation will reassure shareholders and other investors... ”

In the lobby at Apple headquarters, Andy sat down with a large group of shareholders, looking at six board members, three committee members and several independent directors, listening to Cook, who was temporarily working for Jobs.

Andy glanced at Ya Fang CEO Zhong Binshan, who, according to what York told him, although she did not look very good, her abilities and influence were extraordinary, not only as an independent director of Apple, but also as a general director, and this time she would be nominated as a member of the Board of Auditors, completely out of place in terms of her powers from what kind of bullshit nomination committee she was.

Andy's gaze seemed to have been noticed, and the strong American Chinese woman smiled and nodded at Andy, who was also smiling.

“ Interesting. ”

Andy was like a bystander, looking in the middle of the scene at a couple of people who really controlled Apple, his face was thick, his eyebrows were wrinkled, and from time to time he could see someone looking at Cook with a strange look, and he'd heard an uncertain message before, because Jobs' sudden vacation, while Jobs was very good at hiding his condition, still had a lot of speculations that his health was already very dangerous.

Some members of Apple's board of directors have discussed the CEO's succession with the head hunter and have approached the head of at least one major technology company. Although this does not seem to be being done on behalf of the Board as a whole. But at least it was a signal that the board didn't buy the bill for Jobs' choice of Cook as his successor.

The rumor even shocked Jobs, who was sick, in an e-mail to the shareholders' meeting that was intentionally revealed to the outside world, in response to the matter, saying that 'there was no point in finding a successor to the CEO. ’

So now the Apple Board of Directors is in an embarrassing position. If the board is not already actively looking for a CEO successor, the issue will follow. However, the same problem arises when board members look for a successor in this “informal” manner.

Likewise, the most nervous, loudest, most distressed person is Cook, who is thinking about what the shareholders are reporting. Boss Joe doesn't know how long it will last. He knows very well himself. Without Boss Joe's support, let alone the CEO's throne, it's not necessarily possible to keep the position now, and the sharks on the board will tear him apart.

When Boss Qiao was on vacation, these people started making small moves, and if they really couldn't get off the operating table...

Cook was afraid to go on.

“Pfft, pfft, pfft...”

After a relatively warm round of applause, Cook stabilized his mind and continued the next process of the shareholders' meeting, which was the admission of Apple's new director, with the chairman of the nomination committee responsible for director nomination and review taking over the voice in a warm round of applause.

“On the nomination of Apple shareholders, the Board of Directors, after deliberation, officially invited Mr. Andy Smith to join the Apple Board as an independent director as a member of the Nomination Committee.

Andy Smith, currently studying at the University of California, Los Angeles Machinery, founded the Mockingjay Gaming Company in 2006, chaired the Marvel Group since 2007, and founded the Free City APP Mall, Musica Cloud Computing, WhatsApp, INS and other IT companies. In 2008, he was chairman of NBC Global, chairman of Qualcomm, and has a reputation in high-tech and media... ”

The Chairman of the Nomination Committee gave Andy Smith background presentations to all major shareholders and board members and Apple executives, giving Andy a high degree of recognition for his talent and achievements.

“Andy Smith is first and foremost an IT engineer and also a successful business leader, and we are thrilled to have him on the Apple Board. ”

“Pfft, pfft, pfft...”

Applause thundered, Andy stood up, smiled on his face, graceful and constantly nodded, thanking the people around him for their applause and support. Though the Apple stock price is not too exaggerated today, Andy couldn't help but sit here and hold at least one percent of the shares, that is to say at least a billionaire, such a large group of billionaires and representatives of the business.

“Thank you, thank you for your support... Thank you... ”

After thanking him around, Andy smiled and shook hands with Apple board members.

“Mr. Smith, welcome to Apple's extended family and I hope you enjoy working with us in the future... ”

“Thank you." Andy looked at Cook with a smile on his face, shaking his hand and thanking him.

“Apple is a great company...” Andy, as the new director of Apple, began his‘ testimonial ', “... Thank you to Apple Shareholders and Board of Directors for inviting me, this is really a very happy and exciting invitation and I will take my responsibilities as an Independent Director of Apple very seriously and fully participate in the activities of the Board of Directors of the Company, thank you. ”

“Bang-bang--”

Applause again, Andy owed a little thanks, then sat in the Apple board seat, and then Andy just smiled and watched Ms. Yifang's CEO Chung get elected to the Apple board of auditors in a warmer applause, and to be honest, Andy really admired this Chinese woman, an American Chinese woman from a middle-class family, who broke the so-called glass ceiling, and anyone who knew more about American society knew how difficult it was, or even a miracle.

‘ She is indeed brilliant, and I think we have found an outstanding co-director. ’

“Oh, yeah. ”

Andy nodded and the chairman of the nomination committee sitting beside him laughed and sighed low, but there was a gut in his heart, and he really didn't understand the aesthetics of East and West, was it really that different?

I don't know, at least my aesthetics are normal, and there's no Orientals looking at Westerners' facial blindness. Look at the goddesses I taste. Which one of them isn't a beauty recognized by the East and West?

Shh.

A group of people who haven't seen the world before...