By Tripp Mickle
In two decades at Apple Inc., Jeff Williams has gone from
heading procurement to leading all of the tech giant's
operations.
Now he has a new responsibility: creating the iconic gadgets
that make Apple hum in what will be a critical test for both him
and the company, which is in need of a new hit.
Apple's chief operating officer since 2015, Mr. Williams has
long been seen as a possible future CEO. Last week's announcement
that he will take over management of software and hardware design
when chief design officer Jony Ive leaves this year -- the
company's biggest executive change in years -- fueled anticipation
that Mr. Williams is the heir apparent to Tim Cook.
Meanwhile, Mr. Williams's ability to identify the right projects
and reject the wrong ones, and to push software and industrial
designers forward, will go a long way to determining Apple's
success.
Design has been central to Apple's formula since Steve Jobs,
with help from Mr. Ive, revived the company in the 1990s. Putting
Mr. Williams in charge marks a departure for Apple: Never before
has core product creation been directly managed by someone who
ascended through the operating ranks -- a staid domain of planning,
procurement and logistics.
Apple didn't make Mr. Williams available for this story, but
people who have worked with him say he has been more visible in the
product development process than Mr. Cook. Mr. Williams has shown
interest in products' look and feel, they said, and helped steer
the Apple Watch from being a fashion- and fitness-focused product
tethered to the iPhone to one that boasts wireless connectivity and
more health features, one of his priorities.
Still, Mr. Williams is an operations executive at his core, the
people said, and his skills at logistics and planning make him more
implementer than inventor. "He sees where we are, not where we need
to be in years to come," said a former colleague, who also praised
Mr. Williams's leadership, versatility and encyclopedic memory.
Apple has sought to emphasize Mr. Williams's involvement in
product development, which encompasses research and development, as
well as the business strategy behind bringing new products to life.
His biography on Apple's website was recently changed to read:
"Jeff led the development of Apple Watch in close collaboration
with the design team, and oversees the engineering teams
responsible for Apple Watch." Until late last month, that section
read: "He also oversees the development of Apple Watch," according
to an archived version of the page.
Apple declined to comment on the change.
Some close Apple watchers say Mr. Williams's new responsibility
makes sense given the difficulty anyone outside the company's
executive team would face replacing Mr. Ive. His role entailed
leading a team that helped conceptualize products and turn those
ideas into elegant, functional physical forms, collaborating with
software, hardware and operations divisions, said people familiar
with the process.
"It would be almost impossible to find someone who can really
replace Jony Ive," said Bob O'Donnell, a technology analyst with
TECHnalysis. "What they're doing is saying, 'let's reallocate how
we think about this and put someone else overseeing a few young
designers to give them leeway.' It's time for fresh blood. The last
few iPhones have looked really similar."
Indeed, pressure is growing on Apple to find new product
successes. Sales of the iPhone are sputtering, and strength in
newer items including the watch and the AirPods wireless earbuds
hasn't made up the difference. In the latest quarter, sales in
Apple's wearables, home and accessories division -- which also
includes Apple TV and iPod and Beats products -- totaled $5.1
billion. However, the total decline in iPhone revenue from a year
earlier was $6.5 billion.
Apple Music and other services are growing quickly, but the
company needs sustained hardware sales to keep the audience for
that business growing.
"Phones have plateaued, so what's the next vision?" said Sean
Stannard-Stockton, president of Ensemble Capital of Burlingame,
Calif., which sold its position in Apple in late 2018 after a
decade as a top holding. "You could have looked at Jony and said:
'He's the soul of Steve Jobs.' I just wonder about their ability to
invent the future now."
Mr. Williams will have a pair of deputies to help him with that
effort, not to mention years steeped in the product culture that
Mr. Jobs created. Apple last week named Mr. Ive's former top
lieutenant, Evans Hankey, as vice president of its legendary
industrial design studio. Ms. Hankey, a product-design graduate
from Stanford University, joined the industrial design team about
12 years ago and has managed the design studio for several years.
She has shared in a host of product design patents over the
years.
Mr. Williams, who is 56 years old, also will oversee a team of
software designers led by vice president of human interface Alan
Dye. A graphic designer who joined Apple's marketing and
communications team in 2006, Mr. Dye has largely led that team for
more than five years.
An Apple spokesman declined to make Ms. Hankey and Mr. Dye
available.
Mr. Williams, who received his undergraduate degree in
mechanical engineering at North Carolina State University, shares
much with Mr. Cook. Both earned M.B.A.s at Duke University, and
both previously worked at International Business Machines Corp. --
a onetime Apple nemesis. Mr. Cook preceded Mr. Williams as Apple's
chief operating officer before his selection as Mr. Jobs's
successor as CEO in 2011.
Mr. Williams's involvement in product development has grown over
more than a decade. After Tony Fadell, co-creator of the iPod, left
Apple in 2008, Mr. Jobs put Mr. Williams on a leadership team with
Mr. Ive responsible for developing the iPhone 4, said a member of
the team.
Some engineers and designers questioned how a supply-chain
executive from IBM could replace Mr. Fadell, this person said, but
Mr. Williams quieted doubters.
The iPhone 4 featured a glass back instead of the plastic used
on past models. During a thermal-engineering meeting, Mr. Williams
probed the engineers with questions about how new materials would
affect device performance, this person said. He also picked up the
prototype to evaluate how it felt. "It was impressive for a
negotiator, and spreadsheet guy, and it just came naturally to
him," this person said.
Carolina Milanesi, a technology analyst with Creative
Strategies, said Mr. Williams's operations background could be an
asset in his new role. "You need to have a balance between what is
possible and what makes sense," she said. "If everyone came at it
from a design perspective, that may not lead to the best possible
product."
Write to Tripp Mickle at Tripp.Mickle@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 05, 2019 05:44 ET (09:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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