I wouldn’t go that far. Tim Cook doesn’t really care what people think of him, he only cares about one group of people - shareholders. It was probably marketing that came up with it. Tim is totally fine being the finance guy and the vision he sold the board was “I’ll keep Apple from imploding” which he has been very successful at.

Like Nadella, you need someone from the early years, who knows the business, to run it.

Cook lacks product vision because 1) he’s no Steve Jobs. He was hired. He didn’t create. 2) He doesn’t have an Jonny Ive to make something as boring as a computer be as sexy as an Italian vase. Or as sleek as a pencil. Or as flat as paper. Or whatever metaphors were used during the Ive years to describe his design process.

But he has been there long enough to know how it works.

Nadella seems to have incomparably more vision...

Maybe, um, computing devices and operating systems are intrinsically special devices due to the way they shape the world, and a company manufacturing them needs to be run by someone who takes more care than their superficial shape or optimizing shareholder value. If I wanted a typewriter with a sexy design, I would buy an Italian typewriter.