Most CEOs on the planet would have loved to be in Tim Cook's position: Apple was fabulously profitable, with the best brand on the planet. The company had one of the strongest balance sheets, with the cash to do almost anything it wanted. Customers loved its hardware, and they were often willing to pay substantial premiums over their competitors' products. Yet Apple in 2025 or 2030 would have to look very different from the Apple of 2020. Cook needed to answer: Would Apple be a hardware-first or a services-first? Competitors such as Netflix or Spotify were hardware agnostic: They enabled their services on virtually everyone's products. But in theory, services could alternatively be used to differentiate Apple's iPhone and other hardware. How might a services-first mentality change Apple's strategy? Apple had also long relied on its ability to differentiate its products. If services were key, how would Apple differentiate those services? And finally, what type of skills did Tim Cook want in the next CEO? Cook would be 60 years old in 2020. He had not announced any plans to retire, but there were obvious questions for management succession. What kind of leadership did Cook and the Apple board need to take the company to the next level