From time to time, I’d like to profile different folks that are active participants in the Durham Community. Jeff Lloyd is a very good friend of mine, on the board of Trinity School in Durham and Chapel Hill, elder at the Church of the Good Shepherd on Garrett Road, and in charge of Apple’s Computer sales to the Education field in the Southeast. He started at Apple in 1987, and I don’t know of anyone (who doesn’t work at Bandwidth.com!) that is more excited about the company he works for and believes more in its business mission. Most importantly, Jeff is an awesome man who has done much for me and so many here in Durham as we have come to faith and seek to grow in it. Growing up the son of a missionary in West Africa will give a man a maturity and a remarkable perspective.

This blog isn’t however about Jeff (though I could go on), it’s about the company that he works for, its new CEO, and a succinct and powerful address that he gave to shareholders on a call this past January. I know about it because Jeff handmade a laminated copy that is in his wallet. (I told you he was excited about the company!) When you read it below, I think you’ll know why. And here is the lesson for Durham and all the organizations in it: charities, not-for-profits, and yes, of course, commercial companies as well.

In this time of hundreds of inputs from the internet/tv/facebook and twitter, we must at all times be ready to tell our employees, our funders, our partners and those that we seek to serve what it is that we do, what we value and what we believe. We need to do this crisply and succinctly to an audience that has an increasingly short attention span. With respect to that fact, and without further adieu:

Tim Cook’s address to Apple shareholders on January 22, 2009:

We believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great products and that’s not changing.

We are constantly focusing on innovating.

We believe in the simple not the complex.

We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.

We believe in saying no to thousands of projects, so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us.

We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allow us to innovate in a way that others cannot.

And frankly, we don’t settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self honesty to admit when we’re wrong and the courage to change.

And I think regardless of who is in what job those values are so imbedded in the company that Apple will do extremely well. I strongly believe that Apple is doing the best work in its history

Tim Cook, January 22, 2009

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