????今年二月，在一位花旗銀行（Citibank）調查分析師的帶領下，一群投資人訪問了蘋果公司（Apple）。首先，蘋果首席財務官皮特?奧本海默做了45分鐘的介紹，然后參加會談的約15位投資人受到了蘋果獨一無二的招牌式“款待”——他們被領到蘋果加州庫柏蒂諾總部循環圈4號（4 Infinite Loop）公共會議中心的會議大廳內，屋里的點心是“三片過期的餅干和兩瓶健怡可樂”。

????除了寒酸的點心外，以上一切都是硅谷大型上市公司的例行路數，即通過接待訪問來與公司的大股東進行交流。那天真正震撼到蘋果投資方的是，在奧本海默開始演講大約20分鐘后，首席執行官蒂姆?庫克竄進了屋子，安靜地坐在后排，做了一個對蘋果首席執行官來說不同尋常的舉動——聆聽。中間，他沒有查過一次郵箱，也沒有打斷奧本海默的發言。

????首席財務官說完后，當時就任首席執行官剛剛5個月的庫克起身發言了。他邁著自信的步伐走到前排，用他標志性的精干風格主持了會議。“他處于完全的主動之中，而且很清楚自己是誰、想要什么，”一位投資者說。“他正面回答了每一個問題，沒有任何回避?！彼踔撂峁┝艘恍┨O果官方公布的績效數據之外的東西。在回答怎么看待Facebook時，他認為這個暴發戶鄰居“是與蘋果最為相似的公司，”他并補充自己十分尊敬Facebook，兩家可以有更緊密的合作。在最近一場財務業績電話會議上，庫克還謹慎地夸獎了另一家競爭對手兼合作伙伴亞馬遜（Amazon），稱其為與蘋果“屬不同類的”、“具備很多不同優勢的競爭者”，并稱其逐漸對iPad構成競爭的Kindle電子書“將有很大銷量”。

????庫克在去年冬天的那次投資者會議中最了不起的地方在于，換作史蒂芬?喬布斯的話，他根本就懶得現身。這位去年八月辭去首席執行官并于六周后逝世的傳奇合伙創始人很少會屈尊接見投資者，那是時任首席運營官蒂姆?庫克的工作之一。如今蒂姆?庫克的舉動昭示了一場微妙卻顯著的變化——多年來投資者首次受到首席執行官的關注，而這也是庫克自掌帥近一年來為蘋果注入的諸多變化之一。既與華爾街又與政府官員關系和睦、首次向股東分紅、首創員工慈善匹配計劃，把這些放在一起，蒂姆?庫克的管理思想逐漸變得清晰起來。

????In February of this year, a group of investors visited Apple as part of a "bus tour" led by a research analyst for Citibank. The session started with a 45-minute presentation by Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer, and the 15 or so investors who attended the session were treated to Apple's unique brand of hospitality: They met in a threadbare conference room in Apple's Town Hall public conference center at the 4 Infinite Loop building in Cupertino, Calif., where the refreshments consisted of "three stale cookies and two Diet Cokes," in the words of one participant.

????All that, save the meager refreshments, is routine for big public companies in Silicon Valley, which use the check-ins as opportunities to communicate with large owners of their stock. What shocked the Apple (AAPL) investors that day was that CEO Tim Cook popped into the room about 20 minutes into Oppenheimer's talk, quietly sat down in the back of the room, and did something unusual for a CEO of Apple: He listened. He didn't check his e-mail once. He didn't interrupt.

????After the CFO finished, Cook, at that point chief executive of Apple for all of five months, stood to offer his remarks. He strode confidently to the front of the room and held court in the no-nonsense style that has become his trademark. "He was in complete control and knew exactly who he was and where he wanted to go," says one of the investors. "He answered every question head-on and didn't skirt any issue." Cook even offered some color that went beyond expanding on Apple's already disclosed performance data. Asked his opinion of Facebook (FB), Cook called the neighboring upstart "the one company that is closest to being like Apple," adding that he had huge respect for Facebook, with which Apple could work more closely. (More recently Cook doled out guarded praise for another competitor/partner, saying on a financial results conference call that Amazon (AMZN) is "a different kind of competitor" that has "different strengths" from Apple and that "will sell a lot" of Kindles, the gadget that is increasingly competitive to Apple's iPad.)

????Here's what's most remarkable about Cook's appearance that day last winter: Steve Jobs wouldn't have bothered. The legendary company co-founder, who stepped down as Apple's CEO last Aug. 24, six weeks before his death, rarely deigned to meet with investors. That was one of Tim Cook's tasks as chief operating officer. It's a subtle but significant change -- investors now have the CEO's ear for the first time in years -- and it's one of many Cook has instituted at Apple as he approaches his one-year mark at the helm. Taken together -- his rapport with Wall Street as well as government officials, his decision to grant a dividend to shareholders, the creation of a program to match employee gifts to charity -- Tim Cook's stewardship of Apple is beginning to come into focus.