>> even though i have a day job running a private equity firm. how do you define leadership? what is it that makes somebody tech? -- take? -- tick? [applause] >> quite a reception. you have been the ceo of apple since july of 2011. the earnings are up about 80%. have you ever thought you can't

do better than this? and now i do do something else of my life. >> we have used the stock price and revenues and profits as a result of doing things right on the innovation side. on the creativity side. focusing on the right products. treating customers like they are duals. and focusing on the user experience. i don't even know the numbers. this is not something that is even in my orbit. >> analysts always say that -- does that bother you. it did at one time. it does not anymore. apple for the long-term. it has always struck me as bizarre that there is a fixation on how many units are sold in a

90 day time. we make decisions that are multi-year decisions. we tried to be very clear that we do not run the company for people who want to make a quick buck. we run the company for the long-term. >> one of the shareholders who services having but 75 million additional shares is warren buffett. are you pleased to have him as your shareholder? tim: i am thrilled. warren is focused on the long term. we are in sync. we run the company to why he invests. i could not be happier. >> have you thought about this, warren uses an old flip phone? he has no smart phone. have you thought how much more your stock could go up if you use the product? tim: i am working on him. i told him personally, do tech support.

you are now in a building that was designed and expired -- inspired by steve jobs. you have moved in recently. steve had the vision that the workplace should facilitate people working together. having the common areas that people can work together. and run into each other without planning on doing it heard the level of ideas and creativity and innovation, would be phenomenal. we are seeing that. up working is better than sitting down. we have given all of our employees standing desks. if you can stand for a while, this is much better. >> we could stand up for a while. --: >> let me ask you about how we came to this decision. you grew up in alabama.

-- were you aere star athlete, scholar, tech nerd? im: i'm not sure i would say was a star anything. i worked hard at school. had some reasonably good grades. in aenefit i had was being family that was a loving family. a public school system that was good. that is a huge benefit. honestly, a benefit that many kids don't have these days. >> you went to auburn. how did you do there? tim: i did pretty good. i did pretty good. i really got into engineering in a big way. industrial engineering. >> then you went to work for ibm. tim: i did. i started as a production engineer.

designing manufacturing lines. at that time, robotics were beginning to take off. we were focused on automation. i would not say we successfully focused on it. i learned a lot. from going through that as well. for 12 years.re he joined another company called compaq. onehe time, i think it was of the biggest manufacturers of personal computers. tim: they were number one at the time. >> you were there for six months. and you get a call from steve jobs saying can you come and join apple. apple was modest compared to compact. why did you take the interview? steve had come back to the was essentially replacing the executive team that was there at the time. is an opportunity to

talk to the guy who started the whole industry. steve met me on saturday. it was like just minutes into talking with him i want to do it. which i was totally shocked myself. a sparkle in his eye that i had never seen in a ceo before. he was turning left when everyone else was turning right. was almost like everything but he talked about, he was doing something extraordinarily different than conventional wisdom. many people were abandoning the consumer market because they were just a bloodbath. he was doing the exact opposite. he was doubling down on the consumer at the time everybody said conventional wisdom go put your money in storage and servers. i thought it was brilliant. talking with him and the type of

questions he asked were also different. i did literally -- i hope he offers me a job. i really want to do that. >> did your friends tell you this was not a good idea? nuts.hey thought i was conventional wisdom was you are working for the top personal computer maker in the world. ? why would you ever leave ? you have a great career ahead. it was not a decision that you could kind of sit down and do the engineering analysis saying here of the pluses and minuses. that analysis would always say safe play. it was this voice in your head that said go west young men. despite the fact that there is no state income tax and texas. you still said you were going to go west. in hindsight, this was the best of rational decision of your

life. -- professional decision of life. tim: maybe the best decision in my life. >> steve felt he could not continue to be the ceo. time thatught at that he was going to be chairman and he would do that forever. unfortunately, it did not turn out that way.

?> what was your job in apple? tim: -- our economies scale did not lend itself to us doing manufacturing in different places like existed in the company at that time. partners that were expert in manufacturing. we maintained the intellectual knowledge of how. the process. obviously, all of the design. >> when you got there and you are working for steve, was it better than you had thought? tim: i found it to be liberating , is the way i would describe it. you could talk to steve about something very big.

him, het resonated with would just say ok. and you could do it. it was like a total revelation for me that a company could run like this. i was used to these layers of andaucracy and studies studying things, the paralysis that companies can get into. and apple was totally different than that. i realized if i could not get something done i could just go to the nearest mirror and look at it and that was the reason. steve's health was such that he could not continue to be the ceo. and you were announced as the ceo around july of 2007. when you begin the ceo, did you steve would say here's what i was interested in and you fulfill my goals?

or did you feel you had your own view on what you should do? how did you balance the two? not so sequential is that we have an open company. most of us could finish the other person's sentences even when we might disagree with them. steve not a matter of having this secret file or something. he was always sharing his ideas. all the time. that, i different than ,hought my thought at that time and i know people have told me you are just not very smart. he was at that time was going to be chairman and he would do that forever. thewe would figure out relationship change there. and that is what i thought.

unfortunately, it did not turn out that way. >> today, apple is going to reinvent the phone. you have a product that is the most successful consumer product in the history of mankind. the iphone. there was a sense that it was a profound product. a game changer. you go back and watch the keynote that steve announced it. you can feel his passion in it and the way he describes it. i remember it like it was yesterday. >> how many iphones have been sold? tim: well over one billion. >> so one out of every seven people has one. tim: some people have bought more than one. i hope so, anyway. have new ones coming out every so often. if i buy a new iphone should i expect another one in two years? expect thatuld

apple is going to keep innovating. and you should jump on the train now. because life is so short. [applause] >> i have my iphone here. one time, i cannot quite work something cured i asked you to help me. you said i normally don't do tech support. it did work. came out with the apple watch. not too long ago. why was it called the apple watch and not the eye watch? have iphone, ipod, ipad, why not i watch? did you ever think of that? >> i'm sure you must have thought of it. tim: it was something that we had thought of.

i kind of liked apple watch. what do you think? >> you are the ceo. how are they doing? tim: they are doing fantastic. cellular is now on the watch. you have to travel with your iphone. just use your watch. one of my best moments of the day is to go through my emails from users. week fromso many each people that found out they have a heart problem from their watch. it is alerting you if you have been sitting in cash and your heart has climbed to a level that does not make sense relative to the activity that you have been doing. knowless you don't want to if you have a heart problem. tim: we think most people do. seriously, so many people have watch alertedid me to a problem. i took an action. that if i had not

gone there i would not be alive. nobody knows you directly. tim: sure they do. >> how can you respond to all those he mavs? tim: i can't. but that doesn't mean i can read a fair number of them. i think it is important. have you ever thought that you could run for president of the united states? [applause] thatresident is something you would love to be president, but not ever run. that should never happen in our country. that kind of eliminates me. ♪

>> let's talk about some of the values you have been espousing. one of them is privacy. to us, it is right up there with some of the other civil liberties that make americans what they are. it defines us as americans. is becominghat this a larger and larger issue for people. we take an this is minimum amount of data from

customers. only that which we need to provide a great service. and then we work really hard to protect it with encryption and so forth. >> you have also talked about the importance of equality. why is that important to you? tim: as i look at the world, many of the problems of the the lack ofown to equality. it is thefact that kid that is born in one's a coder does not have a good education because they happen to be born in the zip code. is an lgbtne that community. that is fired because of that. it is someone that has a different religion than the majority and therefore they are ostracized in some way. simply, if one day you could wave a wand and everybody in the world would treat each

other with dignity and respect, there are many problems i would go away with that. >> you expose your own personal life a bit. the privacy that you have said other people should have, you give up some of your privacy. why? i did it for a greater purpose. it became clear to me that there were lots of kids out there that were not being treated well. including in their own families. need someone to say they did ok in life. in their day. it must not be a life sentence in some kind of way. nodes.getting these it would tug on my heart even more. it got to the point where i thought i'm making the wrong call. something that is comfortable for me.

which is to stay private. i needed to do something for the greater good. [applause] >> no regrets. tim: no regrets. in the public eye. you had a meeting with president trump. what was that like. tim: i would not want to say what he said. what i talked about trade. and the importance of trade. and how i felt that two countries trading together make the pie larger. that it is true that not everyone has been advantaged from that in either country. we have got to work on that. were nott that tariffs the right approach approach there. i showed him some analytical

kinds of things that have demonstrated why. we also talked about immigration. fixing theortance of dreamer issue. now. we are only one court ruling away from a catastrophic pace there. >> you think you make progress on these issues? tim: i hope so. >> apple has roughly $260 billion of cash. what do you tend to do with the cash? to create a new site. enter campus within the united states. we will hire 20,000 people. we will spend 30 billion in -- over the next several years. we are number one, we are investing a ton in this country. buy some ofgoing to our stock because we view our stock is a good value. >> your parents live to see your

success. threey mother passed away years ago. my father is still alive. >> your mother lived to see you be the ceo. tim: she did. say you are great, i always knew you would be successful? of them onget both ipad. i finally convinced my father to start using iphones. they treat me like they did 20 years ago. 40 years ago. 60 years ago. >> he calls you with tips about what to do. tim: when i do something doesn't think is good he tells me about it. i saw you on that show it wasn't very good. i'm hoping you edit this well. veryu are obviously a

public figure. have you ever thought that maybe you could run for president of the united states? [applause] you have seen the president up close. tim: i'm not political. i love focusing on the policy. dysfunction in washington between the legislative branch and so forth, i think that i can make a bigger difference in the world doing what i am doing. i appreciate the comment but i think, the president is something that you would love to be president, but not ever run. that should never happen in our country. so that kind of eliminates me. >> of all the ceos that i know, , moste the lowest ego

self-effacing person i have seen in this position. noticed that you are different than the other people or ceos? how do you maintain the self-effacing modest demeanor when you are running the biggest company in the world? applehen you work at there is a high expectation on everyone to perform and to contribute. because of that high bar, and you never quite get there. including the ceo. including every job in there. i never feel that way very long if i ever felt that way. >> thank you for taking the time today. you are the first person i have interviewed without a tie on. i bet you sleep in a tie. [applause]

♪ retail.

under pressure like never before. and it's connected technology that's moving companies forward fast. e-commerce. real time inventory. virtual changing rooms. that's why retailers rely on comcast business to deliver consistent network speed across multiple locations. every corporate office, warehouse and store near or far covered. leaving every competitor, threat and challenge outmaneuvered. comcast business outmaneuver.

>> this is bloomberg etf iq. if you are positioning for the tail end of the economic cycle, you are diversifying and considering commodities, including gold. the shift into defensive position. private equity is one of the last frontiers for etf. is there a way to use the exchange rate to get into liquid high-yielding assets? the collaborative funds gives us his take. wear