Note to Tim Cook: Just shut up!

Every time Apple’s no longer new CEO opens his mouth, the stock goes down. (Full disclosure: I own the stinkin’ stock!)

Cook took over the world’s most respected high-tech franchise for the iconic Steve Jobs a year-and-a half ago. After riding a residual crest of post-Jobs approval, the new CEO has presided, shockingly, over the dismantling of the Apple reputation and the crumbling of the Apple stock.

How did this happen?

Was it inferior products?  No, Apple’s products are still the envy of the world.

Was it inferior service? No, Apple’s stores and personnel are still the model of enthusiastic competence and professionalism.

Was it increased competition? Not really. Sure competition has increased – especially from the Samsung Galaxy SIII phone – but Apple is still the dominant force in a market that has ample room to grow, particularly in China and India.

Was it an inflated stock price? Again, not really. Apple’s price/earnings ratio – which generally measures the market’s “valuation” of a company -- is a paltry 10, compared to Google’s 24, IBM’s 14, or General Electric’s 17. Even the hopeless Dell has been awarded a 9 P/E by the market.  

So what has caused Apple’s stock to tumble?

Two words: Public relations.

Apple, one of the greatest marketing companies of all time, has never been known for good public relations.

Steve Jobs was a marketing genius but lousy when it came to public relations. Jobs was well known for his dictatorial control, secretiveness and arrogance.  Apple famously refused to share any details of the founder’s health, even though the company’s fortunes and stock price were materially linked to the CEO’s personal well-being.

Rather than Apple’s miserable public relations improving when Tim Cook took over in August 2011, it has only gotten worse.

So much so that with Apple’s stock down 35% in six months, investors have begun calling for the CEO’s scalp.

What can the confused Cook do to prevent the ignominy of getting canned and having to slink away with nothing but his $378 million compensation package as comfort?

How ‘bout these for starters:

  • Lose the defensiveness.

By all reports, Steve Jobs was one of the most arrogant human beings ever to grace the planet. He was vindictive to competitors, abusive to his employees, and, according to Apple’s chief designer, didn’t bathe!

But Jobs was also brilliant, so the market looked the other way when it came to the CEO’s personal loathsomeness.

Tim Cook, on the other hand, while thankfully not as arrogant as Jobs, also doesn’t possess the aura of “brilliance” that protected his predecessor. He’s had a tough time in recent months proving he’s even “competent.” The fiasco over the premature release of Apple Maps was just one example of the company appearing to falter on Cook’s watch.

Despite his un-Jobs-like record, Cook appears every bit as defensive as his predecessor.  Like Jobs, he avoids the media and spurns disclosure. When he does open his mouth, he is perceived to put his foot in it. Analysts carp about Cook’s chilly conference call to explain last quarter’s earnings, when Apple recorded revenues of $36 billion and the stock got clobbered.

Similarly, this month when Cook appeared at a Goldman Sachs conference to respond to comments that Apple should share some of its $137 billion cash hoard with shareholders, his defense of the company’s strategy  -- to essentially “trust it” to use all that money wisely --  drove the stock even lower.

Clearly, the company’s tone that under Jobs was perceived as “arrogance,” is considered “defensiveness” under Cook. And it ain’t workin’.

  • Meet the media.

Steve Jobs rarely deigned to be interviewed by hoi polloi in the media. He obviously thought it beneath him, and his Apple enablers single-mindedly agreed, as the company’s fortunes ascended.

Likewise, Tim Cook has remained aloof from the media, but now the company’s stock and reputation have steadily declined. In the meanwhile, Apple’s adversaries – most particularly self-promoting, hedge fund manager David Einhorn – are given free rein on CNBC to bad mouth Apple any time they want. With no resistance from the company – and little pushback from CNBC anchors – Apple enemies pontificate unchallenged.

Such unanswered and constant criticism can’t help but hurt the company, no matter where the truth lies. The public relations axiom is that, “Silence grants the point;” and Apple’s silence, accordingly, suggests the firm has no answer for its critics. Ironically, in his only major TV interview with Brian Williams for NBC’s “Rock Center,” Apple CEO Cook came across as a smart, approachable, down-to-earth fellow.

So all Tim Cook would have to do is ask for airtime on CNBC, and his mere appearance – even if he revealed little – would at least indicate that Apple is willing to discuss its plans, explain its culture, and answer its critics.  

Again, Jobs could get away with media invisibility; Cook can’t.

  • Buy a blazer.

Which leads to Tim Cook’s primary problem as Apple CEO; He ain’t Steve Jobs.  And never will be.

Somehow, Cook is convinced that he has to act like a Jobs’ clone to be respected. Jobs famously presented Apple products, always dressed in a black turtleneck sweater and black denim pants. Cook presents Apple products in black denim pants and a black shirt; evidently believing that switching the shirt for the turtleneck suggest a break with the past.

It doesn’t or at least not enough.

Why not present like an adult, take a risk – even, if you’ve got the nerve -- purchase a blue blazer! Anything to break the deleterious chokehold of the Steve Jobs’ legacy.

Apple’s stock slide and reputational falloff are largely “man made,” and the “man” who deserves most of the blame is its new CEO.

Tim Cook needs to be his own man. He should get more aggressiveness with the media, change his tone, change his look, and let the financial community and the public understand why he was clearly the man to replace the great Steve Jobs.

Oh yes, he should also bathe regularly!