Apple CEO Tim Cook and a host of his fellow tech luminaries rode the golden elevators up to Donald Trump’s Trump Tower offices last week, a move many Silicon Valley employees saw as craven capitulation. But business is an environment for realists, as Cook and company well know. Trump takes over the executive office in January no matter how strenuously any of these CEOs supported Hillary Clinton (and most did). So it’s time to take a seat at the table — literally and figuratively.
Tim Cook explained this to Apple workers matter-of-factly, according to an internal memo first published by TechCrunch. Apple, Google, Facebook and the other super unicorns of Silicon Valley enjoy a pretty cozy relationship with the US government, despite occasional head butting. Cook made it clear that continued engagement was critical:
“Personally, I’ve never found being on the sideline a successful place to be. The way that you influence these issues is to be in the arena. So whether it’s in this country, or the European Union, or in China or South America, we engage. And we engage when we agree and we engage when we disagree.”
