Between Christmas and New Year’s, he volunteered to run the manufacturing operations for IBM’s PC business. It allowed his bosses to spend time with their families and gave Cook the responsibility for shipping products critical to IBM’s end-of-the-year results. Cook’s bosses began to see him as a reliable leader and recommended that IBM pay for him to earn an evening MBA at nearby Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Courses in finance, strategy, and marketing broadened his appreciation of business disciplines that were outside the scope of his supply-chain job. In marketing, he studied
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