Responsible for negotiating prices with suppliers, Tony Blevins held a key position at Apple. The “chief cost cutter” lost his place following a joke on TikTok.
The joke posted on Tik-Tok is 25 seconds long, but it cost Apple’s vice president of purchasing his job.
Last month, Tony Blevins was stopped by Tiktokeur Daniel Mac as he parked his Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren at a California auto show. In the process of making a series on the occupations of rich people, Daniel Mac asks him what he does for a living. Tony Blevins’s response fuses: “I have fancy cars, I play golf and fondle busty women, but I take weekends and vacations.”
The answer – which is a line taken from the film Arthur (1981) with Liza Minelli – goes wrong within the technology company. Employees complain about it to the human resources departments.
According to Bloomberg, this case ended Tony Blevins’ career at Apple. The person said he wanted to apologize for offending some people with an “unfortunate attempt at humor”.
Tony Blevins, who joined Apple 22 years ago, worked closely with Tim Cook (CEO) and Jeff Williams (COO). He was in charge of purchases and therefore negotiated with suppliers. He has thus played an important role in the program to reduce the costs of many components of devices from the apple brand. In 2020, the Wall Street Journal called him the “chief cost cutter” or “the Blevinator”.
Tony Blevins’ function has been taken over by Jeff Williams pending the designation of his successor.