In the middle of January Steve Jobs, the almighty CEO of Apple, stepped down from his post in order to address a medical issue that was “more complex than originally thought”. The press started to jump on the “Steve’s got cancer” bandwagon right away, and I think it was safe to say that anyone who could look at pictures of Jobs in January vs. Jobs in June of 08 could see that something serious was going on with his health.
And with the blink of an eye, he was gone… until this past weekend.
On June 20th, the Wall Street Journal went to press with the following headline: Jobs Had Liver Transplant
Be it the original cancer bout, the leave of absence taken in January, or a potential liver transplant, this all isn’t so much about Steve (tho he does have a cult of personality following) as it is about the company – Apple. While Steve is not the entire company, and I suspect it will live on without him, but the company has the responsibility to inform shareholders of what is going on within the organization.
But take a look at this quote from the article:
Material information like that must be disclosed only “if you are asking shareholders to make a decision based on [that] information,” said John Olson, a senior partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington. “You can’t expect the company to give a blow-by-blow account of Steve Jobs’s health.”
Agreed, a blow-by-blow account is not what is being asked, however; when a key decision maker – one who has the final say on what products move forward – has serious health issues or concerns, the company needs to be upfront with the situation. Finding out from news from the Wall Street Journal is not exactly “forthright”, is it now?
While I do not fall into the category of Mac fanatics, I do make use of their goods. They are top notch in just about every way. That said, the control over their products and the lack of information they provide regarding key members of leadership have really pressed me to look at future Apple purchases. I just fear the company may be too tight on information and, in the end, that may come back to hurt the consumer or shareholder.
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