“Apple investors have already been through a period without CEO Steve Jobs at the helm and that didn’t turn out too well,” Paul R. La Monica reports for CNN/Money. “So the news of Jobs’ cancer surgery over the weekend did not sit well with Wall Street. Shares of Apple Computer dipped more than 2 percent Monday morning.”
“‘Steve Jobs has been the hallmark of Apple’s turnaround,’ said Megan Graham-Hackett, an equity analyst with Standard & Poor’s. ‘It would be a blow to the company if he were not able to be as participatory as he has been in the past,'” La Monica reports. “Of course, it seems premature to speculate about a successor to Jobs. Or is it? ‘We have a talented and experienced senior management team,’ said an Apple spokeswoman. ‘Our board of directors has a formal succession plan in place but the details of that are not public.’ But Rod Bare, an equity analyst with Morningstar, said that Apple investors should always be prepared for life without Jobs… ‘Apple does rely on a cult of personality and the stock trades on some of that,’ said Bare.”
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews article:
What happens when Steve Jobs dies? – August 20, 2003
first post!!!
yehaaaaaawwwwwww
No more chance than MacDailyNews without the brilliant first posters.
It would suck without seeing Jobs at the expos. He is so charasmatic. I love it, so arragant – he, imo, is Apple. he has so much direction, and knows what he wants, and knows how to go about doing it.
If he were to leave Apple; Yes, the company would take a hard blow, that’s for sure. Apple was not very good for the 10 years that he was not there… he, obviously, did tremendous things. I hope that Apple would survive if it were not for Steve J. I believe he has put a lot of great people in his cabinet if he were to.
Let’s just hope Steve is alright, and stays healthy.
I think Jonathan Ive should take over
Remember, Apple Board member al gore is looking for a job…
Losing Jobs would be a bad thing for Apple, for sure. However, the company can continue to prosper if they get someone in there who is as fanatically pro-Apple (and pro-Mac) as Jobs is. What he does so well (that past CEOs didn’t) is lead the company based on what Apple stands for…its spirit or symbology. He “gets” it…and if we get someone else in there who does too, then I think Apple will be just fine.
I think the ANALysts name Rod Bare is funny.
I think that one point a lot of people will miss is that Steve Jobs has very firmly established his philosophy for design, innovation and elegance within the company at a lot of levels. He’s probably irritated the hell out of a lot of people there, but they do know how he wants things done. When he leaves (in 30 or so years) they will keep on ticking under his philosophy for a long time.
As for the surgery this weekend, it ain’t going to slow Steve down that much. I had prostate surgery in Feb and dropped by the office a week later – after the staples came out. He’s younger than me and will be firing up his involvement in Apple very soon, even if it over the phone and internet.
He is one of the true visionaries in the world of personal computing. Apple’s innovation totally flatlined when he left, and skyrocketed when he came back. Sure, others may have come up with the tech details behind the iMac, iPod and OS X, but he’s the only one with the vision to get them to market in the cleanest way. Apple would be lost without him.
Steve and Apple are too closely intertwined. Something has to change.
Here’s an article that explores that very thing:
“Is it time for a successor to Steve Jobs?”
http://www.mac360.com/index.php/mac360/more/change_at_the_top_is_it_time_for_a_successor_to_steve_jobs/
In the first exit of Steve he was totally powerless to do anything about it, following his return you can bet setting up a succession was done soon after he dropped ‘interim’ (from iCEO).
Ive gets my vote too. Jonathon has a very similar demeanour to Steve when in communication mode, he could turn on an RDF too – it comes from believing in, and being intimately involved with, the product being demoed.
I bet Steve can be just as irritating (but possibly not as constructive) communicating remotely, Cupertino will soon get pissed with all his emails and four-way iChats, everyone will be pleased to see him back
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The history of Apple is the history of personal computing, and without Steve there is no Apple.
Certainly Apple has many fine, talented, and intelligent people. And they would produce outstanding computers for years to come.
But Steve Jobs SEES the future and rams it home.
dv
(this is david vesey and I have approved this message)
The Golden IPod
Willie Wonka is to Steve Jobs as to Charlie Bucket is to The Golden IPod owner.
What APPL needs to do is run the Golden IPOD campaign similar to Willie Wonka and the Chololate factory to determine who shall be Steves Predesssor! For real life it would have to be edited a bit.
The Everlasting Macstopper- will never exist
Oompa Loompas -short/young sweat shop workers? Hopefully they can sing.
Slugworth would of course be Bill Gates
The snotty other kids who get booted out of Cupertino would be played by 1st Posterss
Just don’t go drinking Fizzy Lifting Drink with Grandpa Joe and you will be in like Flint.
-Paul
Gandalf noted the important difference between the first exit of Jobs and a future exit of Jobs. I would guess that the replacement plan does not include bringing in an exec from another line of work, but putting the new person in place from within. A person with a true understanding of what Apple stands for. Anyone can be replaced, it’s only a question of whether the replacement is the correct choice. The board learned a tough lesson last time and you better believe they know the importance of Jobs and his opinion on a successor.
One cancer surgery and y’all are already talking about replacing the guy! Yeesh! Mac users are sick. Here’s an idea… calm down. He’ll heal up, take his meds, and roll more iPods out for you to make sweet sappy love to for the next fifty-plus years. Steve Jobs will live forever because he’s really a cyborg anyway. He and Bill will be the last living members of our race. They will have one final, giant apocalyptic cybernetic showdown at the end of time to prove which system is truly superior. Unfortunately the victor will have no one left to gloat to. Peace out, mu fukkas….
School Girl Paul,
that’s insane…. so insane that it JUST MIGHT WORK!!!
on second thought, no, it won’t work…
<bold>Hi</bold>
bring on Apples new iClone technology! tehe
Steve will come back even more Iconic than before. Imagine the first time he steps onto a stage post cancer op. The place will go nuts. My guess is though you will start to see Jonathon Ives more. Even though he is lower key, his design vision has people in awe. It would not be Steve Job’s RDF, but a very good one just the same. Get well soon Steve.
Apple is nothing without jobs.
Steve is SO elemental!
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I did tell you tha HE is from OuterSpace
Whoops..
Steve is SO Edemthal… or so
Markkula or Ive or Tev or Co aren�t nothign
Apple would do fine without Stevie — the stock would tank, of course, but in the long run … Windoze would suffer the most – even more than old-time Mac_users.
Can you picture the standing ovation Stevie will get at his next keynote? It won’t stop until he cracks a joke at his expense.
How about the look on both their faces when Billy comes to visit, as I believe he would?
Its laughable how many times I see something along the lines of “Ive should take over.” Can any of you name the top 5 officers in Apple? How about the top 10? Do any of you have a solid understanding on the scope of Apple’s various business units and what is involved to run the company?
uh huh… I didn’t think so…
Apple IS Steve Jobs right now. I hope that in the far future when he passes on the torch it will be to someone as charismatic, visionary, and innovative as Steve is. To put it more simply, someone who “gets it”.
Right now the only one who pops to mind is Jonathan Ive. How old is he anyway?
Jack A… you say that the only name that “pops to mind” is Jonathan Ive. How many officers within Apple can you name? What is there experience? What makes you think Ive is qualified to run a business… let alone Apple itself?