Does Apple need a successor to Steve Jobs following yet another ill health report and a massive decline in Apple stocks. And is the hunt already underway?
There is no doubt that Steve Jobs is the rudder that’s holding Apple on course but as the market becomes turbulent and competitors suddenly realise that great design and efficient software drives sales and try to copy Apples success, Apple is set to come under pressure. But if Steve Jobs does exit the Company suddenly what next?
Apple without Steve Jobs at the helm is a bit like the Queen Victoria without a rudder. Apple is Steve Jobs and Steve Jobs is the heart and Soul of Apple.
Without him Apple management did a lousy job and as analysts and the media start to questions his health with first Bloomberg prematurely kills him off and then CNN’s iReport claiming he’s in hospital after a “major heart attack”. Except now they’ve stopped claiming that, after Apple said quickly and unambiguously that it wasn’t true. Now questions are being raised about a successor
Currently Jobs is trying to revive a stock that has slid nearly 48 percent in 2008 and to keep momentum after revenue almost quadrupled in the past five years. Apple, based in Cupertino, California, gets at least 80 percent of sales from consumers and half of its revenue in the United States, putting the company at risk if people cut spending.
Fortune magazine recently said that Apple COO Timothy Cook is the man most likely to replace co-founder and current CEO Steve Jobs.
They claim that Cook’s deep knowledge of Apple’s operations and ready command of detail has won him the respect of the board of directors and the investment community. A bachelor with a passion for cycling, he’s as steady and low-key as Jobs is temperamental.
Also tipped is Jonathan Ive, the wildly talented designer and crowd favourite. However some say that he would struggle to carry yoke of showman that he would inherit.
Recently Google CEO Eric Schmidt who is also on the board of Apple begun low-level discussions with several Apple board members regarding his role as a possible temporary replacement to Steve Jobs should a situation arises.
