Apple Needs a Stronger Transfer of Power
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By ROBERT CYRAN and JOHN FOLEY
The New York Times
January 17, 2011
Apple needs to delegate Steve Jobs’s power more formally to someone else. Mr. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, is handing day-to-day control to the company’s chief operating officer, Tim Cook, because of health issues. Yet he retains his chief executive title. This is the third such move, and this time the handover is indefinite. However painful, a more formal transfer to an acting chief executive would have been better.
Both Apple and its shareholders can take comfort in the fact that the last two transfers, also to Mr. Cook, took place smoothly. Apple’s operations showed no signs whatsoever of impairment under caretaker management.
Mr. Cook has worked at Apple for more than a decade and has been chief operating officer for several years. He’s clearly a safe pair of hands and more — in total, he was paid $59 million last year. Moreover, Mr. Jobs has promised to retain control over big strategic choices.
But Mr. Jobs’s fitness is, sadly, an increasing concern. The company hasn’t said exactly what the current matter is, but this latest setback follows previous treatment for pancreatic cancer and an organ transplant. Furthermore, the open-ended nature of Mr. Jobs’s current respite will add to the worry for employees and investors alike.
In these circumstances, Apple would have been better served by explicitly naming Mr. Cook acting chief. That would leave Mr. Jobs as chairman, where he could retain say over the Apple’s strategic direction without the grueling daily chores of running the company.
That is where he is most valuable anyhow. Such a division would provide clarity and give Mr. Cook a proper mandate, given the responsibility of overseeing a company with a $300 billion market capitalization.
Mr. Jobs plays an outsize role at Apple. He is arguably the best executive in technology. But his reputation also depends on keeping the company on the soundest footing possible, even if that means formally loosening his grip. |
