Steve Jobs Undergoes Cancer Surgery

Zycom writes "Reuters reports that doctors successfully removed a cancerous tumor from the pancreas of Apple CEO Steve Jobs. In an e-mail he sent out from his hospital bed after the surgery he explained the disease, saying, "I had a very rare form of pancreatic cancer called an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor, which represents about 1 percent of the total cases of pancreatic cancer diagnosed each year, and can be cured by surgical removal if diagnosed in time (mine was)." He will not need to have any chemotherapy or radiation therapy and has an excellent prognosis. While he is recuperating, Tim Cook, head of worldwide sales and operations, will run the company."

Comments

Does Jobs' have a successor?

[micron]

First, I am an Apple fan. Go Steve Go!

As a shareholder, and considering that Apple is a public company, does Jobs have a successor?

Case and point: We all saw what happened last time Steve left. He came back and essentially saved the company from destruction. He was quoted as saying something along the lines of "I am not going to let someone wreck this company again".

From what I see, Apple = Steve. Apple's success lies in Steve's hands, or more to the point, as goes Jobs, goes Apple.

Does anyone have insight on this? What happens if something happens and Steve is not at the helm any more? Does Apple die with him?

Re:distorted vision of CEOs etc

[MouseR]

Well, here's my moderation points going away for this reply.

If you'd be a little more informed, you'd know from talking with Apple engineers (lite I do at the Apple World Wide Developer Conference) that Jobs actually has a say in everything.

He actually overseas both software and hardware development to the point of butting in on designs/features/implementation and repeatedly looks over your shoulder to make sure it's as he wants it to be.

At first, I'm told, this is nerve-wrecking and eventually, Apple engineerings rely on this and some actually appreciate it when comes the time where Jobs has nothing much to say about your product. Engineers told me, "it's at that point we usually know we have a winner".

(All jokes aside, I've not heard this specific comment about the Mac Cube :-)

Will this change the way Apple innovates?

[amichalo]

First: Steve, best wishes and speedy recovery. Millions of people are praying for you and wishing you well.

Second: Does anyone think this will serve as a 'wake up' call to Apple's leadership and innovation practices?

I am a Switcher and what I found when I started following the world-that-is-Apple that Steve === Apple. He was a founder, when he was outed the company went on a death spiral, when he came back it got a second life with the 1st gen iMac and now Appel rules digital music.

But is that the best way to run a company? Certainly you NEED a strong leader, but it seems a bit pied piper to me. What would the next years look like for Apple if Steve had had terminal cancer? Has Apple grown into an organization that can go on without him?

I work for a small business and our founder and president of three decades will soon retire. He has run his company very patriarchially (sp) and it has been interesting to see senior managment change their styles to rely less upon the president for decision making and instead, take that on themselves.

I use that as an illustration of growing pains that Apple may one day soon face. How to instil the innovation and business savvy of Steve Jobs throughout the organization so that Apple will be a strong company well past Steve's tenure.