THINKing

Why Steve Jobs’ Health Is A Public Concern

Apple’s Steve Jobs and his PR firm are bucking the notion that the health of the ill CEO is of public concern. Ragan.com reports,

Problem is Jobs, and his PR machine, think his health should be kept private. To meet this goal, they have been—to put it kindly—less than straight-forward. For example, back in June, Apple’s PR pros blamed their boss’s notable weight loss on a “common bug.”

They are wrong to withhold this information.  Jobs, to most, is Apple. He is the brand, unlike Bill Gates at Microsoft. Gates did an excellent job of making Microsoft’s brand about the company and not reliant on him. When a person becomes the brand of a company, most of the things that can happen to the brand are bad.  Now, that is not to say that if Gates were ill, it wouldn’t be news. It’s just that there is no real Gates’ premium built into the stock price of Microsoft, as there is with Jobs and Apple.

When you are publicly traded, you must be open and as transparent as legally possible. Apple needs to start practicing transparency right now. Next, they need to show how Jobs’ creativity has been institutionalized. This helps separate Jobs from the brand and makes future executive health concerns less problematic.

I hope Jobs gets well and back to work soon.  Maybe while he is off-duty, he can think about how to change the Apple culture to one of  openness. What do you think?

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