First, I am no stranger to serious illnesses, no one my age is. I watched a number of family members succumb to long, lingering and cruel diseases and do not treat such trials lightly. Moreover — which Odo could not have possibly known — I come from a medical family and was exposed early and often to mystery ailments which my physician father labored to identify.
That said, Jobs’ illness was sufficiently severe early on to inspire great rumor-mongering. How do rumors serve the interests of stockholders and employees of the company? Better to be transparent: we have health issues. We are unsure what they are. These are the steps being taken to address them. It is instructive that during his months of “holistic” treatment of the cancer, there were no announcements; it was only when the surgery was performed that Apple had to address the disease.

As to the current hormonal disorder: the specific diagnosis was less important than revealing the fact that the CEO of this major company had some sort of serious ailment. Apple stakeholders were entitled to that information.

Over the decades, the issues of health and privacy have evolved. When I began work as a print reporter in the 1960s, obituaries customarily indicated someone had died “after a long illness.” That was code for cancer because back then there was a stigma attached to the disease.

On a larger scale, health was generally an individual secret, even where presidents were concerned. When Woodrow Wilson was president he suffered a debilitating stroke and, in effect, his wife and cabinet served as a collective chief executive of the nation. The people learned of this after the fact.

When Franklin Roosevelt ran for President, newspapers and newsreels never showed him in a wheelchair or on crutches — a tacit agreement to keep key, relevant health information from the American public. By the time he ran for his fourth term, his health was in critical decline, yet the public was kept in the dark. He died less than a year into that fourth term.

The first president I recall being candid about health issues was Eisenhower — who had surgery for a bout of ileitis and heart trouble while he was chief executive. Secrecy returned with John F. Kennedy who suffered from Addisson’s disease — which was kept from the public until after he was assassinated — as well as chronic back pain so severe his brother, Bobby said of him, “at least one half of the days that he spent on this earth were days of intense physical pain.”

Lyndon Johnson, on the other hand treated — if that’s the word for it — us all to a showing of his gall bladder surgery scar. (You can see the photo at: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vSDqZSkjH7I/RykNSumt5EI/AAAAAAAAAKo/Fq4rNpapTsw/s320/lbj+gall+bladder.jpg

Since Johnson, presidents’ and presidential candidates’ health has been fair game for the media because the health of a chief executive is a legitimate concern for voters. Similarly, the health of a CEO — especially one of Jobs’ hands-on, inspirational stripe — is fair game for the media because that individual’s health is a legitimate concern of shareholders.

Odo writes, “I just don’t understand why everyone thinks that Apple or Steve is deliberately lying or conceal [sic] the truth to investors.” I never used the word lying. I don’t know if lying was involved; if false information was given out. Certainly contradictory information was (especially vis a vis Jobs’ nonappearance at the Mac World conclave.) But there can be little doubt the company was being evasive. Evasive public relations does not serve the interests of the shareholders and other stakeholders in a company, any more than evasion serves the interests of the public regarding a national leader’s health.

Steve Jobs return to Apple in ‘96 saved the company; there can be no doubt about that. He also redefined the popular music business (saving it from near certain doom) and rewrote the book on animated films. His visionary and inspirational leadership has been game-changing. He dared go into a supposedly mature field — mobile phones — and managed to totally redefine the entire business. When I worked at ABC many years ago, the company had a “Key Executives” program which rewarded vice president-and-above executives who supposedly excelled at their jobs by giving them stock options and other benefits. There was so many people “on the key,” as they called it, the honor was totally diluted. At Apple, there are likely many key executives, but the master key is Jobs because all the others appear to be fulfilling his forward-thinking visions.

If he were Steve Jobs, president of the Jobs Building Supply Company, the state of his health would be the business of his family, his employees and his doctors. But Jobs is not merely the head guy at a publicly-traded corporation; he is one of a tiny handful of executives who have attained mythic status. For the very reason that Apple has fostered the Steve Jobs = Apple, Apple = Steve Jobs legend, the company owes its shareholders — and even its customers- clarity when dealing with the CEO’s health issues.

I suspect, in the case of Apple, there’s enough corporate culture to maintain their momentum for a time, but… only time will tell.

Peace,
Steve