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OK OK I'll take the job ... sheesh.

every CEO in every company should have just a plan. I am sure apple does too. It just isn't made public.

Oct 03, 08 - 03:32 pm Comment from: HMCIV

How many companies in the world publicly list their succession plan?

Secondary to that, how much would a public succession plan buffer AAPL stock on the day Steve Jobs leaves the company?

OK, Got my vote! Invest when you take the position.

Charlie Bucket is available.

One important par of being a leader is that once you pass away, your legacy and your followers remain there. Steve Jobs is a good leader and he has set the rules so once he is retired, apple will remain performing wonderful.

Besides that, apple has been always a great company, Steve just make it a lot better. So better or best, still beating the rest of the crappy companies.

Oct 03, 08 - 03:41 pm Comment from: 84 Mac Guy

How ironic is it that Apple's stock tanks when people believe Jobs has a heart attack, but MS's stock will soar if Ballmer ever has a heart attack.

Remember, everyone, when you go to church or whatever spiritual endeavour suits your fancy this weekend, pray for Ballmer's continued good health.

These people act as if Jobs is 100 years old or something.
Stupid!!!!

Oct 03, 08 - 03:46 pm Comment from: MikeK

"These people act as if Jobs is 100 years old or something.
Stupid!!!!"

------------------------
It's not stupid, particularly since he had a rare form of pancreatic cancer four years ago. Even though he is cancer free now, the life expectancy for survivors of his type of cancer is five years.

I don't care about Apple Inc or what happens of Steve Jobs. Besides every company has their downfall and Apple Inc is one of them. Apple Inc is PATHETHIC!!!!! The sooner Apple Inc collapes the better.

Oct 03, 08 - 03:59 pm Comment from: Jubei

Can these people just drop the subject? They should be more worried with Ballmer going BEZERK and swallowing the entire planet and saving white baby seals for snacks later on.

Oct 03, 08 - 04:01 pm Comment from: MikeK

"I don't care about Apple Inc or what happens of Steve Jobs."

-------------------------

Then why are you on an Apple news site reading about Apple Inc and Steve Jobs?

Oct 03, 08 - 04:02 pm Comment from: clinicaltechmaster

@CNET & Reisinger

Apple has a plan dickweed. And it's none of your business.

Oct 03, 08 - 04:09 pm Comment from: MikeK

@clinictechmaster

If Apple were a private company, I'd agree with you 100%. But they're not. They are a publicly traded company, which means investors have a right to know of a succession plan. Particularly Apples' considering Jobs is a superstar CEO that would be extremely difficult to replace. Add to that the statistics for survivors of his type of cancer.

Nothing Apple does will prevent people from being stupid or malicious about valuing or trading their stock.

Do you trust Steve Jobs and the rest of the Apple executive team to be competent on the fundamentals of running a business? If so, you don't need to check their homework. If not, you shouldn't be buying their stock.

What's CNET's succession plan for Reisinger? There isn't one? He isn't important enough? Then why am I expected to listen to him?

Oct 03, 08 - 04:15 pm Comment from: justme2

I'm sure that they have a succession plan in place -- they're just not going to make it public because they don't want anyone trying to poach the designated "heir to the throne".

And I don't really see Steve as "difficult to replace" -- not now that they've got so much set in place with the iPhone, iPod line, mobile computing (MacBook, MacBook Pro) and desktop systems (iMac, MacPro). All they have to do is keep doing what they're doing -- upgrading the systems as new processors/technology becomes viable, maybe adding in intermediate technology (like a moderate priced tower system for people that like the expandability but don't need MacPro superpower). If they keep the succession "in house" and don't bring in someone from outside like they tried back in the 1990s, it'll be just fine, trust me.

"Apple needs an heir to the throne now." Don Reisinger blathers for CNET.


Don, how do you know they don't have a few people in mind already? Read the MDN take.

And remember, don't panic... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_Panic_(Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy)

ehhhh? i didnt hear u
you'll inject when he takes the position?

Unless they're going to make a change in the next year or so, it would be a bad idea. It creates weird internal politics. Even more important, it limits their future options and creates personnel issues. What if they want to reach outside of Apple for the next CEO, it dispirits the senior execs who are currently there and tells them to go elsewhere if they dream of rising to the top. Or what if they announce someone internal but, 10 years later when faced with the decision, someone better comes along and they diss the internal heir. That individual then gets ticked off and leaves. (Or stays and nurses a grievance.) There is just not a good reason to do it.

Who are in such a cash need that they need to talk down AAPL? Morgan Stanley and RBC Capital? I feel that these firms have to be investigated.

Oct 03, 08 - 04:29 pm Comment from: iDon't

I heard that Bill Gates is looking to move up.

Oct 03, 08 - 04:30 pm Comment from: Tommy Boy

I have people don't write my obituary when I'm 50.

How many companies in the world publicly list their succession plan?

How many companies have a CEO as crucial as Steve Jobs?

Scott J. Forstall gets my vote. Very Steve like. He gets it!

Oct 03, 08 - 04:48 pm Comment from: Cascadians

For Pete's sake, these liars just can't stand Apple's excellence and will resort to any shady deception.

Smart people simply enjoy using Apple's wonderful products.

Ignore the envious weasels.

A succession plan is extremely important in business. Making it public is not; it's probably not even good business sense.

Oct 03, 08 - 04:52 pm Comment from: Spark

There are doubtless contingency plans. I can't name any public companies that publish succession plans until someone is ready to announce their impending retirement. Plus, those that think Apple is going up and blow away when Steve leaves, for whatever reason, are over reacting. It's true, however, that the stock will take an initial hit, but this is true for any company that has a well regarded CEO. Every CEO is open to an "act of God" on any day of the week.

Oct 03, 08 - 04:52 pm Comment from: iSteve

My guess is that Steve Jobs has laid out a product succession plan to a few key individuals such as Johnathan Ive. Together they've mapped out the next 5-10 years of insanely great products and services.

I nearly died earlier this year of a stroke at 40. Near death causes you to take stock of your life and plan for the time when you won't be around anymore. I'm more confident about a plan for Apple without Steve because of his brush with cancer. He is not the type to leave the company in limbo.

Gotta use Crocker here: Leave Steve ALONE!!

And I don't really see Steve as "difficult to replace" (...)
All they have to do is keep doing what they're doing

So, Apple could just hire back Sculley or Amelio, let things run on auto pilot, and everything would be fine?

Momentum will carry you for a while, witness MS under Ballmer. But eventually you're gonna find yourself in very serious trouble.

That said, Apple could coast along nicely (and briefly) with an interim CEO between Jobs and his real sucessor.

Reisinger is a tool. His latest diatribe is that he wants Psystar to win because the world “deserves” an alternative to Vista and it will get it only when Apple is forced to load MacOS X on cheaper hardware.

Pay no attention to him: he’s a click-whore from the Dvorak School of Web Punditry. This article link should be labeled “Think Before You Click.”

Don't worry, they have Sarah Palin's number. She's qualified. Working mom and all that.

They said when Apple was $180 the stock would plummet 30% if Jobs died. Well, it plummeted 45% with him alive!

What asshats.

Oct 03, 08 - 05:13 pm Comment from: FILMflam

These douchebags should have to answer to the SEC for their complicity in stock manipulation. Oh wait, we don't care about stock manipulation in this country. That is the sole basis for the original "report." This story is just trying to divert attention from the fact that they helped someone make an incredible amount of money by blowing AAPL through the stops at 100.

Our markets are a joke.

@Nick Fury

And here all along I thought Charlie was happy with the chocolate man..................

Don't worry, they have Sarah Palin's number. She's qualified. Working mom and all that.

If Sarah declines, they can always call Hillary Clinton.

"One important par of being a leader is that once you pass away, your legacy and your followers remain there. Steve Jobs is a good leader and he has set the rules so once he is retired, apple will remain performing wonderful."

The problem with Steve is that he's an egomaniacal dictator who puts his fingers into every detail of Apple's operations. What usually happens when those people die is a power vaccum and infighting.

Further they don't give much thought to sucession plans while alive. They're more busy killing off the careers of potential competition than grooming them for the top job.

Oct 03, 08 - 06:14 pm Comment from: Forrest, Forrest Gump

Republicans need a succesion plan if they win.

McCain is 72 right now.

From the forbes article written as a result of this, about Jobs: "He grabbed a cash infusion from Microsoft in 1997 and began pounding out products:"

Where do they get these ignorant people from?

http://www.forbes.com/2008/10/03/steve-jobs-heart-tech-personal-cx_bc_1003jobs.html

Oct 03, 08 - 06:17 pm Comment from: Forrest, Forrest Gump

Oh, wait. They already have one!

Sarah Palin

It seems everyone and their monkeyboy thinks they need to tell Apple what to do.

To drackmere:

He's obese, covered in acne and those randy Oompa-Loompas won't stop humping his leg. Time to move on.

Who says that Apple doesn't have a succession plan ? Apple has some very bright, innovative, creative people that work for them. While Steve is a visionary, he's not a one-man-show. With all the crap that's going on in the business world today, why spend any time on this nonsense ?

Oct 03, 08 - 06:35 pm Comment from: mackle

ceo's are critical to the performance of their company. what is different with apple is most ceo's are either cookie cutter risk averse control freaks or crooks that eventually take their company down. apple is lucky enough to have a ceo that is neither. most overpaid ceo's bask in the sunshine resulting from their predecessor's hard work or good ideas. steve jobs has literally rebuilt the image of apple by making it an indisputable innovation leader. the press is jealous, investors are jealous, competitors are jealous...being percieved as invaluable is what makes the stock price so sensitive to this out and out manipulation. even this stupid cnn article is a form of manipulation.

so stupid, a succession plan is not what apple needs to stop this. in fact, i would venture such an announcement would trounce the stock because no one can meet the high expectations steve himself has created by being so successful.

what should they do to put an end to this? in the long run, sustaining and expanding the success will bouy the stock, with or without steve. for those of you who bought AAPL and cannot wait for that to happen, here is what you need to hope for:

1. keep hoping that all of apple's competitor's trip up trying to compete (copy) rather than out innovate apple. you have a pretty good chance of getting your wish here.
2a. hope that apple starts breaking out their profit centers so analysts have a basis to analyze something rather than keep everything indistinguishable and forcing analysts to guess and use channel checks.
2b. without giving away their secret products, provide a profit center based roadmap into the future so meeting waypoints along the way have tangible meaning. the secret products can be embedded in the profit center roadmaps without exposing them.
2c. publicize who is leading those profit centers so people can see that tangible corporate component have continuity.
2d. (for technology pundits) this deflects all the attention from steve running the company himself and dilutes the chicken little attitude that is so pervasive in you community.
3. pay a dividend. it does not have to be much, but it brings a whole new class of investors into you sphere. this will dampen the wild dives down.
4. have a strategy to go private. if you are this good as a company, you don't need steve or the outside capital. just having the balls to consider this will drive the stock up.

apple's stock goes gown when the report record-breaking profits.....

Warren Buffet, the highly respected Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, has never named his replacement. He has made it clear that a succession plan is in place. Nobody has ever questioned this, despite his strict vow not to disclose the name of his successor after he either retires, is incapacitated or God forbid, dies.

Steve Jobs has also made it clear that a succession plan is well established should he retire, become incapacitated or God forbid, dies. Yet, he is the subject of endless speculation, outright ridicule, demands for greater transparency, and in today's terrible incident, Apple's stock was the subject of illegal stock manipulation by short sellers. In addition, in recent weeks and months, Apple stock has been under a concerted attack by large hedge funds, and it is believed that false rumors about his health have been fanned by investors with an agenda to drive down the value of the company's stock.

Do I see a double standard here? If Don Reisinger is making such demands of Steve Jobs, then why should Warren Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway not be under the same pressure? This is where I see a real fallacy in Reisinger's argument. Despite arguments to the contrary, there appears to be no consistent standard on what disclosures any CEO must make about their health, particularly if it is legally not a material event. Reisinger is only fanning the flames of a fire caused by large investment interests, if the example of Warren Buffet is any indication. Sad.

Oct 03, 08 - 08:16 pm Comment from: bobchr

This CNET writer is an idiot if he feels that greater transparency into Apple's succession plans will somehow lessen the level of speculation against the company, and if that's not the reason for this unreasonable demand of Apple in particular, then why subject the internal hierarchy of Apple's management to this shock possibly causing great talent to potentially make their exodus?

Oct 03, 08 - 09:13 pm Comment from: ken1w

Apple is not required to do any such thing, and if it did, that actions would fuel more speculation that Apple did so because Steve Jobs will soon be retiring for health (or whatever) reasons. It's a no-win situation.

Therefore, it's better if Apple left the choice open to allow for more flexibility when the time does come. And NOT making a final public choice will be a motivating factor for Apple's subordinate lieutenants; I'm sure they all want the Jobs job and try to make the case every day through their best efforts.

Anointing a successor means those passed over leave to be CEO someplace else. It is the end of camelot. And only appropriate if SJ is also announcing his retirement date.

And whoever succeeds Sj won't be a SJ. There's only one.

A public contingent succession plan is lose-lose.

If something does happen to SJ... there's your BOTTOM in the stock. And all these commentators... how many of them have run a company and understand the egos and the politics?

"The problem with Steve is that he's an egomaniacal dictator who puts his fingers into every detail of Apple's operations. "

This is absolute crap. I've worked at Apple, and the simple fact is that Steve doesn't have the time to do anything of the kind.

He's hired top-flight senior management, and he lets them do their jobs.

Steve concentrates on the design and the user experience of the products. There are thousands of other people who deal with the details.

-jcr

Dumbass Cnet

What a stupid entity it has become.

Cnet's a joke