What is Apple Without Steve Jobs?

By now you’ve probably seen several reports about how Steve Jobs, 55, has taken a medical leave of absence to focus on his health. According to the New York Times, an anonymous source at Apple stated that Jobs had been looking “increasingly emaciated,” and that he was on a “down cycle” leading up to his medical leave announcement.

It’s well-known that Jobs had pancreatic cancer, a rare form called islet cell neuroendocrine tumor with an incident rate of 2 per 1 million people. He was originally diagnosed in 2003 and successfully treated with a variation on the “Whipple” procedure, called a pancreatoduodenectomy, on July 31, 2004. This procedure includes the removal of part of the stomach and small intestine, portions of the duodenum, the head of the pancreas, the gallbladder, the common bile duct and regional lymph nodes.

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According to a Fortune magazine profile of Jobs, for nine months leading up to his surgery he tried alternative therapies, with reports that he had initially refused traditional Western medicine. He finally acquiesced to pressures from those close to him after a scan revealed growth in his tumor, and went through with the Whipple procedure. Without having to receive chemotherapy or radiation, he ended up recovering, back at Apple shortly after his surgery.

WWDC 2006, 2007, 2008

Over the next few years, Jobs became noticeably thinner. It’s not uncommon for those who have undergone a Whipple procedure to lose body mass. However, according to The Center for Pancreatic and Biliary Diseases at the University of Southern California, Department of Surgery, it’s usually only around 5% to 10% of the body’s regular weight, and “stabilizes very rapidly”. Based on his appearance, this hasn’t seemed to have been the case with Jobs.

When he announced the iPhone 3G on June 9, 2008, about four years after his original cancer surgery, his weight sparked rumors in both the media and the Apple community that his cancer had returned. Apple PR was quick to respond, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that he was suffering from a “common bug.”

In January 2009, he took another medical leave of absence. Just like now, the media was buzzing. To quell speculation, Jobs wrote an open letter to the Apple community on Jan. 5, right before MacWorld 2009 San Francisco, explaining that his weight loss was due to a hormone imbalance that had been “robbing” his body of essential proteins, and that he had already begun treatment.

One week later, he wrote an email to Apple employees explaining that his health issues were “more complex” than he had originally thought, and that he would be taking a six month medical leave of absence. During his absence, Tim Cook, Apple’s COO became operations manager while Jobs remained CEO and was still involved in all major strategic decisions for the company.

The same month in which he was to return from his absence, The Wall Street Journal reported that Jobs had received a liver transplant in Tennessee and was recovering. As Fortune would later report, he flew to Switzerland prior to his transplant to undergo an “unusual radiological treatment” at the University of Basel. According to Fortune, he chose the University of Basel because it had developed a unique form of hormone-delivered radiotherapy to treat neuroendocrine cancer. This treatment isn’t currently available in the U.S.

When Jobs appeared on stage at an Apple Special Event in September looking frail and speaking in a soft-pitched voice, he told the world that he had indeed received a liver transplant. Itʼs still unclear whether the transplant was due to a recurrence of cancer spreading to his liver, or because of some other reason. However, it may have been due to a recurrence of his cancer, since a liver transplant is a treatment option for people whose neuroendocrine tumors have metastasized to the liver itself. This would also explain his trip to Switzerland.

Now that he’s on another medical leave of absence, there’s speculation that he has either had a recurrence of cancer or that he’s having difficulty with the immunosuppressants he takes, better known as anti-rejection drugs. Without these drugs, the body would quickly mark and attack any transplanted organs because they contain foreign DNA.

Since we’re not at a the point where we can grow new organs from patients’ own stem cells, Jobs has to deal with the side effects of anti-rejection drugs. Those are increased risks of disease and infection, in addition to an increased risk of tumors recurring. Apple is characteristically tight-lipped about Jobs’ medical issues, and has not stated exactly what kinds of medical problems heʼs experiencing.

There has been much debate about whether shareholders have the right to know more details about the CEO’s condition, including information about a succession plan.

Here’s why I’m not terribly interested in succession plans.

Let’s assume for the moment that Jobs will not be returning to Apple.

Apple Without Jobs

Thereʼre two camps when it comes to the topic of Apple sans Jobs. One camp is optimistic. Apple is comprised of great people from top-to-bottom, and because the company has so much depth, it would continue to be successful well into the future – particularly because it’s believed that it has a set of products and services in the pipeline that will carry it for the next two-to-five years.

The other camp is not so optimistic. They believe Apple will never be the same company without Jobs. The thinking goes something like this: Apple equals Steve Jobs. Without Jobs, there is no Apple. As many great people as they may have, without a leader to steer the ship, there will be no vision, no navigator.

I tend to side more with these folks than I do with the optimistic ones. I don’t think Apple will fall face-first if Jobs is unable to return, but eventually, it’ll lose some ground and focus. Jobs is a special kind of person. He’s one of the few that can lead a company through all the competitive detritus in the world, and make it sing.

Thanks to Jobs, Apple is one of the most innovative companies. He’s the perfect blend of a consumer and a businessman all wrapped into one, creative, visionary body. He strives for ultimate perfection and accepts nothing less. With his famous reality distortion field, heʼs able to push people to new heights, and shake up entire industries. He’s a Da Vinci and a tyrant all in one.

From all the little decisions to all the big ones, Jobs has his hand in a lot of it. You can see his name on an array of Appleʼs patents for instance. He was even known to pick the music for iPod commercials. Since his return in 1997, Apple has become very dependent on his leadership and vision, and the culture that he infused into the company. As a result, heʼs the source of Appleʼs greatest strength. But heʼs also the source of its greatest weakness, and thatʼs simply because he’s irreplaceable.

Next page: A History of Apple Without Jobs

Photo credits: top photo by BENM.AT Live Coverage; WWDC 2006, Collin Allen; WWDC 2007, acaben; WWDC 2008, Tom Coates; Newsweek, Business Week and Time magazine covers via Ballistik Coffee Boy; UnixWorld via mrbill.

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