Zach Spear
"We believe that during Jobs' absence, Apple's sales will be unaffected," analyst Gene Munster told clients in a memo reacting to this afternoon's announcement that Jobs has elected to take a medical leave of absence from his day-to-day leadership role at the Cupertino-based company through June.
"More importantly, we believe the pace of innovation will remain solid, driven by key product-minded executives," he continued. "From an operational perspective, we expect [chief operating officer Tim] Cook to maintain the same standard of excellence that he demands as COO."
Tim Cook was hired away from Compaq by Steve Jobs in March 1998. For one month, Cook filled in as CEO in 2004 while Apple co-founder Jobs underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer.  As chief operating officer, Cook is responsible for Apple's worldwide sales and operations, including supply chain management as well as service and support.  In this YouTube clip, Cook can be seen talking about the Mac product lineup at last October's notebook event.
Munster believes that, regardless of Steve Jobs' health, investors should start thinking about what Apple would look like under the "capable" Cook.
"While the iconic leadership of Steve Jobs cannot be fully replaced, we believe his core attributes as a CEO, operationally and with products, can be replicated," Munster wrote. "Cook provides the operational expertise for the company, which would serve him well as Apple's CEO."
Apple industrial design chief Jonathan Ive and several software developers have played a "key role" in designing the "innovative technology" that has been driving Apple sales recently, Munster noted. "Together, we believe that Cook and the other leaders at Apple can effectively replicate the elements of Steve Jobs' leadership that have been critical to his success as CEO."
The face of Apple COO and interim CEO Tim Cook
According to Munster, Jobs himself has put a lot of thought into building a talented executive team capable of leading the company forward.
"The company is led largely by [Cook], chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer, and ten Senior Vice Presidents who share a collective track record of consistently outpacing their competitors in terms of hardware and software innovation coupled with robust product marketing and financial discipline," he wrote.
Munster maintains both his Buy rating on shares of AAPL and his price target of $235.
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51 Comments
While there is someone the run the company financially and can follow through on what Steve Jobs has put into place...
While there is someone who can do the industrial design...
While there is someone that can do the keynotes...
Who is there to tell them what products to produce? That is where Steve Jobs came in and made sure they did their jobs.
Hopefully I don't have to worry about it for a long time.
From a NY Times article titled Apple?s Chief Taking a Medical Leave:
Two people who are familiar with Mr. Jobs?s current medical treatment said he was not suffering from a recurrence of cancer, but a condition that was preventing his body from absorbing food. Doctors have also advised him to cut down on stress, which may be making the problem worse, these people said.
I'd be more weary about Apple's long term prospects, dipping into markets they really shouldn't. Even though such products would sell well in the beginning, too many investments will spread the companies brand too thin, and it only takes one bad product to be forgotten.
This has nothing to do with the article but it freaked me out that there are Pystar google ads on Appleinsider... Anyone else?
Obviously, but what they will be missing is someone who can make big calls that go against the grain with keen judgement and someone who can negotiate with authority. No-one else can do these things.
The keynotes are totally unimportant (except for fanboys). The industrial design is mostly Jon Ives and his team. And so on for most other things.