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The perils of charisma

The perils of charisma

Your health is typically nobody’s business but your own. But as the flurry of concern about the emaciated appearance of Apple CEO Steve Jobs attests, it’s not that simple when you’re the face of a $135-billion company.

In June, the 53-year-old tech pioneer strode onto a stage in San Francisco to unveil the latest iPhone. He was dressed in his usual blue jeans and black turtleneck, but audience members were shocked to see how the clothes draped over the rack-thin executive.

Four years ago Mr. Jobs did battle with pancreatic cancer, arguably the deadliest kind of cancer there is. Very few people survive pancreatic cancer in the long run. After the iPhone presentation, speculation immediately surfaced that Mr. Jobs’s cancer had returned. Apple spokespeople first claimed that their leader had a “common bug.” Pressed further, they said Mr. Jobs’s health was a “private matter.”

Financial analysts weren’t happy with this response, and for good reason: Mr. Jobs is as important an asset to Apple as any gadget the company has every produced. Unlike some celebrity CEOs, he is personally involved in the creative side of the business. Many technology analysts claim Mr. Jobs is solely responsible for reversing Apple’s slide into oblivion when he returned to the company in 1997.

The fortunes of this multi-billion dollar company are essentially embodied in one man — Steve Jobs. Mere worries about his health caused Apple’s stock to drop several percentage points. The economic dislocation that would result if Apple were suddenly without Mr. Jobs would be enormous, affecting huge numbers of shareholders. This makes Mr. Jobs an extremely important public figure, more important than, say, any U.S. Senator.

Because the fate of this important company is tied so closely to his own, Mr. Jobs’s health is very much a matter of public interest.

That’s not to say that he is obliged to reveal every detail about his health. The public doesn’t need to know his white blood cell count. The man is still entitled to some degree of privacy. However, since the wealth of so many investors would be affected if Mr. Jobs’s performance were to suffer or if he were forced to stop working, Apple surely ought to realize that this isn’t just about people being nosy.

Mr. Jobs has reportedly assured Apple’s board that he does not have a recurrence of cancer. The dramatic weight loss, it seems, reflects digestion problems related to his 2004 cancer treatment. Thanks to this good news Apple’s stock has since rebounded — further proof of Mr. Jobs’s influence.

All of this serves as a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of the larger-than-life business leader. Because celebrity CEOs become the human personification of the companies they run, those companies can fall into real trouble when that leader leaves.

Although Steve Jobs is Apple’s principal asset, there are presumably others who have contributed to the company’s success, but does the investment community know who they are? The downside of Mr. Jobs’s carefully cultivated charisma is that it creates the impression that Apple is a one-man show, and in the longterm that’s not very good for Apple.

© The Ottawa Citizen 2008