Many years ago, a dear relative of mine had a medical condition that snowballed: It started as serious but not critical, yet with every visit to the doctor, the news got worse -- and got worse faster and faster.
It's still too early to know if that's the pattern we're seeing with Apple Inc. and Steve Jobs, who announced Wednesday that he would take a six-month medical leave from his CEO post. To address the most important point first -- the concern that Jobs is gravely ill -- this is news that nobody wanted to hear. Everyone I know is hoping that the more dire implications of the announcement don't materialize.
That's the question of Jobs' health. On the question of Apple's handling of the issue, the news is equally disturbing. But at least it's something we can examine more clinically.
When I addressed this matter last week, it was already plain that Apple had allowed its institutional arrogance, its culture of secretiveness, and possibly its solicitude for and fear of Jobs to lead it down a path of rank corporate irresponsibility.
The elements were these: 1. Steve Jobs is a uniquely important chief executive. 2. He is a survivor of pancreatic cancer. 3. Speculation about his health and his continued ability to lead the company was rampant and by no means baseless.
Instead of confronting the situation head-on, Apple dissembled. The company didn't even announce Jobs' 2004 cancer surgery until it was over. Last June, when Jobs looked shockingly wan and thin at a public appearance, Apple ascribed his condition to a "common bug."
Last week, when Jobs was unable to make speculation go away about the reason for his absence from the annual Macworld expo in San Francisco, he released a note stating that he had been suffering a "hormone imbalance that has been 'robbing' me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy."
Given that this condition certainly covered the period when he had been supposedly fighting a "common bug," his statement instantly rendered the previous explanation "inoperative," to resurrect a Nixon-era term meaning "a lie."
The tone of last week's statement was characteristically truculent. Jobs groused about having to deal with "another flurry of rumors about my health" and said he was coming clean "so that we can all relax and enjoy the show."
A few investors took this as good news and bid up Apple shares, and in the media advised gossip mongers to (in the words of one) "go slinking back into the shadows."
