Apple CEO and cancer survivor Steve Jobs is not keen on discussing speculation about who will replace him when the inevitable happens.
This week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the company’s board of directors have been discussing plans about who will take over the position that has been held by Jobs since the late 1990s, and perhaps the title that some will always bestow upon Jobs and Jobs alone, once the man is no longer able to hold the position himself.
The Journal said it had credible information that the board has already been meeting with headhunters and “at least one head of a high-profile technology company.”
It said the discussions have been casual and gave no indication that Jobs’s condition has recently worsened, however this is a rather new development. Even though the tech community is unanimous in understanding that the days are numbered for Jobs, very few have posited on who would replace him at the helm of the company he has embodied arguably more than any other company CEO has managed to do.
But before anything happens, as long as Jobs is still around and kicking – and presenting the newest iPads or iPods himself – he will always have the last word.
And so he e-mailed the Wall Street Journal, saying of its story on his successor, “I think it is hogwash.”
Jobs has managed to defy the odds time and time again, so we’re not sure what to think at this point. Every time we think he’s down for the count, he pops back up and is at least able to maintain the impression of a man who is fully capable and as excited about Apple as ever.
His day will come, but is it so soon that there’s a need to pick a new CEO now? Given his amazing track record, probably not.
