Cult of Mac interviewed Paul Argenti, Professor of Corporate Communication at Tuck School of Business on Apple's handling of Steve Jobs' sickness and their obligation to inform shareholders. Argenti makes no bones about it:
“The difference between a nutritional imbalance and a liver transplant is huge ... The law is very clear — full disclosure of material information. If a CEO’s liver transplant isn’t material, what is? But whether the SEC has the balls to do something about it, we’ll see.”
At the end of last year, Jobs said he was suffering from a simple hormone imbalance. A week later, he said he was taking six months medical leave because his medical issues were “more complex.”
According to Argenti, Apple's reputation will suffer because the public won't trust its ethics.
“Clearly, this is going to affect not only Apple’s customers but employees that were lied to or kept in the dark about what was going on,” Argenti said. “Apple is one of the most admired companies in America and this is how they deal with this kind of news? It’s unacceptable, unethical and irresponsible to all constituents.”
“As a communications strategy, it makes no sense. It’s going to be a big issue in the next few days, I guarantee it.”
We'll see.
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Way to go Apple... Its in
Way to go Apple... Its in world of its own bit like soviet union was.
i wonder if the person who
i wonder if the person who donated it gets free apple products for life :D
Um, the person who donated it
Um, the person who donated it would be dead, so it wouldn't much matter.
not at all, the liver is the
not at all, the liver is the only organ in the body that can regenerate on its own. they just take a large portion of someones healthy liver and thats enough to grow a new liver inside Steve and the donors liver will also regenerate on its own.
Not necessarily dead, I
Not necessarily dead, I believe they can transfer half of someone's liver (I read it somewhere in another article about Jobs)
do you think steve would
do you think steve would settle for just half?
"full disclosure of material
"full disclosure of material information"...under what circumstances? I was under the distinct impression that, while a company can't mislead or misrepresent what has happened, a company is under no obligation to publicly provide information regarding the private medical history of an employee, regardless of their position within the company. Obviously some "experts" would like to suggest that CEOs' private medical history be in the public domain, but considering the rights of individuals, I fail to see how an idea like that can gain traction, except through greed.
Diagnoses change, especially in six months. I doubt Steve knew he would be getting a transplant when the "hormonal imbalance" comments were made, so I fail to see why this is unethical or illegal in any way. Failing to keep us in the loop is not illegal, and is something that he's entitled to as a private citizen.
Apple is not at fault...
To me it also seem´s to be perfectly clear that Apple is not at fault here, because they DID inform people about Steve Jobs taking "a medical leave of absence until the end of June 2009"
Whatever he does or has done to him is so much more a personal matter than anything else as long as he returns to the projected date. And until this situation doesn´t change there is no reason to give the public any further stories about his health, wealth or life...
(Nevertheless it´s always worth knowing he´s okay though)
Absolutely right. This guy
Absolutely right. This guy knows nothing about federal regulations. Hate to say it, but he's an academic. His perspective is not the perspective of the real world.
The FACT is, Jobs is just an Apple employee, with a contract that spells out his obligations. Apple is required to disclose if the person in a key position is not fulfilling/cannot fulfill his obligations under the terms of his agreement with the company. Jobs was formally relieved of his position to take a medical leave, and that position was filled by a person of adequate skill (Cook), and the corporation did business as usual. This is ALL the corporation is required to do. Thus all SEC obligations are met.
If the medical leave was a complete lie and Jobs spent the entire time on a beach in Tahiti, it would still be irrelevant.
This guy is full of crap--and that's a fact. Any assertions that Jobs is the figurehead, or the design genius, or any other such nonsense, is completely irrelevant as far as the SEC and federal law is concerned. If this went to court it would be dismissed before the lawyers sat down.
This guy must be of the
This guy must be of the opinion that the entire financial industry is a huge illegal fraud, given all the financial shinanigans over the past decade with banks, real estate, mortgages, insurance, and hedge funds.
Of course, those guys were explicitly stealing money by fooling investors. It's hard to say that in the case of a guy who had cancer and later got sick again, and where profits and share prices are way up compared to industry averages.
Oh Jesus man, just leave the
Oh Jesus man, just leave the man be and take care of his problems. The media should never cross this line when it comes to illnesses.
Here's my take on it. His
Here's my take on it. His tumor is what's called an islet cell tumor. These are hormone producing tumors. Generally, they don't cause significant hormonal problems unless they spread to the liver, which is what probably happened in this case. Even then, they can often be managed (though not cured) with hormonal therapy. But if that fails or if the tumor appears to be more aggressive, then something more invasive (like a liver transplant) is needed.
He never said "nutritional imbalance", he said "hormonal imbalance". It is likely the hormonal imbalance aspect of the tumor, rather than the mass of the metastases, that were giving him problems.
I don't have any inside knowledge, though...I'm just making an educated guess.
loophole
The obvious loophole is that Jobs wasn't actually (technically), CEO at the time of the transplant. Tim Cook was.
BFD. If Apple can't survive
BFD. If Apple can't survive without Jobs, then it is a sorry situation. No one is indispensable, but as long as the Fan Boys in the media make this an issue, it will continue to overshadow anything else that happens with Apple. The good news is that it took column space away from people harping about the cost of the new iPhone.
BFD
BFD. If Apple can't survive without Jobs, then it is a sorry situation. No one is indispensable, but as long as the Fan Boys in the media make this an issue, it will continue to overshadow anything else that happens with Apple. The good news is that it took column space away from people harping about the cost of the new iPhone.
USA, the kigdom of extremes
on the bright side : the American dream, a country where everything is possible the best (money, fame, science, adventure, Disneyland) and the worst (genocide, segregation, warfair, misstrust, State's Lies, stupid fuck who really think they're "real american")
on the other side...
this is the America who outed Clinton for a blowjob and reelected Bush despite the lies, the financial failure, and the american killed (often by each others) for a war declared on False accusations (don't worry, Bad guys indeed did die eventually.
And American, seems more interested in Jobs's ass, than in their own politic (Obama election should be a pretext to forget what happened before)
There is hope only for USA, so let's hope USA will start pointing fingers where they should be.
clinton didn't get impeached
clinton didn't get impeached for getting a blowjob, but for lying under oath, which is a completely different ball game. hes not the first president to do what he did, but he lied about it under oath.
Welcome to the Apple world,
Welcome to the Apple world, Prof Argenti.
steve's health
Look, Jobs and Apple is good at misinformation. We've seen Jobs say things that when taken at face value would lead you to one conclusion, but "technically" were not lies. Take for example the famous big bag of hurt. Jobs implies something that he doesn't say directly. Same with his statements about netbooks where he said something along the lines of "we haven't figured out how to make a good computer for under $500." That doesn't mean that they can't make one for $501. Or back when he said that people are not interested in watching videos on a 1 inch screen - implying that they were not going to make a video ipod, which they did make just 6 months later.
AND - with all of these misdirections, after the truth comes out it's easy to see it and say "oh right..". It's usually quite obvious if you think it all through. But like a magic trick, before you know the secret you sort of scratch your head because a good magician uses misdirection to divert your attention to something 'over here' while taking something out of his pocket 'over there'. Jobs is a master magician. Some might call it lying. But he considers it misdirection.
It's no different with his health. Technically he might have told a partial truth to us about the hormonal imbalance all while full knowing what the full truth was. But anyone honestly looking at him could tell that something serious was wrong.
I'm not sure about the legalities of full disclosure to share holders... but he knows how to work in the system. Maybe by taking a leave he technically wasn't the CEO and therefore might get away with it. Certainly no matter what he said - one honest look should have revealed the truth.
I'm just glad he's coming back and wish him good health and long life.
The pot calling kettle black
That's what I like to see. Someone who is responsible for teaching ethics to business men and women, lecturing someone on what they perceive as a failure of ethics.
OMG. Where and who has this guy been teaching? If any of his students are involved with the crap Wall Street dumped on us, then I would say he isn't much of a teacher. Or maybe it was because Wall Street types don't really build anything. Just exploit. Bankers (not all) tend to have respect only for making money. They have no concept of making anything else. Bean counters are why GM is in such a mess. They forgot to put someone at the top with "ideas".
A lecture on ethics, from someone in an ivory tower, is meaningless. Get out in the street, and try building something. Then see if you enjoy someone, who has done nothing, telling you what you have done or are doing is a failure.
Anyone who has taught ethics for the last 20 years, should not be lecturing anyone on ethics. Where were they, and what did they say, when Wall Street's knowledge or ethics was limited to knowing it is a six letter word.
Yup. This is a guy I really want to listen to. In the parlance of the street, "Bite Me. No, Really, Bite Me."
You paint a broad brush and
You paint a broad brush and that generally shows your lack of understanding. The problem with your GM analogy is clear - the UNIONS caused this problem and upper management - NOT bean counters, as you say. I argue he has FAR MORE INSIGHT to the world of corporate America than your post woould indicate you know - given the 'bite me' comment - that is very, very childish and it shows you do not understand business or how the 'real world' works.
D
BS
Do these people have nothing else to do? Let Apple alone and focus on inventing excellent products. All this BS about SJ health is boring and just the bread and butter of lawyers and journalists. My opinion is that the health of SJ is his private issue. Every CEO can get ill and die, also SJ. Every company should have the next management team in place or work on it. SJ is alive, long live SJ!
When's the last time you
When's the last time you heard anyone harp about any other CEO's health??? Let's apply arbitrary and capricious standards to Jobs.
Nonsense.
What "should" we expect?
As an owner of a ton of AAPL, I should be concerned if there is a material problem in the management of Apple. However, Steve Job's health issues are his private matters. Only if the Board is fully aware that he will be unable to return to his job & fully perform that job are they obligated to release that info to the public. We all too often think our every whim & desire must be catered to (especially the press) & the hell with the rest of the world. It's what is known as the "entitlement mentality". Get over it folks!
Media should report real more important problems!
It's a personal private matter no other needs to know.
The media is so ill that they want to publish everything.
Instead of trying to tell the truth about real important problems on our planet, they just publish non important issues!
real world problems like: how long will we have oil and petroleum? (Iran do have the last oil-reserves, they want to protect them via atomic weapons before we steal their treasures (see Iraq))
How bad the climate catastrophe is going to be? (it really will be worse, +6°C in the next 50 years)
Why don't we help the millions children dying each year from diseases, we could cure with 25 cents medication? (instead the media tells panic stories about the Mexican influenza or Asian bird flu, where only 300 persons died in 1 respectively 10 years all together)
See my point: if Steve Jobs got a new liver, heart or brain it's really of no importance! Apple will stay. The media should SHUT UP. And the money the Wallstreet guys are losing due to Jobs medical problems is unimportant! Their money won't help anybody except themselves!
Prof. Argenti is out of his
Prof. Argenti is out of his depth. He "guarantees" that Apple's reputation will suffer?
I guarantee it won't.
NOYB
Media, please remember those initials. It means it's None of Your Business. Stop trying to make news and just start reporting it. Jobs has done a great job of preparing Apple for the future. His health is not a matter of concern to this stockholder except that I feel for him and always hope for the best.
Apple will not suffer.
Apple will not suffer from this, in fact I like them more, because they were able to keep this a secret for so long. Steve Jobs is just one person, and no one can doubt his impact on Apple, however Apple is a multi billion dollar company, and Steve isn't going to live forever. Apple will go on without him, and when he leaves, I guarantee the transition will be seamless. As for this dick head that thinks people should go after Apple, and that Steve should tell everyone what's going on his personal life, we should all delve into his life and find out everything about him, see if he likes that. I highly doubt it. GO APPLE GO STEVE. I hope that he is doing well, but if he isn't, and has to leave again, I will continue to buy Apples products, cause I'm not buying SteveJobs-o-pod, or an iStevie, I'm buying Apple.
Apple will not suffer.
Apple will not suffer from this, in fact I like them more, because they were able to keep this a secret for so long. Steve Jobs is just one person, and no one can doubt his impact on Apple, however Apple is a multi billion dollar company, and Steve isn't going to live forever. Apple will go on without him, and when he leaves, I guarantee the transition will be seamless. As for this dick head that thinks people should go after Apple, and that Steve should tell everyone what's going on his personal life, we should all delve into his life and find out everything about him, see if he likes that. I highly doubt it. GO APPLE GO STEVE. I hope that he is doing well, but if he isn't, and has to leave again, I will continue to buy Apples products, cause I'm not buying SteveJobs-o-pod, or an iStevie, I'm buying Apple.
When will you leave Steve alone?
When will you leave Steve alone?
All you greedy selfish Ba*****s need to get a life.
How would you feel if it was your personal health?
Want the world to know? Want to get sued for being treated?
GO AWAY, GET A LIFE, or build your own Multi Billion $$ Empire & then maybe we can sue you?