14 DAY TRIAL // Sponsored by the Central Laborer’s Pension Fund in Jacksonville, Ill., a shareholder resolution calls on Apple’s board to adopt and disclose a written CEO “succession planning policy.”
Apple’s chief executive officer, Steve Jobs, is on medical leave of absence, the second one in just as many years, following a battle with cancer, and a liver transplant.
Recent photos published by The National Enquirer have fueled speculation that the CEO has weeks to live, as his pancreatic cancer has allegedly returned.
Marketwatch reports that, under such a policy, the board would review its succession plan each year, maintain an emergency succession plan and “identify and develop internal candidates.”
Apple, however, has opposed the measure multiple times, citing potential threat from competitors whose knowledge of such plans would enable them to better compete with Apple.
In fact, the company believes that going public with its “confidential objectives and plans” isn’t in shareholders’ best interest.
“[The proposal] requires a report identifying the candidates being considered for CEO, as well as the criteria used to evaluate each candidate,” Apple said in its printed response to the measure in a proxy statement.
“By publicly naming these potential successors, Proposal No. 5 invites competitors to recruit high-value executives away from Apple,” the company specifically noted, according to Marketwatch.
Simply put, Apple is afraid to allow competitors in the electronics industry to learn which of its executives are most important within their organization.
If they did, these competitors could then offer said execs key roles within their own companies, both crippling Apple and gaining invaluable talent in the process.
Asked to elaborate on the matter, an Apple spokesperson said the company had nothing more to add, suggesting their final response to these queries was present in the proxy statement.
However, a spokeswoman for the Laborer’s International Union of North America disputed Apple’s description of the risks involved by disclosing a CEO succession plan, saying Apple is not forced to actually ‘name’ potential candidates in what would later be the company’s official, public stance.
In other words, Apple simply owes it to the shareholders to inform of the existence of a CEO succession plan, and to provide relevant details pertaining to the company’s forthcoming actions, should its current CEO be forced to step down.
The spokeswoman, Jennifer O’Dell, will reportedly represent the pension fund at the meeting.
Softpedia note
One question remains unanswered, though: what Apple exec in his right mind would flee to a competitor rather than pick up where Steve Jobs left off? Imagine being the guy Apple trusts to provide visionary guidance comparable to that of Jobs.