Fortune Finds Trouble With Steve Jobs

Maybe I misspoke yesterday when I referred to Apple as Jobs & Co. Maybe it should be "Jobs Co." At least that's the impression left by another story in this week's issue of Fortune magazine, a profile of Apple's CEO titled "The Trouble With Steve Jobs."

It's in the same issue, dated March 17, that names Apple the most admired company. The separate profile of Jobs describes his singular impact on the tech company and risks generated by his "combustible genius."

An overview says: "Jobs likes to make his own rules, whether the topic is computers, stock options, or even pancreatic cancer. The same traits that make him a great CEO drive him to put his company, and his investors, at risk." Author Peter Elkind describes, for example, how Jobs delayed surgery on his pancreatic cancer for nine months as he pursued alternative treatments, all the while keeping his illness from the public.

While giving Jobs his due as an artist who has managed to turn around a major company, Elkind writes that "it is also important to understand the ways in which Jobs' attempts to manipulate his world pose risks for Apple and thus its investors."

Jobs, not surprisingly, refused to comment for the article.