Steve Jobs announced yesterday, in an email to Apple employees, that he would be taking a medical leave of absence from his day-to-day duties as CEO of Apple to focus on a significant health issue. Jobs has provided significant leadership the company helping to guide it from near failure to a worldwide leader in consumer electronics, making him arguably the most key employee at the tech giant.

As a result of the perception that Apple == Steve Jobs there is some concern over the fate of the all things “i” maker that the company will suffer in Jobs’ absence. There are even some (yes I’m talking to you Lee Gomes) who seem to feel that Jobs’ health should be a matter of public record.

In my decidedly humble opinion (I love having a blog) the drop in Apple’s stock price shows one major flaw about Apple’s strategy for succession planning for senior executives: nobody knows they have one.

Every time that Jobs so much as sneezes, the markets sell off the stock amid fears that the company won’t succeed without Jobs at the helm. Admittedly they didn’t do too well the last time Jobs was ousted and forced to watch as the company he founded withered on the vine but the company was also a much smaller player back then with a less secure plan for the future.

I have no doubt that Jobs has learned from that early mistake and no doubt has a plan in place for who will succeed him as CEO, which at this stage would appear to be mild-mannered COO Tim Cook.

Unlike Mr. Gomes in his Forbes piece, I don’t think that any employee’s health information should be a matter of public record. I don’t care how sick Steve Jobs is, he isn’t bound to share that personal medical information with the world at large unless he’s damned good and ready.

At what point would you draw the line? CEOs? Executive leaders? All management? Maybe the line is based on illness, only terminal illnesses? Serious problems requiring a leave of absence?

Stock prices are driven as much by emotions as they are by market forces. Hell, the emotions of investors are essentially a market force in and of themselves. If the investors don’t feel comfortable about Apple’s future then Apple needs to do something about that. I suggest letting people know that there’s a solid plan in place for succession of all key members of the leadership team. You do have one, right Steve? Get well soon.

Thanks to Mac OS Ken for providing balanced coverage of the issue on the January 15th  show.