• San Jose Mercury News, Fortune, Ad Age, Thursday, January 15, 2009 11:01 AM

The consensus among the digerati seems to be that Apple COO Tim Cook, who has been charged with running the company through June, has the steely resolve needed to keep the company on track during CEO Steve Jobs' absence. Jobs emailed Apple's staff yesterday that he was taking a medical leave of absence to focus on his health (and to allow them "to focus on delivering extraordinary products").

Cook is seen as "unflappable, analytical and highly disciplined," writes Brandon Bailey. "He's excellent at getting things done," says Tim Bajarin, president of the consulting firm Creative Strategies. Southern courtliness aside, he's a demanding boss who's not immune to firing off emails in the wee hours.

A recent Fortune profile titled "The Genius Behind Steve" related the story of Cook asking in a meeting why someone wasn't in China taking care of a problem with Asian operations. Thirty minutes later he calmly asked a subordinate, "Why are you still here?" The man immediately drove to the airport, and flew to China without a change of clothes.

In "Can the Apple Brand Thrive After Steve Jobs?"Ad Age's Michael Learmonth finds that most sources believe that a short leave probably won't drag down the brand. "If anything, it stirs up more buzz about him and the company and his role at the company, maybe to the benefit of the brand, but to the detriment of the stock," says Andrew Murphy, analyst at Piper Jaffray.

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