Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) 
Chief Executive Steve Jobs has returned to work full time after taking a leave of absence to recover from surgery in July to treat pancreatic cancer.
Jobs, 49, will resume oversight of the company's day-to-day operations from Timothy Cook, the company's executive vice president of worldwide sales and operations, who took on the task during Jobs' recovery period.
Jobs was back on the job on a part-time basis in September after undergoing a successful surgery at the end of July to remove a cancerous tumor.
No Chemo, Radiation
In a companywide e-mail in August, Jobs told employees he had a "very rare form of pancreatic cancer called an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor," and that it was caught in an early stage. He also said he would not require chemotherapy or radiation treatment.
The Mac community had been shaken at the thought of Apple sans Jobs during the summer. On news of Jobs' illness, Creative Strategies President Tim Bajarin told MacNewsWorld, "Make no mistake, Steve Jobs is Apple Computer and is its face to the public and a great product champion."
Regardless of Jobs' absence, the month of August went well for Apple. The company announced the much anticipated new G5 iMac at the Apple Expo in Paris on August 31, with Vice President of Sales Phil Schiller filling in for Jobs for the keynote at the event. Also, Apple stock continued to surge through the summer.
Communications Plan
Todd Chambers, a vice president with human resource provider Authoria, said Apple's ability to weather the situation may have been due to a strong internal communications plan.
"Historically, there haven't been good ways to [manage temporary loss of executives to illness]," Chambers told MacNewsWorld. "You had to trust that companies knew what they were doing. Now, organizations have processes and systems that address this issue, if only at a high level. Companies understand how complex this is."
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