'Disrupt Think The Unthinkable'

Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs created Apple Computer Company out of a garage in Palo Alto California with the focus on personal computing. (Peter & Donnelly, 2013) Their strategy was to create a small desktop computer that is use friendly. Both had a passion for creativity, Jobs had the talent to create an

The initial ideas of Jobs can be seen in different aspects of the designs of all computers today, although maybe not blatantly obvious the ground work is there. Which pushed the team of “Jobs and Wozniak to improve and refine their design … ushering in the era of the personal computer” (Steve). The continual re-design of software, ergonomic design, unexpected failures, and leading internal technology influenced, and pushed other companies to continually re-invent designs to allow for more competition in the industry. Although the co-creators thought they had a perfect road to success, disadvantage always come along. “Apple’s shine was starting to wear off, which increased competition” (Steve). There is always that moment where the time for fame comes to a halt and Steve Jobs’ was not immune to failure. Ideas are not always right, practical and/or good and at one point Jobs was ousted from Apple because of this. The designs of the computer and market was soon becoming so competitive both in the retail world and within companies for the money which required a solution in order to not lose to many

On April 1st 1976, one of the greatest technological happenings occurred on our very soil. A company unlike any other was born. Birthed by two individuals, who began developing their ideas in a garage in California. These two legends are Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Their relationship is described on apple-history.com, as “Steven Wozniak and Steven Jobs had been friends in high school they had both been interested in electronics, and both had been perceived as outsiders.” (http://apple-history.com/h1)

The development of Apple Inc. came during the unstable economic times of the 1970’s. Best friends and college dropouts, Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak pooled their electronic and business

Conger, Jay A. (1990). The Dark Side of Leadership, Elsiever Science Publishing Company Inc., New York, USA.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, a pair of 20-something college dropouts, founded Apple Computer on April Fool’s Day, 1976. Working out of the Jobs family’s garage in Los Altos, California, they built a computer circuit board that they named the Apple I. Within several months, they had made 200 sales and taken on a new partner-A.C.”Mike” Markkula, Jr., a freshly minted millionaire who had retired from Intel at the age of 33. Markkula, who was instrumental in attracting venture capital, was the experienced businessman on the team; Wozniak was the technical genius; and jobs were the visionary who sought “to change the world through technology.”

Tan and Theodorou (2009) define innovation as the key driver of the information technology industry. Technological developments within this industry are fast and competition is tight. To survive in the long run it is therefore essential for the leaders of information technology companies to adopt an appropriate leadership style. A leaders commitment to organisational openness to new ideas and creating a comfortable environment for its followers, allows for innovation to occur (Puccio, Mance, & Murdock, 2010). Transformational leadership is an example of a suitable leadership style. These are leaders who inspire followers to surpass their own self-interests and who are capable of having an insightful and extraordinary effect on followers (Robins et.al 2014). A study completed by Zhang and Bartol in 2010, looked at employee creativity and how it occurred. The results found that employees with transformational leaders had more confidence in their ability to be creative at work and higher levels of creative performance. Another

        Steve jobs combined his marketing and innovation knowledge with his Steve Wozniak's computing ability to create Apple. Their goal was to make personal computing more user-friendly and create a brand

As noted, brokers and innovators are the leadership roles associated with this model. The role of the broker is to build and maintain a power base, negotiate agreements, and present ideas. The innovators role is to be creative, initiate change, and sustain new ideas and changes. In this case, Langley exemplified leadership roles by single handily changing the mentality of the department soon after he took the position. Although this was a much-needed change for the departments personal, he did not show innovative characteristics by failing to create change regarding the production of tubes. Major change is needed in the process of the tube production. It has been noted by Harold Singer, “ The products and process here now are what they’ve traditionally been from almost the start”. This indicates that Langley needs to innovate and create new tactics and processes for the tube assembly. This would help American Radiotronics Corporation reach its goal of making the department a model show play for the company. Langley’s ability to quickly change the mentality is proof that he has innovative managerial skills. He must keep using these skills to help develop the department.

At the time, the personal computer business was in its infancy, and the company sought to fill a niche by providing communication networks to link mainframe computers. Although the company grew rapidly, Mr. Lee felt that the real opportunities for growth lay in personal computers. In the mid-1980s, he decided to make a major switch to the production

In the past 100 years, the world has completely turned around. The technological and computer revolutions have completely changed the way the world works. Henry Ford revolutionized factorial production through the creation of the assembly line. It increased efficiency and a basic standard of conformity among products, therefore making the company a lot more successful. The rest of the industry creating a nation-wide revolution based on efficiency adopted this new innovation. Following the innovation of the assembly line, a new era of development came into existence. In the 1970’s, computers were first introduced. Although they were as large as a room and could only play tic tac toe, they were the start of the

Entrepreneurship is America’s defining cultural characteristic. Consider the college dropouts that sat in a garage trying to develop inexpensive and better ways for Americans to connect, communicate and move data - think Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak and of course, Apple Computer. Or consider another college dropout that conceived an idea to connect millions of people through his interpersonal software application called Facebook – think Mark Zuckerberg.

This paper illustrates reflections on the first four chapters of Leadership and the New Science written by Margaret J. Wheatley. I picked up some key points and personal learning ideas that I found interesting to share in this paper. Organization rules, relationship, field theory, first impression, and truth versions are the themes that will be highlighted in next paragraphs. I added some examples related to my personal experiences as long as they are connected to the points.

In the reading Lost Einstein: How exposure to innovation influences who becomes an inventor, the authors’ dive into the factors that induce people to become inventors. There are 3 main lessons for authors’ analysis. First, there are large disparities in the innovation rate by socioeconomic class, race, and gender. For example, children from top 1% of income are more likely to become innovators than children from the below-median income family. Second, exposure to innovation increases the chance for children to become innovators. For instance, women are more likely to become inventors if they grew up in the area with many female inventors. Therefore, growing up around male inventors has no impact on women’s propensity to innovate since men are

Steve Jobs, one of the world’s most brilliant thinkers, transformed technology. From an early age, he looked at the world differently from others. At the age of twenty, he worked hard. Ten years later, Apple Inc. grew exponentially from two employees to 4,000 employees. Jobs has created revolutionary technology and has made it easy for people to understand and use today, BUT what led up to the success of this technology? How did Apple GET to where it is today?