Leadership : The Steve Jobs Case Study

Q: Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, was asked to come back as Chief Executive in 1997 when the business was making a loss. Jobs was appointed to provide a clearer vision for the business and to improve its profitability. How easy is it for a Chief Executive to change a struggling business into a more successful one? Justify your answer with reference to Apple and/or other organisations you know.

Secondly, Steve Jobs used tyrannical leadership style – hire and fire at will – to ensure that his employees were always delivered products of extremely has high quality. The American author Andrew Keen's wrote “There's not an ounce of democracy at Apple. That's what makes it a paragon of such traditional corporate values as top-down leadership, sharply hierarchical organization and centralized control. It's Steve's company – pursuing his vision, at his pace, with his team, making his products. Without Steve Jobs' authoritarian leadership, Apple would be just another Silicon Valley outfit...” (Keen, 2007). CEO of Enterprise Management Associates, said, “Steve Jobs is a special example of a leader who dominated his company employees and guided them rightly with his authoritarian leadership style and unmatchable vision" (Chaudhuri, 26th April, 2012). Steve Jobs employees were always highly concentrated in work and delivered products of extremely high quality,

Steve Jobs on the other hand has a very innovative leadership style; he was a perfectionist who had the courage to change his mind. Steve was a very unconventional leader, he was very `high-maintenance’ who demanded excellence from his staff and was known for his

Steve jobs demonstrated to the world just how fundamental technology is in our developing environment. He exemplified a successful and innovative leader, especially in the face of failure. One could argue that although Steve Jobs was an extremely influential businessman of his time, he had numerous tragic flaws. Egotistic is a word that describes this illustrious worker. Credit for ideas were never given to the instrumental “behind the scenes” intellectuals, and without the them, he may never have been so successful. While he was working for Apple, people would always struggle with the individualistic approach he had and would often times complain about his boastful nature. He exhibited qualities that made his dislikable, however without Steve Jobs the iPhone, a

Steve Jobs was most famously known for his ideas that skyrocketed the Apple’s revenue in the American entertainment and technology market. It was not Apple as a company that created such an impact in the American economy but it was Steve Jobs’ creativity, vision, and leadership. When Steve Jobs left apple for six months due to health

The theories applied to Steve Jobs have opened my mind to realise how important effective leadership styles are to organisations. A lesson learnt from Steve’s leadership qualities is that a leader can adapt different style of leadership and this makes a leader more effective and efficient. The late Apple boss was a master of employing various strategies to adapt to differing scenarios and situations. Steve Jobs did not exhibit a single rhetorical style, but rather altered it depending on the situation and yet still managed to deliver a constant message to support his company’s

Steve Jobs created a new world for so many of us. In a generation of ever expanding digital capabilities, the “Apple Guy,” would change the world. Steve would go on to create and present technology that has and continues to astound us. It was very difficult to watch this genius introduce one of his creations and find something wrong with any of his approaches.

Jobs was definitely passionate about leading, but his true passion was creating. He personally got involved with the best and brightest of Apple. He wanted to know how his product worked. He spent time that he did not have exchanging ideas and opinions with the engineers, concerning everything from the inner paneling of the Apple products to the whether or not the iPad should have round or sharp edges. Ken Segall, longtime Apple employee, claimed in his book Think Simple that when it came to Jobs, “[He] felt [he] had the attention of a CEO who was eager to share ideas and opinions, and one who was also capable of being swayed by someone else’s passionate argument.” One admirable thing about Steve Jobs is that he praised a brilliant idea even if it trumped his own. Being in the position of power he was in and the type of assertive, over-bearing person that he was, it was easy for him to shut down ideas that opposed his own. But that is what made him so great; he was not afraid to be wrong. All he wanted was a perfect product. He pushed his workers to create “insanely great” products and held himself at the same standard. His passion for delivering world-changing

As the founder of Apple, Steve Jobs had a vision of where the company should be headed and how he wanted consumers should perceive it. With Apple under his sleeves Jobs influenced many people’s lives through technology and “he changed culture and society” (Ladik, 2011). He was persevered until he archived his vision. Dr. Ladik described him as “a bulldog who refused take “no” for an answer. A micro manager who would leave no detail untouched. At traditional leader he was not. A visionary who would see his visions fulfilled, he was” (Ladik, 2011). Some people might describe him an egomaniac. His quality pushed people around him to thrive to their greatness. Steve Jobs charisma had an author call “the ability to articulate the vision” Steve Jobs attribute (Notes on Leadership: Be Like Steve Jobs, . . . And Bill Campbell, And Andy

Steve Jobs is the CEO at Apple. Jobs founded Apple in 1976, and the company has developed into a major force within the electronics industry. Much of the success of the company has been due to the leadership of Steve Jobs. He has the personal attributes which are needed in order to be a successful leader, for example he is smart, communicative and is a great co-ordinator. However, there are limitations to Jobs leadership at Apple with factors such as shareholders,  corporate governance, corporate social

The three most important factors in Apple's past success before the death of Steve Jobs was the push for innovation, portable devices, and iTunes. Steve Jobs was a man who wanted to create the "future" of technology. He created a better home computer with the creation of Apple II PC and the Macintosh computer. The Macintosh computer was created for the students and working professionals. Steve Jobs was the forefront of Apple's new innovations. He had the creative mind and the ability to look to the future. When Apple removed him as the CEO of Apple, he didn't give up. He went and started a new company. With that company he came up with the foundation of the new operating software of Mac OS X. We can all tell that Apple needed Steve Jobs when all other CEOs failed. Since the removal of Steve Jobs as CEO, Apple took a big hit in the market. With this, Steve Jobs decided to move toward the mobile devices of iPhone, iPad, and iPod.

Steve Jobs was an accomplished leader and innovator in technology, having helped found and lead multiple companies throughout his life. His many accomplishments include; founding Apple and NeXT and was the CEO of both companies as well as Pixar. Jobs created many life-changing products like the Apple ll, which is has been known as one of the first true PC’s.

Former Apple marketing leader Steve Wilhite mentions that Jobs was such an effective leader. Wilhite’s words were the following, “He was able to guide the company from a high-altitude perspective one moment and dive deep into tiny details the next.”

What are the factors that contributed to the success and failure of Steve Jobs as a technopreneur?

Steve Jobs once said, “When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.” which meant that when he makes something, he makes it the best way possible. A project that you know can be better can’t be left undone, a little tinkering could make all the difference. Steve Jobs was an important and influential figure in history that had a positive impact on the world because he revolutionized the design of technology in a way most people wouldn’t have been able to. He wanted to make a difference in the world in the best way possible: an innovation completed perfectly.