The paper provides a thorough evaluation of Steve Jobs' management as the driving force behind the success of the Apple Company Inc. It highlights the kind of leader Steve was, the initial difficulties he had at Apple, the strategy, and the execution. The study explores how Steve Jobs leveraged alliances and teamwork to make Apple Company Inc. successful as well as other forces driving development in the personal computer sector. Additionally, a critique of Job's strategy for continuous process improvement is provided. The report also explains the skills, ideas, and plans from the leadership of Steve Jobs that might be useful win my work life.
The type of leader in Steve Jobs
Steve Job was a transformational leader. A transformational leader is one who causes a change in an organization, its individuals as well as social systems by way of creating valuable and positive transformation among the followers. The leader aims at improving the followers into leaders by increasing their morale, motivation and their ultimate performance within the business (Cossin & Caballero, 2013). A transformational leader utilizes his or her charisma to gain respect from the follower and inspires them to work towards achieving the vision and mission of the organization (Simola et al., 2012).
All these attributes of a transformational leader are evident in Steve Jobs. Steve worked together as a role model for his employees in the Apple Company. He set a good example of what a leader should do so as to achieve excellent results for the business. Steve led with charisma, and his staffs and fellow business owners respected him for that. He inspired his workers of success even when Apple was facing recession.
How the vision and values of Steve Jobs were reflected in his leadership style. Steve Jobs vision was to "see the potential for the opportunities," (Finkle & Mallin, 2010). He led a successful innovative business who purpose is to come up with products that address the needs of customers. Ethical values while at work and running of an innovative business are what guided his success as a leader at Apple. His vision and values were reflected in his leadership style by how he handled situations, responsibilities, and challenges. For example, to demonstrate his work ethic and innovation, Steve carefully learned the IT industry and the importance of innovativeness when making products to suit the needs of the clients. At first, in Apple, Steve worked together with Wozniak, and John Schuler as well as other BOD of directors in the Apple Company to produce innovative products that did very well in the market such as the Macintosh. Through his unique marketing strategy, as a leader, Steve ensured that the goods had detailed packaging for differentiation. It provided clients with information about the products they want before purchasing them.
A summary of the initial challenges he faced when starting Apple. Specifically, address Jobs' strategy and implementation. The challenges that Steve Jobs faced when starting Apple included dealing with an unresponsive team of staffs and BODs. Because of Steve's need for confidence, detail, and control over employees, some of the employees regarded him as a dictator and led by ego. Steve also faced the challenges of disagreement with the BODs at Apple during startup, and this is what led to his resignation and started a different company, the NeXT Company (Finkle & Mallin, 2010). Job's strategy and implementation of his businesses entailed first doing research and development on what the consumers needed and employing the best people to work with them. It would enable him to make computer products that meet the needs of customers and remain competitive in the market too. Such an incident is evident when he resigned from Apple and opened the NeXT Company. The products that he made at the NeXT competed highly in the market and made Apple incur losses until their shares dropped to $2. Therefore, the strategy and implementation used by Steve Jobs are by first learning the market before production of goods, and this makes him successful as a leader.
The drivers for change in the personal computer industry are the need for continuous innovation, taste, and portability. The personal computer sector is one that is changing now and then. Consumers have different tastes; they also need computers that are portable and to use for various purposes. Steve Jobs realized the changing needs of clients in the personal computer industry, and this is why he had continuous innovations in making new personal computer products depending with the change of time (Finkle & Mallin, 2010).
How Steve Jobs used partnerships and collaboration
Steve Jobs used partnerships and collaborations with individuals and other companies in different ways so as to drive Apple forward in the competition. Steve used partnership and collaboration with companies doing better than Apple in the computer industry so as to catch up with the new trends in the sector. For example, Steve partnered with Microsoft as an opportunity for Apple to obtain cooperative programs from Microsoft to Apple's Mac. He also partnered with the CompUSA and became a department all the stores of CompUSA (Finkle & Mallin, 2010). As such, Apple would sell its products at every shop owned by CompUSA. In that way, Apple would make more sales than before and also introduce its new products such as the new Apple Power Mac computer line ad new Apple Store in the market. Steve Jobs also used partnerships and collaboration to reduce costs. For example, he began outsourcing the manufacture of several elements for producing computer hardware. In the process of outsourcing of various manufacturing components, Apple was able to expand its outlets to sell more accessories and computers to a larger customer base.
Jobs' approach to continuous process improvement
Jobs approach to continuous process improvement relies on recurrent investment in research and developments which enable him to realize consumer needs in the market. In this case, Steve obtains information that he applies to the new product he makes in Apple. Steve's continuous improvement is based on his vision of seeing opportunities in every venture he starts or enters. Steve had an innate capacity for learning human behavior as a way that helps him in predicting the desires of individuals. Steve is also a risk taker in trying new things as long as he anticipates they will result in improving the current technology or transform technology into businesses that flourish (Finkle & Mallin, 2010).
What skills, ideas, and approaches might be useful in your work/life situation?
By learning from the leadership of Steve Jobs, as a leader, the skills useful in my work life are innovative, research and development skills. These are necessary for continuous improvement in whatever area of leading and the entire organization at large. Useful ideas and approaches in my work include learning human behavior to understand their needs in advance and applying new information gained from the field in coming up with products that are competitive in the market and meets customer needs.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Steve Jobs is a transformational leader by demonstrating his charismatic and inspirational character traits to his employees. The report explains that Steve took a huge role in driving Apple to its success than any other CEO in the company. Through his work ethics and innovative values, Steve was able to turn his vision of seeing opportunities in Apple and its employees. However, Steve faced the challenge of disagreement with some of the directors in Apple when it started, and this led to his resignation. Some of the employees also disliked his controlling, need for confidence and perfection character. These are issues Steve had to deal with to ensure every staff moves in the same direction of achieving excellence in Apple. Apart from the challenges he faced, Steve was able to strategies and implement practical solutions to ensure the success of Apple including continuous research and development, partnership and collaboration.
References
Cossin, D., & Caballero, J. (2013). Transformational Leadership: Background Literature Review. IMD Global Board Center. Retrieved from https://www.imd.org/uupload/IMD.WebSite/BoardCenter/Web/213/Literature%20Review_Transformational%20Leadership.pdf
Finkle, T., & Mallin, M., (2010). Steve Jobs and Apple, Inc. Journal of the International Academy for Case Studies, 16(7): 31-40.
Simola, S., Barling, J., & Turner, N. (2012). Transformational Leadership and Leaders’ Mode of Care Reasoning. Journal of Business Ethics, 108, 229-237
