The aim of this assignment is to consider the leadership style of the Apple's CEO Steve Jobs through the analysis of the articles and works connected with his business activity. Steve Jobs is the current CEO and co-founder of Apple, Inc. Steve Jobs also was the CEO and majority shareholder of Pixar until the animation studio was acquired by Disney in 2006. However, Jobs is currently on the board of directors at Disney, and is the company's largest individual share holder. Steve Jobs was born in San Francisco, California, and was put up for adoption at birth. His adopted parents named him Steven Paul Jobs, and grew up just south of his birthplace in Cupertino, California. After attending local, Homestead High School, Jobs enrolled Reed College in Portland, Oregon, but dropped out after only one semester. In 1974, Jobs moved back to California and shortly after went on a spiritual journey to India. Soon after returning home, Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple Computers.
[...] This idea is also supported by Young (2005), who writes about Jobs not paying attention to any side opinions, which come in the form of marketing research and financial indices, but he always relied on his feel and intuition in developing products and deciding what product will be popular among his customers. The present assignment has been designed for the discussion of the relevant leadership ideas, based on the example of the Apple's CEO Steve Jobs, who is supposed to be one of the most prominent leaders in the US business circles. [...]
[...] III/ Steve jobs' ideas and leadership Steve Jobs is often called Silicon valley pioneer and the author of unique leadership ideas In order to understand the leadership style of Steve Jobs and the core ideas and steps which led his Apple company to this success through the period while he has been and stays its CEO, it will be appropriate to start the discussion with one of Job's quotations, which may shed the light on his leadership characteristics and define the direction in which the discussion will go: “Innovation distinguishes between the leader and the follower”. [...]
[...] Brand fanaticism and radical customer devotion Steve Jobs has based the leadership culture of the Apple Company on brand fanaticism and radical customer devotion. Though Jobs is highly criticized for his leadership style, but his achievements (introducing mouse and graphic user interface) cannot be neglected. They have become revolutionary. Jobs are perfectionist, and he has been described as being intimidating by several publications. Another important leadership feature peculiar of Jobs is that he does not see only computers, but far beyond. [...]
[...] “You'd show Jobs something and he might look at one part and say that just sucks, but he never said 'make that button bigger'”. (Young, 2005) This is the expression of Jobs's striving for perfectionism and his ability to carry his ideas to his team who has to make them real. While he calls his new iTines Music store a landmark which cannot be overestimated, this phrase can be attributed to any of his innovations. His products are perfect and are 'killing'. [...]
[...] His management style attracted criticism from various corners and he was often referred to as difficult person to deal with. The Apple board was also beginning to show disapproval of Steve's behavioural and people skills. As the head of the Macintosh division, Steve spent most of the company resources on it, which led to differences between him and the Apple board. When the Macintosh failed to perform as expected in the market (20,000 units sold as against the projected 80,000 by the end of 1984), Apple insiders began viewing Steve's actions more critically than ever before. [...]
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