STEVE JOBS

Steve Jobs

Abstract

As an exemplary business tycoon Jobs was the man behind Apple, an innovative force behind the organization's success and a formidable team builder. He remained the Chairman and CEO of the company and claimed joint authorship of three of the most significant technologies: the personal computer, the Graphical User Interface and digital music. Throughout his career, he displayed exemplary leadership, creativeness and innovation. He was considered to be a forward thinking man who had unwavering commitment towards his work. This paper will analyze Steve Job's leadership qualities and abilities as a business leader.

Steve Jobs

Introduction

Steve Jobs' name has become famous through innovation of personal computing. People throughout the world regard him as visionary, artistic and highly creative. Jobs is among those people who took the Silicon Valley to greater heights and his career development at Apple Inc is a source of motivation for CEOs and managers throughout the world. Born in California on 24 February 1955, Steve Jobs started his career by working along with Hewlett-Packard (HP). In the late 1970s and 80s, Jobs enjoyed phenomenal success with Apple Computer as Silicon Valley rushed to the front position of the computer and information technology industry (Deutschman, 2000). In the late 1990s, the revival of Apple Computer with Steve Jobs revived the Silicon Valley as a hub of computer innovations. Steve Jobs became a leader at Apple Inc and became a subject of study for the industry analysts.

Discussion and Analysis

Kahney (2012) write that Steve Jobs embraced the personality characteristics and traits which most of the people some consider flawed—selfish and strict. Based on his intuition, he led Apple and Pixar to success against all odds. Another important personality trait of Jobs defined by Kahney is Jobs legendary temper. Kahney (2012) argues that Jobs seldom cared about the damage incurred to the people's egos and emotions. These personality characteristics enhanced much of his leadership skills which paved way for innovation and diligence. Another important factor of Jobs' long-term success was his autocratic style. Steve jobs became famous for his leadership and management skills in recruiting the best team from the industry and firing them up in the later stages of their career. One prime example of this autocratic leadership style is that Jobs stole the then-president of PepsiCo, John Sculley, to be his chief executive. Job's autocratic leadership style also caused numerous problems in his career. The directors at Apple fired him from the job in 1985 because they considered him to a person who does not want to work as a team player. Jobs was aged 30 at that time.

That was the time when Jobs developed his idea of being an entrepreneur and started thinking of his Apple stocks. He Jobs soon enlarged the extent of his business interests with a skillful attainment, purchasing the computer graphics division of Lucasfilms (later Pixar) which gave him a key future foothold in entertainment content.

Leadership Style and Team Building

His leadership there was so charismatic that he was forced to be brought back ...