Steve Jobs and Apple Incorporation - Coursework Example

Steve Jobs and Apple Incorporation Part 1 Steve jobs, the pioneer and innovative Apple Corporation leader, undertook strategic management of the company to make it attain the current competitive position. He was focused and had confidence thus acting as the role model for other employees. I think leadership entails seeking the support of other in order to accomplish the goals of an organization. Leaders should also provide their team members with favorable working conditions (Musgrove, 2006). Using democratic leadership style, a leader can effectively manage and guide his followers since they feel as part of parcel of the organization due to the use of feedback system applied by this kind of leadership style. Additionally, a good leader must be focused, emulate effective conflict solving techniques, able to take responsibility and aim at the quality of the products rather than the profit. Steve Jobs was a good leader. His innovation made Apple to produce high quality brands such as I Phone, IPods and Apple Watch smartwatch among others. Being focused is one of the underlined words applicable to Steve Jobs. This is based on the fact that his focus to make Apple a global competitive firm made him to embark on innovation and effective leadership techniques. Part 2 Steve Jobs, who was born in 1955, was a US based entrepreneur. As a marketer and inventor, together with Steve Wozniak, Steve established Apple Company in 1976. As he grew to become a world class CEO, Steve engaged on the management of various firms such as Pixar Animation Studios, The Walt Disney Company and Xerox PARC Company among others. As an innovative leader, Steve first strategy was to rebrand Apple from Apple Computer Inc. to Apple Inc. In this way, the company was seen to reflect a shifted focus towards consumer electronics (Gruman & Jim, 1994). Until his death in 2011, Steve Jobs adopted democratic leadership style that entailed engaging all stakeholders with the aim of attaining a competitive advantage in the local and global markets. Part 3 Apple Company was established in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak as the major pioneer. As the demand for the consumer electronics increased in the global market, Steve embarked on product diversification in order to meet need of his consumers. One of the major aspects that made Apple to become one of the world largest information technology companies as noted earlier was the strong focus that the CEO possessed. During his return to Apple in 1997, the company was producing random array of peripherals as well as computers. According to Steve, that was crazy and now the team should focus on making just four products and all the others be dropped. During his leadership era, Apple adopted all-inclusive platforms and the feedback from the participants was included in Jobs list of the most prioritized things (Crevani, Lindgren, & Packendorff, 2007). For example, Jobs took the first 100 people in the company for a retreat each year where they were provided with opportunities on the last day to give their suggestions on the most important things that they should undertake immediately after the retreat. Notably, Steve also applied task-oriented leadership style. This entailed being focused on the tasks that the employees needed to undertake as a way of attaining a certain objective (Van et al, 2007). As a company that produced high quality brands, the management valued simplicity. While working at Atari as a dropout from the college, Jobs noted the implications of simplicity an aspect that he was focused at initiating in Apple. For example, during the production and designing of the iPod interface, the CEO insisted on using just three clicks to get what he wanted. However, after the product was produced the design team realized they had not met Steve’s requirement. Even though Steve was the overall leader, he valued teamwork and provided a sustainable support (Hersey, Blanchard, Johnson, 2008). For instance, he indicated that they should get rid of on and off button on the iPod. At first members of the designing team were hesitant to adopt that idea but later they realized that the buttons were actually not required. The device was then designed in such a way that it would gradually power down when not in use and get back to life when reengaged. This is an indication that during Steve era, product improvement was one of the aspects that made Apple to meet the needs of the local and international consumers who now have strong positive consumer-brand relationship. Apple key goal was brand improvement. Notable approach that made Apple to effectively compete with other IT companies was the strategy by Steve to take responsibility end to end. According to the CEO, simplicity could only be attained by ensuring that software, hardware as well as peripheral devises were integrated. For instance, Steve created an Apple ecosystem, which entailed connecting an iPod to a Mac that had iTunes software. As a result, the devises were simpler and synchronizing became smoother. Job’s taking of responsibility was also depicted in the way he applied ‘the whole widget’ approach. This implied that despite his controlling personality, his leadership was driven by production of quality products as well as passion for perfection. One of the strategies that Apple established during the management of Steve was the Apple ecosystem. Given the environment challenges faced by the global companies, firms have been argued to undertake greener approaches of production. Thus, Apple became committed to reducing carbon emission even before other companies initiated such strategies. Narcissistic leadership style entails the way leaders are only interested in themselves. Such leaders see themselves as dominance and they do not value the value of other parties (Bergman, et al, 2012). While some leaders especially in competing companies exhibit such style, Apple, under the leadership of Steve portrayed strong value for all stakeholders. For example, during his tenure, Steve also provided advice to his competitors including Google and Microsoft. The democratic style on the other hand involves engaging the stakeholders in the decision-making processes (Miner, 2005). Social equality is also promoted among the workers, an aspect that makes the employees to be motivated thus increasing their rate of productivity (Bolden, 2011). Apple corporate culture was a key trait that differentiated it from the competitors. After Jobs returned to the company, Apple embarked on hiring talented workers while it still continued to offer training programs. For instance, the Apple Fellows program, which was created by Jobs at awarding the employees who significantly contributed to personal computing while in Apple. The leadership style that was applied by Jobs allowed employees to be specialists and they were not exposed to other areas not within their areas. The adoption of the ‘best-in-class’ strategy by Jobs, made the workforce to be motivated and the production significantly improved. One of the notable goals of Apple was to create strong customer brand awareness. With establishment of the first Apple stores in 2001, the company undertook extensive advisement resulting to more than 7,000 customers visiting the outlets in the first weekend. Additionally, the company embarked on extensive research and development, an aspect that made it to diversify its product line and produce top brands like Mac Book Pro, iPad, iPad 2, iPod digital music player and The first-generation iPhone among many others. By maintaining strong public relations, and online marketing, Apple was also able to create a positive image. Through the use of the slogan ‘think different’, the company management was able to indicate the importance of innovation, as most of the employees were able to make adjustments in the way they performed their duties. Additionally, the use of catchy tunes and eye-popping graphics that were designed by the designing team, Apple advertising strategy was quite effective. Part 4 Measuring Jobs leadership Based on the impact of Steve Jobs on the profitability of Apple during his leadership, he can be scaled at top scale level 10. His democratic style of management, which encompassed seeking the ideas of other stakeholders, was driving force for the more that 20 tears he worked as the Apple CEO. Measuring efficiency of Jobs leadership As the result of the application of all involving style of management, Steve was efficient. 125 Leadership Skills Inventory tool consists of nine categories including speech communication skills, problem solving skills, fundamentals of leadership, written communication, values clarification, group dynamic skills, planning skills, decision-making skills and personal development skills (Vroom, Yetton & Phillip, 1973). In all these categories, Steve level of efficiency is ranked at the top level. His efficiency was not based on the focus that he had towards achieving Apple objectives, but his early involvement with Bill Fernandez, an electronic experts in California. The wide skills he gained at Reed College also made Steve to have strong ability to handle the challenges that emanated while working as the chief executive officer in Apple. Another factor that made his efficiency to be highly rated is the change in the brand image during his tenure (Schultz & Sydney, 2010). While he was not hesitant to any criticism, he provided ideas that other employees could not resist trying and finally getting positive implications. Measuring performance of Jobs leadership Jobs performance was his. He was a transformational leader. During the establishment of Apple, the company had diversified its brands in such a way that quality was compromised. With the stiff competition that existed in the electronics industry locally and globally, Apple could not withhold such competition with the brand portfolio that it had in the market. Immediately after the emergence of Steve and rebranding of Apple, the company performance drastically changed (Tittemore, 2003). By specializing on technology and modern features in its brands, Apple, through the efforts of Jobs, could now face off other competitors including Samsung, Google and Microsoft not only in terms of assets base but also in customers’ loyalty. Steve Jobs factual contribution to the performance of APPLE. The success that Apple has continued to enjoy even after the death of Jobs is based on the significant contribution of Jobs. For example, in 1996, Apple was not able to deliver it operating system among other products based on the lack of Jobs leadership since he had left the company in 1985 due to power struggle with other managers. Once Jobs rejoined the company, he initiated financial and business strategies that made the company to come out from near bankruptcy in 1998. Another important contribution that Jobs made was on the services side. During his tenure, the CEO oversaw the designing and production of four brands including iPod, iMac, iPad and iTunes, which have become top brands even in his absence (Pasan, 2012). Jobs also set bold Apple standards and stick to them. The Apple pioneer singleness of vision made him to see the invisible and pursued it without compromising the quality of the brands. Additionally, Jobs created a culture of believe for the company. According to Jobs, knowing is good, but believing is getting information on steroids (Crainer, 2000). While the company was embarking on huge and quality production, it experienced some criticism based on its recycling programs in 2005. However, Jobs responded to the criticism by highlighting the environmental strategies that Apple was initiating during the Apple Annual meeting held in Cupertino. My opinion on leadership and how it could have changed Apple’s performance With the increasing competition globally, leaders should ensure that they involve their employees in the decision making process and be provided with favorable working condition. For example, in China, the company could have monitored the hours that the employees worked to avoid the 2006 criticism of the Apple poor working conditions that damaged the company profile in China market (Apple, 2011). The power struggle that emerged among the leaders in Apple in 1985 resulted to lack of delivery of some brands in the market. Such problem occurred due to lack of clear communication among the leaders (Denis, Langley, & Sergi, 2012). In this case, the power struggles created a poor image on the eyes of other members of the team since they viewed the leaders as not being focused. Apple leaders could have emulated proper method of solving the problem to avoid jobs leaving the company. References Musgrove, M. 2006. 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