Case on: profiles of two visionaries: bill gates and Steve jobs

Prepared for:
Rumana Afrose
Lecturer
Department of Business Administration
East West University

Prepared by:

Subject Code: MGT 101

Section: 09

Date of Submission: November 04, 2013

Table of content:

Introduction
In this assignment contrasting leadership style of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs has been analyzed
and main features of the style have been described. The impact of their leadership style
individual, team and organizational performance has also been explained. Various global
leaders have different leadership style depending on the size and nature of the organization.

The two global leaders known for their achievements in their field are Bill Gates and Steve
Jobs. Their leadership style has contrasting aspects as well as few similarities.
Profile of Steve jobs:

Name: Steve Jobs

Full Name: Steven Paul Jobs

Aka: Steve Jobs

Aka: Steven Jobs

Birth date: Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco,
California.

Education: Reed College, Homestead High School

Occupation: Entrepreneur, Inventor

1 Apr 1976: Apple Computer Inc. is incorporated by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ron
Apr 1989: Steve Jobs is named 'Entrepreneur of the decade' by Inc. magazine
Jul 1997: Gil Amelio is ousted by the Apple Board of directors after a disastrous quarter.
Steve Jobs is named interim CEO in his place and installs his NeXT executive team at the top
of Apple
5 Jan 2000: At Macworld San Francisco, Steve Jobs drops the 'interim' in his title and
officially becomes Apples CEO.
Apr 2009: Steve receives a liver transplant at the Methodist University Hospital in Memphis,
Tennessee. He was weeks away from dying when he got the surgery

Place of death: Palo Alto, California

Death date: October 05, 2011

Profile of bill gates:

Name: bill gates

Full name: William henry gates iii

Birth date: October 28, 1955 (age: 58)

Place of birth: Seattle, Washington

Aka: bill gates

Aka: William henry gates

Aka: William gates

Zodiac sign: Scorpio

Education: lakeside school, Harvard college

Occupation: entrepreneur. Chairman of Microsoft & Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda

Gates Foundation, CEO of Cascade Investment, Chairman of Corbis, Years active

1975present.Net worth: US$ 76.8 billion (Nov 2013).
1976: Bill Gates founded Microsoft when he formed a contract with MITTS (Micro Instrumentation
and Telemetry Systems) to develop a basic operating system for their new microcomputers
1990: Microsoft released its first version of Windows.

Profile of apple Inc.:

Logo used since 1998

Type

Traded as

Industry

Public

NASDAQ: AAPL

NASDAQ-100 component

S&P 500 component

Computer hardware

Computer software

Consumer electronics

Digital distribution

Founded

Founder(s)

April 1, 1976 (37 years ago)

(incorporated January 3, 1977)

Steve Jobs

Steve Wozniak

Ronald Wayne[1]

Headquarters

Apple Campus, 1 Infinite Loop,

Cupertino, California, U.S.[2]

Number of
locations

406 retail stores (as of May 2013)

Area served

Worldwide

Key people

Arthur D. Levinson (Chairman)[3]

Tim Cook (CEO),
Steve Jobs (Founder, former CEO)

Products list 2 Products

Products

Services

2.1 Mac

2.2 iPad

2.3 iPod

2.4 iPhone

2.5 Apple TV

2.6 Software

Services list[show]

Revenue

US$ 170.910 billion (2013)[4]

Operating
income

US$ 48.999 billion (2013)[4]

Net income

US$ 37.037 billion (2013)[4]

Total assets

US$ 207.000 billion (2013)[4]

Total equity

US$ 123.549 billion (2013)[4]

Employees

80,000 (2013)[5]

Subsidiaries

FileMaker Inc., Anobit, Braeburn Capital

Website

Apple.com

Profile of Microsoft Inc:

Type

Public

NASDAQ: MSFT

Dow Jones Industrial Average

Component

NASDAQ-100 Component

S&P 500 Component

Traded as

Industry

Computer software, Computer hardware

Founded

Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.

(April 4, 1975)

Founder(s)

Bill Gates, Paul Allen

Headquarters

Microsoft Redmond Campus, Redmond,

Washington, U.S.

Area served

Worldwide

Key people

Bill Gates (Chairman)

Steve Ballmer (CEO)

Windows

Office

Dynamics

Products

Azure

Xbox

Surface

Bing

Skype

more...

Revenue

US$ 77.85 billion (2013)[1]

Operating
income

US$ 26.76 billion (2013)[1]

Net income

US$ 21.86 billion (2013)[1]

Total assets

US$ 142.43 billion (2013)[1]

Total equity

US$ 78.94 billion (2013)[1]

Employees

100,518 (September 2013)[2]

Subsidiaries

List of Microsoft subsidiaries

Website

Microsoft.com

Link: http://www.biography.com/people/steve-jobs-9354805?page=2#reinventingapple
http://www.biography.com/people/bill-gates-9307520

Summary
Bill Gates is co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft Corporation, world's
leading software provider.
His career is quite long as he started his career in programming personal computer at a very young
age of 13. He is an
instinctive innovator and entrepreneur. He is very focused in his vision which made his company a
market leader in
software industry (Gates, 1995).
As a leader his leadership style quite different which has a mixture of autocratic, visionary and
participative approaches.
He is actively involved in technology development for new products and in making various
strategic decisions. He spends
most of his time for staying touch with customers and employees around the world. He expects his
managers to have
their own personal influence and to take decisions assuming they are the CEO of the organization
which showed the
participative leadership style. He met his managers regularly to discuss the business strategy. The
technology and

innovation in the organization is completely decided by Bill Gates where the managers do not
possess any role which
shows a slight autocratic style. The future for the follower (customer) is decided by Bill Gates who
lets us move forward
with technology which shows visionary style of leadership (Lowe, 2001).

The leadership style of Steve Jobs is an autocratic style. He did not follow a consultative approach
(Dym & Hu, 2005). He
expected his staff to excel and he criticized their performance bluntly (Sarah, 2011). He also
showed visionary style of
leadership. He had career set bach at 1985 which contributed him to develop knowledge and skills
about technical aspect
which combined which his vision gave innovative products (Kramer, 2011). His intelligence and
ability to articulate his vision also made his staffs and customer to bring along his journey (Sarah,
2011). He has a charismatic ability to captivate
his staffs and customers by his speech which shows charismatic leadership style (Deutschman,
2000)...

Key words

Q10: How did Bill gates and Steve jobs differ in their leadership style?
Bill Gates leadership is participative style because he involves his subordinate in decision
making. He is a flexible person and he recognized his role was to be visionary of the
company. When it is necessary, he brings professional manager for managing and well
structure of the organization.
Gates is a strong and energizing person his enthusiasm, hard working nature, judgment skills
reflect his personality. His motivating power and involving his friends to working with him
became the success of Microsoft.
On the other hand, Steve Jobs leadership is autocratic style, because he centralizes the
authority, he never given a chance to subordinate to involving decision making. He thinks
that what ever he do is right. His relation with employees not good, he fails to motivate his
employees in many times. Some times he acts as anti Gates, and some times request
Microsoft to develop software for his computer. His cocky attitude and lack of management
skills became a threat of APPLES success.

Bill gates style as Fiedler Model

"In Fiedler's model, leadership effectiveness is the result of interaction between the style of
the leader and the characteristics of the environment in which the leader works"
"According to Fiedler, the effectiveness of a leader is determined by the degree of match
between a dominant trait of the leader and the favorableness of the situation for the leader....
The dominant trait is a personality factor causing the leader to either relationship-oriented or
task-orientated"

Relation-oriented leadership:
Leaders who describe their preferred coworker in favorable terms, with a high LPC, are
purported to derive major satisfaction from establishing close relationships with felow
workers. High LPC leaders are said to be relationship-orientated. These leaders see that good
interpersonal relations as a requirement for task accomplishment.

Task-oriented leadership:
Leaders who describe their least preferred coworker unfavorable terms, with a low LPC, are
derived major satisfaction by successfully completing a task. These leaders are said to be
task-orientated. They are more concerned with successful task accomplishment and worry
about interpersonal relations later
The second major factor in Fiedler's theory is known as situational favorableness or
environmental variable. This basically is defined as the degree a situation enables a leader to
exert influence over a group. Fiedler then extends his analysis by focusing on three key
situational factors, which are leader-member, task structure and position power. Each factor is
defined in the following.
1. Leader-member relations: the degree to which the employees accept the leader.
2. Task structure: the degree to which the subordinates jobs are described in detail.
3. Position power: the amount of formal authority the leader possesses by virtue of his or her
position in the organization.
So in this case Bill Gates found most favorable place where positional power is high as he
has most authorities in the firm, task structure is also defined as he gives the direction to
subordinate/follower to fulfill his vision, and last leader-member relation is also good.
Thats mean Bill Gates is more likely Task-oriented leader who want performance from his
subordinate/follower and work has to be done to achieve the goal/objective of the company.

Level 5 hierarchy

Bill Gates

Contributing Team
Member
Highly Capable Individual

Level 4 Leaders
Bill Gates has his own visions of what the business needs to do to succeed. He decides on
direction and then gets people to implement his vision. This is what level 4 leader refer to as
"first what, then who." Level 4 leaders are very much in the conventional mode. They may be
effective when it is not too difficult to decide what to do. And Bill Gates is too confident what
he wants to do in near future and pursue his vision through his expertise.

Level 5 Leaders
We not put Bill Gates as level five leader because level five leader require both professional
will + humility in which definitely he has professional will but there is some doubt about
humility, although he is philanthropist who endowed $28 billion dollar in his own Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation and even promise to donate his 95% wealth as he will have aged

but even after a lot of critics is there that he is doing all of it just because of status symbol, he
is too centralize and blamed for curbing innovation.

Leadership style
1. Autocratic style
Control is basic to Gate's nature and his management practice. He has an obsession with
detail and with checking up. Exp. Used to sign expenses for his right hand man STEVE
BALLMER.
He is trying to monopolize the World Wide Web software market and has had legal problems
with the department of justice. Microsoft restricted the ability of its internet partners to deal
with its rivals. Also he dislikes complaints.
2. Delegate style
Brightest talent: Gates paid special attention to recruit and retain the best talent in the
software industry. He believed that the recruitment of talented software engineers was one of
the most critical elements in the software industry. Gates looked for a bundle of attributes in
recruits. These included the capacity to grasp new knowledge quickly, the ability to ask
probing questions, and deep familiarity with programming structures. Though a great number
of potential recruits applied for jobs at Microsoft, Gates assumed that the best talent would
never apply directly. Consequently, Microsoft's HR managers had to hunt for the best talent
and offer them a job
Gives autonomy to his manager, he delegates authority to managers to run their independent
departments.
he use different leadership
on organize the company. However Apple achieved great performance and
accomplished the set goals and objectives, there also will have pros and cons
on it.
The one of the leadership style that used by Steve Jobs is transformational
leadership. This type of leadership created a strategic vision, mean that a
picture or mental image of what the organization should look like in the
future. Transformational leadership is more humane leadership theory, as
compared to the transactional theory. This theory believes that employees
rise higher through positive motivation than negative motivation. The leader
will have a clear idea to guide the employees follow and complete the goal
they set. It also can motivate and bonds employees by depiction the
company's attractive future.
Transformational leadership believes in inspiring employees to do great work
through example and the force of a leaders personality. It appeals to the
higher need of an individual in the Maslows hierarchy of needs, which is
selfactualization.
From this theory, employees will willingly follow a leader who
inspires them. The leader who had vision and passion can transform his
followers and together they can achieve the goals. In additions, the energy

and enthusiasm are the tonics that give employees to get things done.
Besides that, this effective leadership model that use by Steve Jobs will create
an enthusiastic work atmosphere and it will lead the organization with
innovations. It will certainly guarantee higher output and efficiency when the
employees are working through.

Q2: Compare and contrast the managerial practices of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs both gave their heart & souls to developing their vision to develop
personal computer, but the way they choose was different from other.
Bill gates develop computer language new Altair 8080 pc which became the foundation of
Microsoft. Bill continuously develop two other computer languages. When IBM develops
their first pc and which need operating system to run the computer, Microsoft develops MSDOS for IBM.
Gates adopting the changes very fast that are his enthusiasm vision and hard working give
him the success. Gates always recognized him as a visionary he always recognize
professional management, he decentralize authority to make organization structure better.

On the other hand Steve Jobs started apple computer which is hard ware making company.
His vision to develop computer with affordable cost and easy to use. When Bill offer the
basic to jobs then he rejected jobs proposal and try to develop their own basic with out
knowledge of programming, he fail and accept license with Microsoft basic.
Jobs play duel personality sometimes he oppose Microsoft sometimes request Microsoft to
develop software for their operating system. Jobs force people to choose between MicrosoftIBM operating system and his MAC-operating system. Lack of proper management skills and
relation with employees became a barrier of APPLEs growth.

Q3: What do you think about the future of Microsoft and Apple Computer?
With the success of windows, Office Application and Internet explorer Microsoft became a
house hold name and Bill gates became as business genius..
Bill Gates adopting the changes very fast his innovative mind all time busy to developing
products. Recent Microsoft develops a number of products like smartphone with loaded
Microsoft window. Microsoft has tied with number of hand set manufacturer. Microsoft
denies that it get into manufacturing consumer product like telephone, microwaves oven. It
will drive innovation in these products by coming up new ideas at what product can do
networking them. Microsoft is getting into new exciting business that could catapult it from
being a software giant to a major player in from being a software giant to a major player in
almost all aspect of human life.

On the other hand APPLE goes wrong direction in 1990s. Because Steve Jobs is very slow to
adopting changes thats the main reason falling the market share. When Jobs realize changes
is the only way to survive the market then apple develops innovative iMac which is internet
friendly & stylist computer. After sometime Apple gains market. With the iphone, Apple TV,
and name charges job&co are setting a new course for the outfit once knows only for its
computer.
The new name and device represent APPLEs strategic shift away from its origins as a
personal computing company that has at point struggled both survive and to set the
computing worlds agenda.

Conclusion:
Bill Gates, Co-Founder and Chairman of Microsoft, and Steve Jobs, Co-founder and CEO of
Apple, are possibly the two most iconic leaders in technology today. With personal wealth
worth billions of dollars, both leaders share a passion for their products and a controversial
style of leadership. In fact, their beginnings are similar: Jobs dropped out of Reed to create
Apple, and Gates left Harvard to start Microsoft. While both young men, Jobs and Gates both
became immensely successful with innovative products. Both men lost their business partners
as their success grew, Wozniak left Apple after an accident and then to pursue his own
interests and Allen departed Microsoft after successfully battling cancer. And in both cases,
their secret to their success is in their leadership styles. Yet, this is where they part in
similarity. Gates represents the ultimate business man, defined by competitiveness,
opportunism, and efficiency. In contrast, Jobs is an idealist, characterized by his unyielding
commitment to his own vision. Rather than summarize them alone, I've placed their own
words in context of observations on their leadership styles.
Carly Fiorina and Steve Jobs both had very different leadership traits and styles. Leadership
effectiveness is often dependent on other factors such as environmental influences and certain
situations. Steve Jobs proved to come out a better leader over Carly Fiorina. He showed a
higher sensitivity and great relations with his followers, which Ms. Fiorina did not attain. Ms.
Fiorina was a good businesswoman but she could not prove herself as a leader. She saw her
down fall when she could not relate to her employees, and without followers, there cannot be
a leader. So, even though both Carly Fiorina and Steve Jobs held top positions in two of the
most prestigious companies, Jobs proved to be the true leader of the two.

Recommendation:
(2013, 03). Pros of Steve Jobs Leadership Style. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 03, 2013, from
http://www.studymode.com/essays/Pros-Of-Steve-Jobs-Leadership-Style-1482228.html