Critical Analysis of Leadership of Steve Jobs

3952 WordsApr 25, 201116 Pages

critical analysis of the leadership style of Steve Jobs

Author’s Last Name, First name, year of submission, title, degree, institution’s name, and
location of the institution

Introduction

The aim of this work is analytical consideration of leadership style of Mr. Steve Jobs, co-
founder and later the Chairman and CEO of Apples Computers Incorporated, a most
successful businessman today.

The challenge of the times

The times are upon us when brilliant management and leadership are confounded. In the
times of global technical breakthroughs and revolutionary transformations, as the power of
“know-how” and the say-so of “vision” have joined their hands in leading organizations
across sudden gulfs of learning, discoveries, necessitating…show more content…
Apple Incorporated products are well-known and easily recognizable across the whole world
in line of personal computers, iphones, ipods and IPads. As of September 25, 2010, the
Company had opened a total of 317 retail stores, including 233 stores in the United States
and 84 stores internationally (The New York Times, 2011). Reminiscence of the past With a
little reminiscence of the past, the company was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs and his
partner Steve Wozniak only to see Mr. Jobs vacate the premises due to a fall-out with Mr.
Sculley in 1985, “hand-picked CEO, recruited from Pepsi” (Owen W. Linzmayer, 1999). This
was an extremely humbling experience, which often shapes leadership providing the mold
for them tried with the times of being downcast. As Apple’s product Newton failed under
governance of Mr. Sculley, the company could not compare to Microsoft's Windows
operating system, having become the mainstay of computer standards. (Owen W.
Linzmayer, 1999, P. 60) In 1997 upon return of Mr. Jobs, 12 years later, the company finally
began to see the light at the time when Mr. Dell was building his own computer empire,
saying: “Apple's smartest move would be to "shut it down and give the money back to the
shareholders."” (New York Times, 2001 updated). However, such a stance into future
possibilities was not daunting for Mr. Jobs at all.