A New Way of Leadership
Cultural Identity- Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs, the co-founder and former CEO of Apple was constantly making sure that Apple incorporated was running at its full potential. Apple today is continuing to grow, even without Jobs, but are lacking in what made the company truly shine brighter than all of its competitors. Jobs found out, through many years of experience, that the way for a company to be successful was to loosen the reins a little bit, and by doing that you gained more power.
Jobs had a lot to do with the cultural identity of the company. To recognize the best employees, Apple created the Apple Fellows program, which awarded individuals who made incredible technical and or leadership contributions to the jobs that had to do with personal computing. Apple is known for many things, and one of those things is strictly enforcing accountability. No matter what is going on, each project has someone who is directly responsible for that project getting done and working. Apple has had a couple instances where they had to fire or make the employee’s resign for not adhering to the accountability rule. Jobs was a perfectionist when it came to Apple and so that meant he didn’t matter if projects took longer as long as they were perfect. Jobs made sure that he overlooked a lot of the projects that were going on at Apple because they happened to move along faster, smoother and were also better quality, then if he wasn’t overlooking them. Jobs had more of an open outlook when it came to making the iPhones and iPods than he did with the MacBook. Jobs figured that the more open you make something, the more power you later on, developed, and that’s exactly what happened.
A New Identity- Tim Cook
Although Jobs is no lon...
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...he company could be. Change is never easy, especially if it’s a larger group of people. One of the key things to do is to make sure that you don’t make a new team right away because the older members of the team were there when the company was doing good and bad and can give the new leader insight on what has been working and what hasn’t. Another key thing is to not jump into reorganizing right away, give your workers' time to understand how you work and what your management philosophy are before changing the ways of the company, dramatically.
References
Apple. (n.d.). Forbes. Retrieved April 12, 2014, from http://www.forbes.com/companies/apple/
Denning, S. (2011, July 23). How Do You Change An Organizational Culture?. Forbes. Retrieved April 12, 2014, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/07/23/how-do-you-change-an-organizational-culture/
The first computer that Jobs and his partner created was very successful and if it weren't for competition that might have been the end of it. Jobs had to continue expanding and coming up with new and more advanced technology in order to beat the competition and stay ahead of the game. Some people may argue that Apple products would continue expanding even if America was under a capitalist system. This is false because if America was under a capitalist system the government regulation would decelerate the progress he was making and Apple may never have reached the potential it has reached today. The power of competition played a key role in the success and development of the innovative company
Jobs had a talent at recognizing other talent. Steve Jobs wasn't a tech person, he didn't know computers, or coding, he knew exactly how to get people to work together and had a vision that no one else had. He got the most value out of people, which speaks for itself. Just look at 2 companies he built... Apple and Pixar
Apple Inc. is a worldwide company that is one of the most valuable brands to ever be founded. As of today, the company is worth a staggering $786 billion! The reasons behind this giant company’s success is through their products that they sell. All their products are very well made and the customer loyalty is very stable. Apple was founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976. They incorporated the company in 1977. For more than three decades, Apple was predominantly a company that sold personal computers including the Apple II, Macintosh, and the Power Mac. Steve Jobs was fired from the company in 1985 because of the poor sales and low market share that the company was facing. During that time, Apple started to be more of the innovators. Because Apple was starting to make enough money to start acquiring smaller companies that benefited the company, Steve Jobs’
Change is when a person does not follow their everyday routine. They may want to try something different, or be forced to. Change can be for the good and the bad. Places can deal with change ranging from the weather, to the animals present, or the seasons changing. Also, objects can deal with change too. Objects like an iceberg can start to melt, or a forest fire can kill many trees in an area. As a human, we are the ones deciding on change. We are in a position to make big decisions and possibly even become a leader in order for change to happen. If one person starts to change, others will follow and hopefully, the change benefits all.
Steve Jobs (CEO and chairman of Apple Inc.) was an American entrepreneur and inventor. He was born in February 24, 1955 and founded Apple Inc. with his high school buddy Steve Wozniak in 1976. But later in 1976, when Apple was about to bankrupt he returned to it as advisor and Interim CEO. He made Apple profitable from near bankruptcy by 1998 (Walter Isaacson, 2013). From (1996-2011), he proved himself as one of the best engineering leaders of the world and made Apple the most innovative company of the world.
When people think of leadership so many things rush through their heads. For example am I a leader, am I apart of a group that has a leader, and what does being a leader mean? A common definition of being a leader is a person who leads or guides a group of people. So now knowing the definition of a leader who pops into your head; Phil Jackson, Mike Krzyzewski, Martin Luther King Jr.? All of these people are great leaders, but the real question is why are they so great? One very important thing that all these men have in common is they have a philosophy of leadership. This philosophy is going to help guide these men during turbulent times, or when they need guidance themselves. Nobody is perfect and everyone needs direction no matter how wise or gifted you are. I am no different, which is why writing this philosophy of leadership is going to be a fruitful experience for years to come.
Steve Jobs was the utmost CEO of all time. In the speech it states, “……… he’s been called a visionary, a creative genius, a rebel, a non-conformist, an original, the greatest CEO ever, the best innovator of all time.” In the article it states, “He was intensely focused when committed, confident enough to take risky leaps, and charismatic enough to enlist legions of employees and customers in the restless pursuit of his aspirations.” Both texts describe the traits of Steve Jobs which made him the greatest CEO of our age. Steve Jobs was an original genius he had a significant and unique imagination. It’s one thing to envision your own company broadening, but it’s another thing to envision that your company’s services and products will change people lives for the better, the way we communicate and work. Jobs built his company thinking that Apple’s products and services would change the
Apple is a company that has been round for many years. There are over 55 million people who use an apple product or are considered to have at least one apple product in their home. The apple products range from larger devices such as there amazingly known Mac books which are there computer based system to there much small hand held based device called the iPhone. That device allows a person to make calls all while have the convent amenities that a laptop would have. They also have the very popular iPod as well as Apple TV. They have expanded into an empire that everyone is trying to become as well as beat. As many people know there is history and hard work that has to take place in order for a business to be successful. Many people will refer to the success of apple as the underdog company that made despite the odds. Founder Steve Jobs was a regular person with a dream. He started of building an Apple computer in his parent’s living room and later moved to the garage true to lack of space. Later on in his building career a neighbor of Steve Jobs introduced him to Stephen Gary Wonzniak. Wonzniak was an engineer and Jobs was a market maven and together they have the skills to build and properly promote. The computer they were trying to promote was fairly expensive computer. Jobs was so dedicated to this idea of transforming this computer from what it was to something that is able to be sold to the public he reached out to Bill Hewlett and asked him to donate some parts for a class projects .
He will be there for you when you have problems with your family and spouse, because he wants employees to be focused when they are working and not thinking about family problems.
We think Steve Jobs was a successful leader because he was imaginative, passionate about his job, he had the ability to push employees to create new things, had confidence, and believed in collaboration. Under Steve Jobs' leadership Apple was an innovative company and under Tim Cook's leadership Apple is now being seen as more of charitable, socially and ethically responsible company. While [he’s heard the repeated refrains that “Apple can’t innovate under Tim,” that the company needed a low-cost iPhone to thwart the progress of Google’s Android, that Cook never could replicate the Jobs magic—and therefore that Apple never again would be “insanely great.” ] (Lashinsky, 2015), he hasn’t changed his methods since Jobs’ passing and continues to lead in a way that he believes will raise Apple’s value in the eyes of society.
One of the topics in organizational development today is leadership. Leadership is what individuals do to mobilize other people in organizations and communities. According to Kouzes & Posner, there are five practices and ten commitments of exemplary leadership. The five practices of exemplary leadership include: Model the way, inspire a shared vision, challenge the process, enable others to act, and encourage the heart. In the Leadership Challenge, Kouzes and Posner found similar patterns and actions of leadership that created the essentials to achieve success. Utilizing the research conducted by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, I have created a leadership plan that would apply to the Admission Department at Texas Wesleyan University.
There are different leadership theories developed throughout the history. Most popular ones are trait theories, behavioral theories, contingency theories, and leader-member exchange (LMX) theory. The author of the post will briefly discuss two theories, Fiedler contingency theory and Leader-Member Exchange (LMX), and compare and contrast their strengths and weakness.
Jobs was the type of autocratic leader. He was a decision maker and the decisions that he made were with minimal discussion or consultation. Besides that, he required his followers to follow his ideas and instructions (Celse, 2014). As business environment and information technology (IT) change at a fast pace, the quicker the decisions he made, the quicker the response towards those changes. This helped him to adapt to the changing business environment and hence led to the success of Apple Company. On the contrary, due to his authoritative, he preferred to work with those employees that could rival his ideas, visions and also intelligence (Celse, 2014). However, towards those employees who did not meet his expectation, he was harsh and rude. Sometimes, he even insulted them in front of other people (Celse, 2014). This had caused some of the employees afraid and fear of
The old system of management has undergone many changes within the last century. An employee once performed the assigned job duties during the allotted hours and then went home. Now employees are encouraged to grow, give input, and to contribute for the good of the organization. There is a plethora of information for leaders to learn why and how to grow personally thus allowing the organization to grow as well. This new emerging leader is a transformational leader.
Steve Jobs one of the founding fathers of Apple Inc used strategic planning to his advantage by making Apple’s mission a simple one- bringing easy to use computers to the general market, revolutionizing the computer market. In 2007, after thirty years, the organization changed its name from Apple Computer to Apple Inc., this was a significant move because the organization became more independent, and it was no longer known as a vendor to Macintosh personal computer line (Yoffie & Slind, 2008). This strategic move paid off; a year and half later, Apple Inc.’s third quarter net profit of $1.07 billion on a $7.46 billion in revenue (Yoffie & Slind, 2008). SWOT Analysis of Apple, Inc. Strengths (Competitive Advantage)