Steve Jobs: Leadership Values - Dissertation Example

?Steve Jobs: Leadership Values Introduction: Steve Jobs was at the head of Apple for two different terms which spanned more than three decades. He started Apple at his home garage in 1976 and rose to prominence quite soon with the launch of Apple-1. However, the relationship with Apple did not last long as he was ousted from the company by his own board in 1985, and then came back only in 1996, a full 11 years later than when he was thrown out of the company. After saving up some money, Jobs took off for India in the search of enlightenment. Once he returned, he convinced Wozniak to quit his job at Hewlett to join him in his venture that concerned personal computers. They sold items like scientific calculators to raise the seed capital. In 1976, Jobs and Wozniak founded Apple Computer in the Jobs family garage. The first personal computer was sold for $666.66. By 1980, Apple had already released three improved versions of the personal computer. It had a wildly successful IPO, which made both founders millionaires many times over. “The career of Steve Jobs advanced from a struggling entrepreneur to leading a multi-billion dollar Corporation. He attended college for one term to honour the wishes of his parents, but left because the traditional education system was preventing him from discovering what he wanted to do. Throughout his life he made decisions that would allow him to focus full attention on what interested him. During the solo college year, he became infatuated with typography during a calligraphy class. This exposure led to Macintosh being the first computer to offer a plethora of typefaces and fonts—an innovation that was probably the vanguard of desktop publishing. Jobs dropped out of college because he trusted his gut feelings more than following the conventional wisdom of elders. Job’s contribution was about aesthetics, emotion, and the creation of pleasurable experiences—not growth, profit, features, or benefits.” Many people say that the firing from Apple was a blessing in disguise for Jobs. Jobs, at Apple, were known to be a very demanding CEO. He had a very different knack of working and was not friendly or polite to his people at Apple. When he started recruiting people, he often used to interview them questions which any other technological guru wouldn’t have asked them. He would go on about asking them about their habits, whether they have done LSD in college or not, whether they are virgins or not, and this transpired into the culmination of one of the most creative people on board which changed the face of computing as we know today. When he was working on Apple-2, Steve Jobs got the people motivated by telling them that they were working as pirates and the mission was to upstage the big giant which was IBM at that time. When the Apple-2 was launched, it was the best selling computer of its time, and surely Apple had entered into the main game of computing by challenging IBM. “This decade we witnessed the demise of a successful yet unconventional leader. The  death of Steve Jobs was mourned by millions all over the world and his achievement is  the envy of many corporate leaders. Notwithstanding that, it is often claimed that Steve  Jobs leadership style does not match theories of leadership from textbooks yet he  managed to command the best from his staff which transcended into indisputable  result” Yes, I agree with this statement. The following paper shall reveal as to why Steve Jobs, being an unconventional leader, as able to command such a high respect along with the managerial capacity to tune in and motivate hundreds of people into delivering the best in the world of technology. Understanding Leadership: Leadership may be defined as an influence on a bunch of people who have the same motivation and the desire to achieve things which are commonly shared between the followers and the leaders. Whereas the followers are motivated to push for the aims and goals of an organization, it is the leaders who devise strategies when it comes to the comprehensiveness of t he task at hand, along with guiding their followers and influencing them towards a positive result. A leader is an individual who manages the entire organization from top to bottom. He has the responsibility for the outcome of the work completed by his people as well as designing new products and launching ideas with a view to bring about a change in the professional working environment. There are basically four different perspectives of leadership which are important in identifying leaders in a space of individuals. These traits are as follows: 1. Trait Perspective 2. Behavioural Perspective 3. Contingency Perspective 4. Transformational Perspective Let us analyse the trait perspective in relation to Steve Jobs. “One perspective on leadership is that leaders are born, not made. Early studies looked at leadership as a collection of personality and character traits. The basic assumption is that the great woman/man makes a great leader. While very few seem now to be convinced that inherent personality traits are the sole determinants of leadership capability and success, research has been able to identify several constellations of personal variables that seem to distinguish between successful and unsuccessful leaders. “ Steve Jobs was a born leader, and not one who was made by circumstances. He started Apple in his own garage, and from day one was involved in the entire exercise of producing computers. He got one of the best engineers with him in Steve Wozniak, and their partnership was fruitful in launching Apple Computers in the summer of 1976. Right from the beginning, he was a smart person and was able to chart out his needs and goals with respect to his ideas. It did not take long for him to drop out of his college, since he knew that he had to establish something out of his own skin to seek fulfilment. Behavioural Perspective: The behavioural perspective of leadership is concerned with understanding the attention to the task of the leader as well as understanding the people who work for the completion of the task. Steve Jobs had an uncanny eye for detail in the products he launched in his career. He was so concerned with the look and feel of the product that he was willing to stretch the design of the product to a high degree. Jobs was adamant that the product should look beautiful, should be easy to work with and should entice confidence for the user unlike the ghost shaped IBMs. This is what made his into a revolutionary innovator who always gave first priority to the design of his product along with associating the best technology in the most beautiful craftsmanship product. However, Jobs was not really successful in managing people at Apple. One of the reasons behind his departure was the failure to work with the then CEO of Apple and rejecting the offers made by the board to sideline him on the Macintosh product. Still, it is subjective to conclude that Jobs couldn’t work with people, as there were many who left Apple with him and joined hi at NEXT computers. Also, when he came back, he dramatically changed the ethics of Apple, and the people were left spell bounded by his leadership and under only his leadership were they able to deliver the best products the market had ever seen along with startling innovative gadgets with the most beautiful design and sophisticated user friendly software to go along the best technology available at that time. Contingency Perspective evaluates the personality of the leader according to the situation at hand. In this context, Steve Jobs violated the basic norms of contingency perspective by dressing up as he wished and talking in the sense he found normal. Steve Jobs never confirmed to social norms in his life. Even when he had started Apple he was a man who used to dress up in shorts and t shirts and attend board meeting. He was very energetic and all of a sudden if some idea struck him he would jump off his chair and start talking on the black board talking to the people while pausing the person already discussing the matters of the company. “A basic premise of a contingency approach is that behaviour is a function of both the person and the situation. That is, people behave the way they do (e.g., dress and act a certain way) because of both their personality and the situation. I might wear a suit to a business meeting because the situation calls for it, but I wear a certain tie or spend twice as much money on the suit compared to another, because of my personality.” Similarly, a contingency perspective on leadership suggests that the most appropriate leadership behaviour will depend on both the individuals involved and the situation.” Transformational perspective of leadership: “Transformational leaders are more charismatic and inspiring in the eyes of their followers. They inspire commitment, instil a vision and excite people. They are well trusted and their followers feel confidence in them. Transformational leaders give individual consideration. They pay attention to individual differences in subordinates' needs for growth and development. They coach, mentor and assign tasks that not only satisfy immediate needs, but stretch people's capabilities in an effort toward improvement. They also link the individual's current needs to the organisation's mission. Transformational leaders provide intellectual stimulation. They raise peoples' awareness of issues and problems. They help people become aware of their own thoughts, imagination, beliefs and values. It is through intellectual stimulation that transformational leaders facilitate the generation of new methods of accomplishing the organisational mission.” Steve Jobs was a great transformational leader. He ticks all the boxes of being one of the most influential leader of our time by producing products which beyond the mainstream applicability of the same. He devised ideas and engulfed an array of creativity around the product to make it ever so attractive and innovative to the people who used it. Steve Jobs did not just made Apple, computers, IPods, phones or tablet pcs. He created a whole new path of devices which made life more meaningful, easy and sophisticated for the ordinary men and women. Steve Jobs developed ideas; he designed and created ideas and not only electronic devices. Through the production of such devices Jobs innovated an entirely new room of products which have now become essential in the daily lives of men and women worldwide. Coaching and Counselling: “One important role is that of information gatekeeper. Leaders can provide knowledge and information regarding job responsibilities, goal expectations and plans. Another key role is to provide direction to help people to set goals and to plan.” Steve Jobs was an avid coach during his second tenure at Apple. He builds up a formidable team of designers and engineers who now lead the company after his departure. Johny Ive, the design genius at Apple is the man behind the success of all the 21st century Apple designs and has been knighted for the same. He is the man along with Steve Jobs who designed such stunning products which was the centre of attraction for people worldwide. Then steps in Tim Cook; the current CEO of Apple, and the man who lead the company in the absence of Jobs while he was away nursing his cancer. Cook was the operational chief at Apple and was single handedly responsible for creating the gigantic network of Apple Retail Stores along with streamlining the entire supply demand chain to bring a quicker reaction to the people’s demand for Apple products. Scot Forstrall is the young software guru at Apple who is leading the software for the mobile phones. He is credited for the development of ios and making it the number one mobile phone software in the world. Organizational Learning in Apple: “Where Argyris and Schon were the first to propose models that facilitate organizational learning, the following literatures have followed in the tradition of their work: Argyris and Schon (1978) distinguish between single-loop and double-loop learning, related to Gregory Bateson's concepts of first and second order learning. In single-loop learning, individuals, groups, or organizations modify their actions according to the difference between expected and obtained outcomes. In double-loop learning, the entities (individuals, groups or organization) question the values, assumptions and policies that led to the actions in the first place; if they are able to view and modify those, then second-order or double-loop learning has taken place. Double loop learning is the learning about single-loop learning.” Apple, by the time Steve Jobs had left, over the period of next three years, was a company in deep turmoil. The share prices had plunged, there was no innovation going on in the company, and the people were leaving to other places due to a lack of motivation. Apple was not doing well in any way. Once Steve Jobs came, he changed the face of the company. The company learned from its mistakes and went through an overhauling period which saw the removal of the existing board, the arrival of new engineers, and the instilment of dedicated focus among the workers which was only seen in the first era of Steve Jobs. “Steve launched himself into Apple's turnaround with extraordinary energy. A deal was done with Microsoft to end all hostilities, guaranteeing MS Office for Mac for five years and securing a symbolic $150 million share deal. Jobs famously remarked that the PC wars were over and that Microsoft had won. This deftly stopped the constant market-share comparisons and allowed Apple room to get quietly profitable. A new advertising company was engaged and a series of cool black and white photos of iconic people with the slogan "Think Different" were produced to play on the notion of Apple as the maverick underdog capable of changing the world. Jobs interviewed every product team and asked them to justify themselves. Gil Amelio had got the number of Apple projects from 350 down to 50 - Jobs got it down to 10. Life at Apple quickly changed - smoking was banned and a fantastic new cafeteria created. A policy of absolute secrecy concerning product development was introduced and strictly enforced. Porting the NeXTSTEP operating system to the Mac platform began and a product strategy consisting of only four segments was devised: Pro Desktop, Pro Portable, Consumer Desktop, and Consumer Portable.” Steve Jobs got Apple focussed on certain niche products, and started innovating again which was missing from the core aspects of Apple. The company bailed itself out and was again competing with Microsoft for computer dominancy. Apple underwent through a great sea of change and was now ushering into the 21st century as the next force to be reckon with under the able shoulders of Steve Jobs. Comparative Analysis with Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates: Steve Jobs was indeed a very different sort of a person who was not akin to the usual charms of management and leadership in corporate America. Some say that he was sort of an outsider, which is true to the fact that Jobs, unlike his modern counterparts, went to India on a spiritual pilgrimage and used to do LSD regularly in his teens. This is what he had to say about the creativity aspect of Bill Gates: “Bill Gates‘d is a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.” Steve Jobs believed in the power of Acid and ashram as much as any other hippie of the sixty’s would have thought. He was, in this sense, a man possessed with insane amount of creativity, and he used this creativity to harness the technological revolution which was going on in the Silicon Valley throughout his lifetime. Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg have a lot in common. They are both autocratic leaders who crave for perfection when designing and selling their products. Both dropped out of college and started their own ventures. “Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg are prime examples of unconventional leaders. They do (did) not look like typical business leaders and their leadership style is anything but conventional. In fact, their backgrounds are both contrary to what most people would expect of such successful corporate leaders. They both dropped out of college and have no formal management training. Unconventional leadership is essential in creating an unconventional (progressive) firm that has long lasting competitive advantage. These are the types of firms you read about in the popular press (Zappos, Virgin Group, Southwest Airlines, Cirque du Soleil, etc.). Through their companies, unconventional leaders often lead other firms in terms of technology, customer service, business models, etc. They create organizations that redefine their industries and sometimes the way people live. Unconventional companies beat the competition on a regular basis.” Mark Zuckerberg symbolised the new aged American corporate who was not shy of taking risks at any point of time. Steve Jobs was truly an enigmatic leader, and at the same time he influenced the entrepreneurs of our times. Steve Jobs was unique when compared to Mark Zuckerberg, even though both of them qualify the criteria for being unconventional leaders. Unconventional leaders inspire creativity. They are not bounded by the norms of the society and do not fit the bill of sophisticated, solid, uniform businessmen who go about their business with a set pattern of methodology. Let us look at some examples which make Jobs unique in comparison to the contemporaries such as Mark Zuckerberg. In the days of market research performed by the likes of Zuckerberg and others, Jobs had a completely different take on it: “You can't just ask customers what they want then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new.” Jobs relied heavily on instincts. He was a man possessed with a powerful inner voice which was able to take him to unchartered territories, and from there he had the trust in his instincts which enabled him to design exactly what he thought, and when it was sold to public, the product became a craze. No other CEO has had so much influence within his own instincts. Another factor of Jobs which distinguishes him from his peers is his reality distortion field. “Steve Jobs knew how to work a crowd. He could build excitement around technologies which, sometimes, were neither new nor world changing.” Steve Jobs was an ordinary human being, but his extraordinariness lied in explaining the ordinary with extraordinary fantasy. He did this when he was at Apple, and people would be flummoxed for some time with the imagination Jobs would leave them at. He was able to turn people on their feet with the magnificence of his thought process, and in this way he builds upon the conviction of people to make the impossible happen. When it came to the thinness of Apple products, Jobs always believed that something could go even better and thinner, when at the same time engineers refuted his idea. He would on harping about it, time to time, until the engineers listened to him and made it better. And in the end, even they were surprised that certain were able to get better than what they thought about it. Mark Zuckerberg does not have this trait in him as a CEO. Comparison with Bill Gates: “Where Bill Gates, his great rival, represented the All-American nerd, Jobs was a college drop-out who went to India to find himself, returning as a shaven-headed Buddhist and vegetarian. As Robert Cringely wrote in Accidental Empires, a history of Silicon Valley: “Gates sees the personal computer as a tool for transferring every stray dollar, pound, peso, franc and kopeck into his back pocket. Steve Jobs looks on it as a way of changing the world.” Jobs was a control freak of his days, much different from Bill Gates. Whereas Gates focussed on selling software, Jobs perceived Computers in a totally different way. Gates believed that the best way of making computers was to license the operating system to many distributers of hardware; it was up to the hardware manufacturers to incline the software and then sell it to the people. Jobs was completely against this idea, and he related this to abandoning your children. Steve Jobs’first computer was a different concept to Gates ‘software. Gates made software and licensed it to other manufacturers. Steve Jobs completely designed his own product line, from the software to the hardware, everything, the entire experience was controlled by one man and one company rather than giving it to many hands and then dissolving the whole experience. Jobs believed that the comprehensive experience came only with creating a wholesome product which was designed from end to end and did not have any anomalies whatsoever. This philosophy of design which catered the business of Jobs was opposite to the open licensing philosophy of Gates. Jobs focussed on purity rather than giving a fractured experience as demonstrated by Gates. The look and feel of the computer mattered a lot to Jobs. He was as concerned with the look and feel of his product as Gates was about the technology used in the machines. Jobs believed that having a seamless and pure experience was fundamental to creating great products, with the obvious inclusion of state of the art technology packed in the most user friendly way as possible. Gates on the other hand did not go into such deep thinking about technological gadgets, and he was limited to making software which was efficient enough for people to work on and carry with them on a day to basis without worrying enough about the look and feel of the software along with no concern with the hardware. Jobs would pack all the technology and tools into a compact product and give it to the people to use in the simplest way possible this was the core of Jobs ‘product philosophy, which was not supported by Gates. This is where Jobs is unique in comparison to Gates, as he thought much more about the user experience and making attempts to simplify it and at the same time maintaining the technology. Gates was not really bothered by the user experience as much as Jobs, and could not think deep on this aspect. “Gates is the cutthroat capitalist. A genius maybe, but one more interested in maximizing profits than perfecting technology. He's the ultimate vengeful nerd. Ostracized at school, he gets the last laugh by bleeding us all dry. On the other hand, Jobs has never seemed much concerned with business, though he's been very successful at it of late. Instead, Jobs has been portrayed as a man of art and culture. He's an aesthete, an artist; driven to make a dent in the universe.” Jobs was a product of the counter culture of the sixties in California. Jobs has spoken about the meeting of liberal arts and technology as the centre focus point of Apple’s ideology. Jobs considered Bill Gates to be a man without any tastes and preferences. That is why he singled out PC’s as boring and clumsy to use without any taste whatsoever. Steve Jobs is unique in every. He is a man of aesthetics, of style and taste, and that reflected in his products and the software which is the smoothest, seamless and user friendly software with the most advanced technology in use. Conclusion: Steve Jobs has left behind a great legacy for Apple and the people of the world to follow. He is not a man who is textbook material when it comes to MBA’s emulating CEOs to become like them one day. But with his unconventional style, he is a man who was rest and shoulders above the competition. Steve Jobs clearly defined leadership in a very different manner. He was a man possessed with ideas. Without ever having the need to dwell too much into anything, he had the eye for details which made him stand out with the rest of the world as the most charismatic and enigmatic leader of his time. In every non-textbook manner Steve Jobs was a unique leader who did things according to his own set of values. And he had a vision. He was a man who had the larger mission to make life easier for people by selling the most advanced technology in the most tightly and user friendly package. Along with this, he also emphasised on beauty and aesthetics and he was a man of taste who believed in making cool and beautiful products. He was a hippy and a product of the counter culture of the sixties, and clearly stemming from such departure of ideas Jobs inculcated in himself an attitude which demonstrated a vision along with the thirst to changed the dynamics of the world in the most beautiful and spectacular fashion available. He was a great showman, indeed, with his product launches for which people used to line up and be crazy about. People worshipped him at the far end of his life, and this was shown by the craze of people whenever his products were launched in the Apple stores. To conclude, Jobs was a man of ideas. He followed his passion, and he believed that every man and woman should follow his passion the way it is and should not be hindered by the negativities of the world along with inhibitions; a man should always look forward and do what he loves, and should love what he does. In this way, he will truly attain nirvana, as said in Jobs’ words by the man himself. 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