Characteristics of Business Leadership - Essay Example

Characteristic of Business Leadership In this paper, we describe the characteristics of business leadership revealed by the former Apple Computers CEO Steve Job. This person currently stands as an icon of business leadership due to the level of success he has achieved as a business leader. He has also inspired several other business leaders using his business leadership style. He was a critical thinker who was always thinking of what to invent next. His critical thinking is believed to inspire the worker he led thus leading to more and more invention. During his lifetime, he established several successfully running companies and lead several major innovation in the computer industry. This earned him a reputation as the greatest business leader giving him honor throughout the world. This Business leader’s primary line of business is electronics. The various companies he has established deals with creation of computers, computer platform, and computer soft ware (Lussier & Achua 2009). This shows that Steve Jobs had a passion for computers. He is also remembered for the major innovation in the computer industry that his first company Apple has innovated under his leadership. We do not trace another line of business that Steve Jobs lead, but that is not to conclude that his leadership style could not have been applied in another field. This is just because of his love for electronics that he had developed since his childhood. Steve Job and his friend Steve Wozniak started by setting up shops in 1976 where they assembling computers. They developed this shop to a company whose work was making computers and called this company Apple computers. On the same year when the company was established it created its first machine which Jobs called it apple I. This was just a beginning as a year later the company would invent its second garget, Apple II which would define the PC era and later, the Macintosh which would define a new direction for the computer industry (Lussier & Achua, 2009). Apple Computers is not the only business that Steve Jobs established. After establishing Apple Jobs went ahead to establish another company whose work was to create computer animated films. He called this company Pixar technologies. Under his leadership, this company also experienced tremendous growth in its area of operation thus making him more famous. He later established another company for developing computer platforms and called it NeXT when he was sacked from being the CEO of Apple and became the CEO. This company was specializing in higher education and business markets. Later Apple felt the need to use NeXT’s technology in its computers and decided to acquire it. This would see him back to Apple as the CEO and continuing to make impact using his business leadership. One of the major business challenges that Steve job encountered during establishment of his first company was lack of sufficient funds. According to Doeden (2012), a retired Intel Marketing manager funded their first company. This is evidence that Jobs and Wozniak experience a financial challenge when establishing their first company. Another thing that can show us that the issue of funds was a challenge during establishment of Apple computers is how it started. This company is believed to have started in the bedroom, then to the kitchen and later to father’s garage before putting up a shop that grew to the multi-billion Apple Computers company. Moreover, when they were starting they had no ability even to employ a single worker due to their financial constraints. According to Gillam (2008), Steve Jobs early career at Apple computers was littered with failed projects some of which had resulted to expensive losses. However, he made sure that he learned from those setbacks that hindered his development as a business leader and he always made sure not to repeat his mistakes. As a result, his later career at Apple was very successful making him the brain behind the Apple’s innovations. Another challenge he encountered as a business leader was being sacked as the CEO of Apple. However, he did not yield to this challenge but instead he decided to form NeXT which would later see him back at Apple Computers. The challenge also favored him as it made the board realize his importance since after sacking him the company went to almost a state of bankruptcy. It this case, Jobs revealed one of his aspects of always critically thinking a way forward after encountering a challenge. The leadership style of Steve Jobs is one in which the leader inspires others to innovate and create new products. This business leader used his own plead and charisma to motivate his employees to go the extra mile or work the extra hour to enhance the success of the company (Gillam, 2008). This actually is believed to be the reason why Apple Computers experienced many innovations under his leadership. This is also revealed when he motivates his friend Wozniak to making innovate things and he plays the role of selling them. In his leadership style, he also applies negotiation skill especially in marketing and presenting the products created by his company. According to Gillam (2012), Jobs ability to present without making notes made unique from other business leaders. His product management capability and his marketing and sale prowess have made him an outstanding business leader helping him to adapt to various cultural differences. Another thing that has always been helping him to adapt to cultural difference is his ability to interact with people of different cultures. His visit to India to find a Guru helped him to come back to America more inspired thus resulting to establishment of his first company (Brashares, 2001). This visit is believed to have taught him how to interact with people of different cultures. His position and experience has also helped him in some ways to know how he can adapt to cultural differences. Steve Jobs was the master sales representative for Apple computers focusing on demonstrating why Apple products are better than the others are. He was also a great product manager since he always ensured that he is familiar with all the aspects of the innovations in his company (Gillam, 2012). This helped him promote his products in the global markets thus earning himself a global reputation as the greatest business leader. This also increased his company’s global impact through increased sales globally. Moreover, he had an outstanding commitment to innovation and excellence. As a result, he always ensures that the products provided by his company are the best among those in the global market. He also makes sure that his products are unique and of first class. This has enabled his company to gain a competitive advantage in the global markets thus enabling it to operate effectively on those markets. Actually, most of his company’s products are unique and have no competitors even in the global markets. Steve Jobs was a charismatic leader always using his charisma to influence productivity of his employees and other stakeholders. According to Griffin & Moorhead (2011), charisma is a form of interpersonal attraction that inspires support and acceptance. Steve Jobs charisma made it easy for him to convince the owner of Hewlett-Packard to give him not only the materials he needed for his garget but also a summer job at a tender age of thirteen years (Brashares, 2001). He uses this aspect throughout his career as a business leader and this is what earns him success and makes him to create a global impact. This business leader motivates his employees by inspiring them to make new inventions. It is believed that he learns this from his teacher who decided to motivate him using bribery to make him do his study and thus improving his performance. His ability to motivate individual behavior can be reveal when he motivates his friend and co-founder of Apple computers Steve Wozniak to make new innovation in which he undertakes the process of selling them. The effectiveness of his method of motivating group can be reveal by how he motivates employee of each of the company’s he starts to make them innovative (Gillam, 2008). This business leader has influenced the world through his vision and business. Through his vision and enthusiasm different innovation have taken place in his companies that helped to make the world a better place for living. Moreover, his success in business has playing part in shaping the way of thinking of many entrepreneurs and those anticipating to be entrepreneurs. Through various literatures that have been written about his journey to becoming the icon behind Apple has motivated other people in improving how they run their business thus making them successful. References Brashares, A. (2001). Steve Jobs: Think Different. New York, NY: Twenty-first Century Books. Doeden, M. (2012). Steve Jobs: Technology Innovator and Apple Genius. Minneapolis, MI: Lerner Publications Company. Gillam, S. (2008). Steve Jobs: Apple &IPod Wizard. Edina, MI: ABDO Publishing Company. Gillam, S. (2012). Steve Jobs: Apple Icon. Edina, MI: ABDO Publishing Company. Griffin, R. W., & Moorhead, G. (2011). Organizational Behavior: Managing People and Organizations. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. Lussier, R. N., & Achua, C. F. (2009). Leadership: Theory, Application & Skill Development. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. Read More