Steve Jobs Entrepreneurial Skills - Case Study Example

Steve Jobs Isaacson, Steve Jobs Steve Jobs is an American entrepreneur who was born in California on February 24,1955 to students Joanne Simpson and Jandali Abdulfattah resulting in him being given up for adoption by Paul and Clara Jobs. Steve Jobs grew up in California attending Reed College but dropped out after six months since the fee was too much for his parents1. He did not completely drop out of college but attended classes that were interesting to him including a calligraphy class that he would later be grateful for in the development of Macintosh and refer to it in his inaugural speech at Stanford University. After working for Atari as a video games designer from 1974, he travelled to India for inspiration and returned a Zen Buddhist to California, where he was introduced to Steve Wozniak by a friend2. Steve Jobs was offered a job for the design of a circuit board with reduced chips, and he partnered with Wozniak, paying him $350 out of the $10,000 paid by Atari. After the design and sale of blue boxes with Wozniak, Jobs and Wozniak formed their own company naming it Apple that forms the main basis for this paper. Then he was 21 and it is at Apple that he pioneered technological advancement in computers, music, movies, phones, management, leadership, and will be remembered as an icon in his own right. Steve Jobs personality is one of the main factors that propelled him to achieve his iconic status in the technology industry. His personality entailed an unbelievable imagination in terms of the vision that Steve Jobs had of Apple’s products changing the manner of communication, work, and lives of the people3. He imagined products that would change the world for the better and his perfectionist nature made this possible. Steve Jobs was in a position to design and develop products that were innovative and interactive to make people love them, and he insisted on a perfect design that allowed him to develop a strong brand. Passion is the other personality trait for Jobs with numerous instances where he risked everything including his fortune and stakeholders investment in an effort to provide the best products for the consumers. Jobs was also fearless in the performance of his duties and the development of new products that never existed risking all he had and pushing employees always to be better. His fear and passion for technology allowed the development of technological advances in different facets of life including music through the Ipod and Itunes, computers through Macintosh, animation and movies through Pixar, among others. Steve Jobs was a natural leader having charisma and confidence that ensured he brought employees together to achieve a common goal at Apple. Jobs’ rationality, sharp mind, and determination to achieve, propelled him to greater heights despite mishaps including being thrown out of his own firm. In effect, Jobs succeeded because of his determination, passion, innovativeness and design efficiency, and unbelievable imagination. Apple provided Steve Jobs and Wozniak a platform to revolutionize the computer industry by democratizing technology through design and development of smaller machines, intuitive, cheaper, and interactive machines. Apple computers were a success with Jobs as marketing manager in the through Apple I and Apple II resulting in Apple becoming a publicly traded company in 1980. An increase in sales by 700% after the release of Apple II depicts the success enjoyed by Apple and having a value of $1.2 billion on its first public trading day4. Apple’s president role was filed by John Sculley, a Pepsi-Cola marketing expert, after Steve Jobs convincing him of a chance to change the world, but would be the person behind the exit of Steve Jobs from Apple. Design flaws, product recalls. And a failure to meet high consumer expectations from the launch of Lisa, resulted in a deteriorated relationship between Jobs and Sculley. The effect was a power struggle that resulted in an April 10& 11 1985 board meeting authorizing Sculley to strip Jobs of all his roles at Apple except chairman. Jobs believed Sculley was not the best leader for Apple and was organizing a boardroom coup, while Sculley was in China, when Sculley called for a board meeting for May 24, 1985 that ended with the decision of Jobs being relieved of managerial duty as head of Macintosh division. He resigned as Apple chairman five months later. Essentially, Jobs had been fired by the company he co-founded marking the beginning of what he referred to as the most creative and productive periods of his life5. After resigning as Apple chairman in 1985, Jobs started a hardware and software company, NeXT Inc. and purchased an animation company from George Lucas that became Pixar animation studios. With a personal investment of $50 million, Pixar animation studios produced popular animations including Luxor Junior, Finding Nemo, Toy Story, Cars, and The Incredibles6. The merger of Pixar Animation Studios with Walt Disney made Steve Job’s largest Disney shareholder in 2006. Meanwhile, Apple CEO, Sculley, was forcefully removed from office in 1993 for diminishing sales, eroded margins, and declining stocks. NeXT, however, was not as successful as Pixar in selling operating systems though its technology was incorporated in Apple after the return of Jobs. Apple bought NeXT in 1996 for $429 million giving Jobs a return to Apple in 1997 as an informal adviser to the CEO. The CEO was Gil Amelio but after announcing 1997 first quarter loss of $708 million, through a board coup organized by Jobs, he was replaced, and Jobs named interim CEO in July 1997. Through a think different campaign and a boost of confidence in the company, Jobs brought profitability to Apple six months after his return7. Steve Jobs represented an entrepreneur in a number of ways as evidenced by the entrepreneurial skills and critical moments that marked his life and the achievements he made at Apple, NeXT, and Pixar. One of the main entrepreneurial traits of Jobs is his self-confidence and optimism resulting in his successes in the design and development of Mac and iPod8. He was optimistic about the success of Pixar resulting in Pixar being one of the most important movie studios globally with great animations like Finding Nemo, Toy Story, Cars, and many more. It is Jobs confidence, vision, and belief in himself that made all these possible. Jobs’ second entrepreneurial skill is an ability to take calculated risks when instead of following the standardization of computers and augmented familiarity to Windows Operating System, he saw an innovation opportunity9. Through adding features and making better designs, Jobs was in a position to attract the attention of consumers and access more market for Apple resulting in Apple leading in the OS market in PC, Tab, and Mobile markets10. Jobs positive response to challenges is an entrepreneurial skill that allowed him to take over a loss-making Apple in July 1997 and making an agreement with Microsoft for a nonvoting stake in the company that ensured Apple succeeded again. Introducing iMac and installation of G3 PowerPC on Apple computers on guidance of Jobs allowed Apple to be profitable six months later. Flexibility and ability to adapt is depicted in Jobs critical moment when he is fired from the company he cofounded ten years ago11. After his firing from Apple in 1985, he moved from failure to start NeXT that formed a platform for the development of Macintosh operating systems after NeXT was bought by Apple 11 years later. Jobs never gave up for the basic reason that he had been fired but started a fresh to achieve more profitability, success, and technological innovations that have changed the world for the better. During the same period, he bought the graphics division of Lucas film, named it Pixar Animation Studios and made it the best animation studio globally. Response to criticism is the other entrepreneurial skill evidenced by Jobs in the manner in which he responded to criticism of Apple’s poor recycling programs in 2005. Jobs introduced a program to take back iPods for free in all retail stores and also stated a computer take-back campaign. The recycling program was also expanded to all new Mac purchasers depicting the need to respond positively to criticism for a success entrepreneurial career. Jobs also evidenced the need for entrepreneurs to take initiative at the start of his career after he came back from India convincing Wozniak of the need to start a business together that resulted in the development of Apple 1. The initiative started in his parent’s garage but grew to become the largest player in the telecommunication industry and make him the number one entrepreneur of this era according to Forbes. Jobs also had strong leadership skills that allowed him to amass people at Apple to the achievement of a common goal that propelled the development and success of Apple to the great technological and profitability heights it has reached. Jobs was in a position to ensure the team was motivated and worked effectively despite the high pressure and excellence he required of them at all times. The critical moments for Jobs include starting Apple in his parent’s garage, his ouster from Apple resulting in his most creative period of his life, his return to Apple and the pressure to prove himself again at the helm, the need to build a better brand than Microsoft PCs, and ensuring Apple was innovative and creative to his last day as CEO in 2011. Managerial hierarchy involves the division of decision-making authority and responsibilities among the managerial positions present in a business. Apple grew up into a managerial hierarchy in a number of ways including the presence of asset of managers tasked with decision making at different levels. The head of Apple is the CEO currently held by Tim Cook after the departure and subsequent death of Steve Jobs in 2011. The managerial hierarchy at Apple is also depicted by the presence of board of directors consisting of Tim Cook (CEO), Arthur Levinson (Chairman), Millard Drexler, Albert Gore Jr., Robert Iger, Andrea Jung, Ronald Sugar, and Susan Wagner. The strength of the directors is represented in the decision to oust Jobs from Apple despite him being the co-founder of the company showing the managerial hierarchy at Apple. The next managerial line up consists of senior vice presidents heading different divisions including Angela Ahrendts (Retail and Online stores), Eddy Cue (Internet Software and services), Craig Federighi (Software Engineering), Jonathan Ive (Design), Luca Maestri (Chief Financial Officer), Dan Riccio (Hardware Engineering), Philip Schiller (Worldwide Marketing), Bruce Ewell (General Counsel), and Jeff Williams (Operations)12. The senior vice presidents head their divisions and are responsible for effective running of these divisions and report directly to the CEO depicting one way of the growth of managerial hierarchy at Apple. The growth of managerial hierarchy at Apple is also represented by the presence of vice presidents tasked with responsibilities on various fronts at Apple. The vice presidents at Apple are held by Paul Deneve (Special Projects), Lisa Jackson (Environmental Initiatives), Joel Podolny (Dean, Apple University), Johny Srouji (Hardware Technologies), and Denise Young Smith (World Wide Human Resources13. Under the vice presidents are reporting managers responsible for consumer and Pro applications, iPhone and iPod marketing, communication in different regions, corporate communication, Apple care, Apple Online Store, Global Outsourcing, and control aiding in running Apple depicting the managerial hierarchy at Apple. Bibliography Apple. (2015). 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