Steve Jobs Biography - Essay Example

?Steve Jobs Biography Steve Jobs was the man who can be defined by number of characteristics attributes. an entrepreneur, the innovator, a visionary man. It can rightly be said that he was the one who brought about revolution in the modern computing world. He stood for innovation and creativity and always believed in making something unique that could benefit others. He one of the occasions stated: “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world” (Mesiti, pg 112). Millions are born every day and millions pass away every day, however only those are remembered in the books of history who contribute and make some impact on the history. Steve Jobs was one of those people who made an impact on the entire world and is being remembered even after he has left this world. Early years: Steve Jobs was born in February 1955 in San Francisco, California. His childhood wasn’t the smoothest of all and was adopted and also had difficulties in school times. Even in college days he could not complete the degree and dropped out shortly. Steve was adopted in his early age and he came to know about this fact later in his life many years down the lane (Gillam, pg 15). Steve jobs stayed in touch with physics and literature during his earlier years of education, yet he was struggling to find a path and direction. Jobs rather found interest in the electronics which he practiced with at his garage in childhood. However, things took a turn for the good when he first joined Atari and then Hewlett Packard where he came across a man named Steve Wonzniak who would become his partner in innovation and success journey in years to come. Steve Wonzniak was an engineer by profession. Early success: In contrast to the conventional subjects of education, Steve Jobs found his interest in the subject of creativity and it was more suited towards his natural abilities. By 1974 he had attached himself to the gaming console Atari and worked as a game designer. Steve Jobs got the chance to express his ideas to the right kind of person who could foresee innovations in his idea. Together they both worked on Blue Box device. It was a stepping stone towards many more innovations to come. Together they started thinking of an idea of establishing a desktop computer, and hence this set foundation for Apple Inc (Gillam, pg 36). This feat was achieved in 1976. With no investment at hand and no majors support, they had to carry out their work in the local garage , it is believed that both sacrificed their valuables for this cause and Jobs sold out his V.W mini bus while his comrade had to sacrifice his dear electronic calculator in order to make the project a reality . They can easily be termed as the pioneers for introducing a relatively small sized computers since earlier computers were largely mainframes and had no major computational strengths and ability at that time .A few hundred dollars venture that had started from the garage started earning them millions of in no time and by 1980 Apple Inc was a billion dollar company in reserves, all to the duo who through their innovation introduced new dimensions. They introduced two different models Apple 1 and after seeing its success they introduced Apple II, with considerable improvements. By this time Apple Inc and its computers had made to the market and it was the buzzword everywhere. Rough times at Apple Inc: The beginning of 1980s saw some rough times for Apple and it faced challenges from its competitors technically who ultimately surpassed the incumbent company. Apple had a threat in form of IBM’s introduced computer. This was the time when first Graphic User Interface ( G.U.I) based computers were first introduced in the market .Not everything was smooth and there were bumps in his journey at Apple, after a few great years at the company, things got sour and the downfall of Apple Inc was blamed on Steve Jobs which resulted in his resignation in 1985.The company suffered from the loss of the visionary man and staleness was observed in Apple Inc during his absence and no major innovative products were seen to be introduced in this period. However nothing could keep him from his ideas and creativity and he started his own company named Next Inc. Jobs also remained affiliated with Pixar Animation Company and made investments in the company which in current day is one of the top Animation studios amongst its competitors. Things took turn again and in mid 90s Apple showed its interest in acquiring Pixar which lead to return of Steve Jobs in the parent company. This time he returned as the CEO of the Apple Inc. Apple and Steve Jobs never looked back from this point on, and from then it has been a journey of complete success, market wipeout, innovation and intelligence. He gave the company a total new life and set it on a new journey that made it the market leader. He brought about reforms in the company, revived decision making policies, the products manufacturing trends, shuffled the management teams and paved the way for a guaranteed success journey (Geisst, pg 230). He started off the transparency process from himself when he announced that he would charge 1 dollar annual in salary. The marketing strategy devised was purely based on competitive advantage and true innovation. It focused on breaking the trend and introducing an approach which focuses on the customer needs by providing them such an atmosphere where they have plenty of options available to them. The idea focused on establishing a family like relation with customers where the products were created based on customers demand and requirement along with uniqueness. This was the time when Apple Inc started touching the heights and introduced various products which made the company as the most favorite brand amongst the customers. The entire package included products like IMac, I Tunes, IPod, I pad and Apple mobile Phone with its own integrated operating system. Not just the products but a strong management team and strategy making unit was put in place.G4 Cube was also part of the innovative drive however it couldn’t win the hearts of the followers as was expected. This shortfall was compensated by the introduction of mobile phone technology which has become one of the most dominated forces in modern day mobile phone industries. Apple Inc has outsmarted its competitors in many ways, it has achieved this feat through creativity, sophistication, uniqueness and customer demand driven products manufacturing. It is rated high in the laptop categories compared to its competitors like Sony and Hewlett Packard, all this is the attribute of innovation and class (Herman,pg 47). Personal Health: In 2003 Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer .Jobs being a strong man he was, decided to fight it with his determination and mental strength, however he had to go for treatment and surgery, the surgery went successful in 2004 amidst the fears of stakeholders backing out and resulting in subsequent damages to the company. He fought a tough battle against his physical health yet he had to give in on the challenge in 2011. The world had lost an innovator. Little is known officially about Steve Jobs life .He always preferred keeping a low profile in terms of his family information (Imbimbo, pg 96). Bibliography: Mesiti, Pat. The $1 Million Reason to Change Your Mind. John Wiley and Sons, page 112,2011. Gillam, Scott. Steve Jobs: Apple & iPod wizard. ABDO,pg 15, 2008. Geisst, Charles R. Encyclopedia of American business history. Infobase Publishing,page 230 , 2006. Herman, Dan. Outsmart the MBA clones: the alternative guide to competitive strategy, marketing, and branding. Paramount Market Publishing,page 47, 2008. Imbimbo, Anthony. Steve Jobs: The Brilliant Mind Behind Apple. Gareth Stevens,page96, 2009. Read More