Jobs Philosophies, Styles and Achievement - Essay Example

?Introduction Apple Incorporated is a renowned company. There was one man behind all of this success, and the organization must owe it to Steve Job. Concerning this success, it is important to critically consider Job’s philosophies, styles and achievements in his life, as a manager and legendary leader. In this paper, the proponent tries to discuss Job’s philosophies, styles and achievement. Part of the discussion includes understanding his ability to mange with change and cope with complexities. Essential management ideas and concepts are also integrated in order to emphasize in detail the actual philosophies, styles and achievement of Job as both manager and a modern leader in the business world. Job’s philosophies, styles and achievement Perhaps one of the remarkable well-known managers in today’s modern time was the late Steve Job from Apple Incorporated. We know him as a person who did not consider making money as the most important factor in his success, but the actual process of creation (Biddle, 2011). As a person who believed the potential power of innovation, Job eventually achieved competitive advantage as he tried to produce highly differentiated product offerings. He became one of the market leaders in his industry as he developed product offerings that are something new and successfully created need for them. Job therefore was a process-oriented man, accepting ideas that he truly understood that became the reason of his potential success in his field of expertise (Biddle, 2011). He therefore just went for innovation without understanding the associated process in it. In fact, the reason why most of his created products obtained remarkable market share and customer acceptance was due to his ability to know a lot about the creation of his product offerings and understanding customers’ behaviors towards innovation. The result was remarkable, Apple gained potential market share in its industry considering the fact that its highly differentiated product offerings may be set at a premium price compared to other related and alternative product offerings in the industry. The actual process of creation is therefore at the mind set of Job, giving him substantial ideas how to master the art of creating something new as he was becoming adept with the actual process involved in his product differentiation strategy. Including in this process of creation was Job’s ability to provide strong leadership. Job was a remarkable leader in his time, as he successfully imparted the vision to his followers. According to Biddle (2011), organizational and cultural change leads to successful management. Kotter (1998) remarkably points out that leadership is about coping with change, and this includes setting direction, aligning and motivating people. In other words, combining these two ideas leads us to identify leadership, as integrated in the management process requires the achievement of actual change. Almost in all areas Apple needs to embrace change and this is one remarkable point why Job needs to specify and allows the whole process of creation be fully grasped by his team. After understanding the whole process of creation, it would be now easy to embrace any remarkable change after the human resource has fully mastered the actual process of creation involved. For this reason, Job was successfully able to promote organizational culture that would not be susceptible to react with various changes. In doing so, Job was able to run the vision and acquire elemental results leading to the popularity of Apple in its industry. It is part of Job’s achievement to set a remarkable culture for his organization. This culture has a potential impact on its future growth (Schein, 2010, p.336). Today, we see Apple as one of the giants in its industry because of what Job initiated from the start, cultivating its culture for easy adaptation of some future changes. Contrary to what other might believe, as he embraced process of creation and objective understanding of things, Steve Job was not an Objectivist. An objectivist believes our knowledge from perception, which must be objective in its sense, must be formed through process of concept perception and inductive logic (Kiichiro & Ikeda, 2012, p.120). In his commencement address to Standford graduates, Job reveals the other beliefs or philosophies he embraced in his life and that might be the potential reason why he might be successful with the things he might have acquired throughout in his life time. Job said through his speech: "...You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life...And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary” (Biddle, 2011; Standford News, 2005). This only shows that Job was a man who believed in many things. This was his personal style and motivation. Although he was perhaps one of the most logical men who ever lived on earth, there was still something in him that identifies his individuality and that is the kind of belief he had with him. Although Job might not be the only man who has this kind of belief, what made him excelled among any other was his ability to manage with change, as he defined it in the organization’s core values and culture. Job was remarkable with his idea of deviating from the traditional corporate culture. One simple manifestation of this was the company’s initiative to give freedom to the human resource to wear their own corporate attire, a remarkable representation of freedom of expression, which is a significant component of Apple’s success in coming up with new innovative products from time to time. In this corporate culture, Job was able to instill at the heart of corporate culture the important function of creative process. How did Job manage with change and complexities? One remarkable achievements of Job as already stated and implied from the previous discussion was his ability to initiate successful leadership, which is about managing with change. However, this alone could not guarantee future company’s success as management in general also should cope with complexities (Kotter, 1998). Recognize and manage complexity and provide strong leadership are what included in Biddle’s strong stands especially in dealing with successful management. Let us therefore find out if Job was able to successfully use these two essential activities. Coping with change is a remarkable trademark of Apple as on the regular basis it tries to promote innovation, so there is one particular point of embracing significant changes just to ensure successful operation and handling of the human resource. For example, Job was able to impart his entire vision for Apple to his subordinates. This depicts the point in which it only shows Job was able to successfully set a culture for Apple that is willing to accept change if it is necessary to do so. It seems the leadership skill of Job sounds to be enough to address or manage Apple at its best. However, considering the point that management contains four essential functions, planning, organizing, leading and controlling, a good leadership alone therefore cannot guarantee organization’s success. For this reason, there is a need to consider addressing complexities, which would include planning and budgeting, organizing and staffing, and controlling and problem solving (Kotter, 1998). Let us therefore find out how Job was able to address these. Finding talented people was one of Job’s primary concerns in order for him to manage complexities, as this would allow objectives to be shared across the entire organization (Elliot, 2012). For Job’s vision to be achieved, it is important each objective must be realized. The realization of each objective relies on the kind of manpower Job will use for the organization. In 2008, Apple became one of the world’s admired companies because of Job’s excellent decision-making skills (Daft & Marci, 2010, p.184). Conclusion Job’s ability to make Apple a popular company in the world today can be attributed to his capacity to both address change and complexity. This capacity was perhaps due to various beliefs and philosophies he believed in, leading further to his essential styles and accomplishment that surely will be recognized in the business world. Apple is a company that requires a manager who must have essential skills in leadership and management. Job eventually qualified for this position. So, this further justifies that in an organization just like Apple, there is a need to introduce combined equal weight of leadership and management. Summary In this essay, the proponent tries to emphasize Job’s remarkable achievements, philosophies and styles. His capacity to manage with change and complexity is determined, making him one of the renowned businessmen in his time. In this paper, it is also argued that leadership alone could not potentially guarantee organization’s success especially in Apple’s case where change is inevitable, but management is necessary as well in order to cope with complexity. Job combined these two essential efforts, creating a positive output in his leadership function and management role at Apple Incorporated, a living legacy that forever will be part of modern business ideas. References Biddle, C. (2011). Steve Jobs’ Philosophy of Life. Retrieved from http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/blog/index.php/2011/10/steve-jobs-philosophy-of-life/ Daft, R. L., & Marcic, D. (2010). Understanding management (7th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. Elliot, J. (2012). Leading Apple with Steve Jobs: Management Lessons from a controversial genius. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Kiichiro, Y., & Ikeda, Y. (2012). Subjectivism and Objectivism in the History of Economic Thought. New York, NY: Routledge. Kotter, J. P. (1998). Harvard Business Review on Leadership: What Leaders Really Do. Boston, MA: HBS Press. Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational Culture and Leadership (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons. Stanford News. (2005). ‘You’ve got to find what you love,’ Job says. Retrieved from http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html Read More