Apple Leadership Report Coursework (Coursework Sample)

Apple computer leadership report
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Introduction
The late Steve Jobs was the founder of Apple and a co-founder of Pixar. He was an American entrepreneur and innovator who through his company Apple, led a revolution in personal computers and consumer electronics. Steve Jobs faced a number of challenges early in his career but through his leadership grew his influence in the field of computing. Steve Jobs’ life has been described as a success story, and this report will seek to elaborate on Jobs’ leadership style, challenges and what can be learned from his life.
The leadership style of Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs was a transformational leader. Transformative leaders create a vision through anticipating the need for change and inspiring others to work in tandem with them in order to execute that change. Numerous events in Jobs’ life point towards his transformative leadership style. Jobs has frequently been described as an innovator. Job was always at the forefront of what future products Apple computing could make. Jobs would fully involve himself in all processes in launching a product including design and manufacturing and fully integrated himself with all teams within Apple Computing in order to chart his vision (Steinwart and Ziegler, 2014). When Jobs was ousted from the company, it went into decline due to lack of a sense of direction. When Jobs came back as the interim CEO of Apple, the company was soon making profits. Rehiring Jobs was a step forward from previous losses when he was not running the company.
How Steve Jobs’ vision and values were reflected in his leadership style
Jobs was a visionary leader in that he came up with product ideas and saw them through to completion with much success. One of Jobs key visions was in designing products that were user-friendly. With that design principle in mind, Jobs worked closely with designers within Apple to develop products that the mass market could readily consume without much difficulty. The launch of the iPod heralded a revolution in the music content delivery system. Apple's success compared to earlier efforts by other companies can be attributed to how user-friendly and attractive the iPod was. Another essential element of Jobs vision was in coming up with products that were game changers. This can be seen illustrated by the iPad. The iPad was a huge success in combining a phone and a computer. Now the iPad’s base design has been replicated by numerous manufacturers in their tablet products.
Initial challenges in starting Apple
The early years of Apple Computing were not without challenges. One problem faced by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs was in securing start-up capital for their Apple venture. Jobs initial strategy to counter this was to obtain their start-up funds through the sales of their assets. After selling Apple 1, Apple 2 was financed through sales proceeds from Apple 1. Another significant challenge Jobs faced early in Apple computer’s life was declining sales of their computers due to increased market competition in the Personal Computing market. Jobs strategy to this was Apple to come up with a game-changing product. Jobs led the release of the Apple Macintosh, the first personal computer to have a graphical user interface controlled by a mouse. This approach boosted sales for the company for many years to come.
Drivers for change in the Personal Computer industry
One of the primary reasons the personal computing industry has changed so much is globalization (Dedrick and Kraemer 2008). The Personal Computer industry consists of a wide network of supplies and manufacturers of different computer systems and components. Through efficiency in communication and transportation, the computer industry has been able to reach millions of customers globally with worldwide sales reaching billions of dollars. Another driver for change in personal computing is the trade secret protection. Many companies in the computing industry innovate and patent products and proceed to license the manufacturing of their innovations to other firms. Innovation has helped companies recoup their investment in research and development in order to fund more research. Patenting has also encouraged companies to innovate products in order to earn money through lucrative licenses or sale of patents.
How Steve Jobs used partnerships and collaboration
Much of Steve Jobs’ success lies in his partnership and collaboration with others. One of his earliest collaborations was with Apple’s co-founder, Steve Wozniak. Jobs forged a friendship with the much older Wozniak a recognized his technical brilli...