Steve Jobs: the making of a leader
Timeline of significant events
What makes Steve Jobs a leader?
Leaders
have the ability to change the direction of the entire company. They can
establish a vision and inspire all the employees to pursue it. Many
characteristics differentiate a brand manager from a brand leader. A leader will lead, while a manager will
manage. The manager is tactical and reactive, while the leader is strategic and
visionary. As a result, the leader will be innovative, creating new ideas. He
will be focussed on people and inspire them while challenging the status quo.
An ideal
example from Apple’s executive history that illustrates management vs.
leadership is the comparison of Steve Jobs with John Sculley. Jobs recruited
Sculley from PepsiCo to become the Apple CEO. Apple’s board of directors would
not let Jobs take the position due to his lack of experience. Sculley played a
role in the eventual dismissal of Jobs from Apple and proceeded to manage the Apple brand. Sculley and his
succeeding CEOs’ lack of vision and innovation drove Apple into dark times. The
company struggled to lead the industry and, as a result, Jobs had the role of
nursing Apple back to profitability when he returned as interim CEO 12 years
later. Apple had 90 days worth of money left (computerworld, 2015).
The year that Jobs returned to Apple, the
company launched the Think Different campaign.
The campaign featured modern visionaries who left an impact on their corner of
history. Posters showing images of Mohammed Ali and Ghandi bore the slogan “Think Different”. The concept behind the campaign summarises
what a leader does. Brand leaders think different.
Innovation and entrepreneurship
One of
Jobs’ key skills was to turn innovative ideas into profit. When Jobs saw Steve
Wozniak’s concept of a personal computer, Jobs was instantly intrigued and
started finding ways to turn the idea into a business model. In this context,
Wozniak was the innovator. He managed to turn a circuit board and processor
into a personal computer - the first of its kind. Jobs was able to recognise
and foster this innovation and find a profitable outlet for it. Without Jobs,
Wozniak’s creation would have been reserved for a single hobbyist.
Jobs was a great salesman and negotiator. At
launch events where Apple would launch new products, Jobs would win the crowd
with his charisma and generate hype for the products. Jobs managed to negotiate
Apple’s acquisition of Next software,
the company that Jobs founded with 5 other Apple outcasts, for $400 million.
This acquisition placed Jobs back in an executive role at Apple.
Attitude and beliefs
Jobs would
inspire with his enthusiasm and passion, which seemed to be one of his biggest
drivers. When Jobs returned to Apple, he only received a salary or 1$ (the
largest portion of his income came from his shares in Disney and Apple).
Jobs
strived for perfection in every aspect of the job. His charismatic product
launches seemed informal, but were actually rehearsed to the letter. His
attention to detail extended to the hardware as well as software. Even the
circuit boards were made to look aesthetically pleasing in one of the early
computers, something that very few people would see.
Jobs’
design philosophies borrowed from beauty in minimalism. He learned about basic
principles of design from a calligraphy course while he was at Reed College. These values and principles inspired every aspect of his life. He
flaunted a daily ‘uniform’ consisting of blue jeans, a black turtleneck jersey
and sneakers.
Values and personality
Jobs’
personality traits and values affected his actions as a leader:
Charisma
Jobs was
able to convince people to bend to his wishes. He would famously take
colleagues on long walks where he would relay his visions and ideas. He would
engage in inspirational sermons, where he would elaborate on the philosophies
behind his vision. The “reality distortion field” was a term that described how
Jobs was able to remove people from the real world and introduce them to a
surreal experience – usually bending them to Jobs’ will.
Binary
personality
Jobs would
either like something or hate it. He would throw tantrums and reduced many
employees to tears, telling them that their work is ‘shit’. On the other side
of the coin, Jobs would praise work that he admired. This behaviour inspired
respect and, to an extent, fear among his teams.
Autocratic
Control was
important to Jobs. He was involved in every aspects of the business. He would
have Monday meetings with the executives, where they would discuss the overall
direction of Apple and meet with the individual teams during the week. He was
therefore involved in micro and macro processes within the company, all the while
making sure that every aspect of Apple was in line with his vision.
Jobs’
autocratic personality resonates with Apple’s control over every aspect of
production through to sale. Apple has their own retail stores that sell products
that were produced by Apple employees in Apple factories using Apple hardware.
This ensures that there is efficient delivery and consistent experience with
the brand.
Jobs
believed in “doing what you love”. Passion should inspire one’s actions. He
wanted his and Apple’s actions to make a significant impact in every industry
it participated and that these actions are driven by a greater vision, not a
financial incentive.
Motivation
Jobs seems to have been motivated by the need to have an impact on the world. His motivation did not lie in profit. Each of his endeavours strived to create the best in the world – unmatched by anything else in the industry.
Successes and failures
Jobs faced
many challenges. These setbacks built his resolve and he would come back with a
force. The biggest example is Jobs leaving Apple. The board of directors who
sided with Sculley forced him out. Jobs founded a competing company – NeXT computers.
The company would build high-end computers and Apple acquired them,
incorporating their operating system in the new generation of Apple computers.
Steve was also one of the founding members of
Pixar studios, an animation company responsible for Toy Story. During his time of exile from Apple, jobs claims to have
undergone a time of extreme creativity and enlightenment
References
all about Steve
Jobs.com,. 'All About Steve Jobs.Com'. N.p., 2015. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.
Alvinalexander.com,.
'Apple's Mission Statement | Apple Business Philosophy And Mission Statement |
Alvinalexander.Com'. N.p., 2015. Web. 2 Oct.
2015.
Evans,
Jonny. 'The Untold Story Behind Apple’S ‘Think Different’ Campaign'.
Computerworld. N.p., 2015. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.
Aaker,
David A, and Erich Joachimsthaler. Brand Leadership. London: Pocket, 2009.
Print.
Isaacson,
Walter. Steve jobs. JC Lattès, 2011.