Steve Jobs Leadership Profile

Bingbing Pan

R.J. Woodring  

SPEA V-450

September 06th, 2017

Leader Profile

Steve Jobs has been heralded by many as one of the greatest business leaders who ever lived. Under his direction and leadership, Apple Computers (which he was also a cofounder) pioneered a chain of innovative and revolutionary technologies and essentially ushered in a new digital era. Jobs was born in 1955 in San Francisco, California and was raised by adoptive parents.  He founded Apple Computers with fellow tech enthusiast and friend Steve Wozniak and used his parents' garage to assemble boards and pieces of the company’s first computers that were sold to independent dealers. The company would later on attract significant investment from several tech investors and under Jobs’ stewardship, it would go on to become one of the most profitable companies in the world and a leader in innovative technology. Jobs left Apple Computers in 1985 after disagreements with the company’s board, but he returned a decade later, and it was in this second stint at the company that his genius as a leader was witnessed. He moved the company from the brink of bankruptcy and transformed it into the hugely profitable and innovative enterprise that it is today.

There are various moments in the history of Apple where Job’s sheer brilliance as a leader is visible. One of these is when he returned to Apple in 1997 after almost a decade of absence. When Jobs returned to Apple, he found a company in chaos. At the company, engineers were often rewarded for being inventive or imaginative (Fischer). However, there was almost no focus on making things actually work. As a person who was greatly skilled in problem-solving, he immediately developed a solution. Jobs realized that there were too many products being invented to the extent that quality was not a priority. For example, there was a random array of computers as well as peripherals on constant development and production (Isaacson). Multiple versions of each product were being churned out because of bureaucratic momentum or to satisfy the whims of sellers as well as retailers (Isaacson 337). Jobs ordered that all work be halted except on the most essential products. In fact, he reduced the company’s product portfolio to only four items; two desktops and two notebooks. He asserted that the company would not again compete in the hugely crowded commodity market but would instead focus on making and selling premium products at premium margins (Fischer). In addition, he assembled teams using performance and technical skills as the placement metrics and assigned them to the design and development of specific products instead of having many sub-groups working on a diverse range of products. As he told his teams, the focus of the company henceforth would be on developing four great products (Isaacson). The adjustments and changes saw Apple move from imminent bankruptcy and collapse to profitability. It would soon become a global leader in technology invention. This can all be credited to Jobs’ assumption of leadership and his introduction of a new way of doing things. By concentrating on a few and distinct products, he ensured that quality was the core foundation of all product development endeavors at Apple.