A Focus On Steve Jobs Entrepreneurial Strengths

Introduction

Apple is a Company which deal with technology with its headquarters in Cupertino US. The company was started by Ronald Wayne, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs in 1976. The firm designs develop and sells computer software, consumer electronics and online services. It has 506 retail stores across 24 countries (Heracleous, 2013) some of the countries under which the company operate include Paris, France, China, Japan, and Italy among others.

Its products include; Mac personal computer, iPhone smartphone, and iPad tablet computers. Its software includes the Safari web browser, MacOS as well as Ios operating system. In 2018, the company’s revenue grew to $265.6 Billion dollars.

Leadership and Management

Leadership refers to the set of directions or new versions for a group of people to follow while management is the control or directing of people based on the principles and values that have been previously established (Rudani, 2013). Additionally, Harold Koontz defines Management as the art of getting things done via other people and with a group that is organized. In a modern definition, bill gates define leadership as the act of empowering others.

Characteristics of a Manager and Leader

People follow, manager because they must. On the other hand, individuals follow leaders because of choice. First managers expect excellence (Smith, 2011). Manager set high and realistic standards which they expect theirs expect subordinates to meet them. Arsene Wenger is an example of a manager who has been in a football career. His expectations were always his team to win. On the other hand, a leader leads by example. For example, Steve Jobs during the first 3 years in Apple insisted on working 90 hours a week and never gave up.

Secondly, managers communicate and giving meaningful feedback in real time-managers excellent communication skills and usually give both positive and negative feedback. Leaders, in contrast, challenge the limits of employees. Employees are usually encouraged to challenge themselves to be innovation like Steve Jobs did. Leaders have a vision. The successful leader usually has a clear vision for a company. One must be able to consistently plan for the long term goals of the company. For example, Apple would not be where it is today if it was not the great vision of Steve Jobs.

Lastly, leaders develop the Passion for what they are doing. For instance, Steve Jobs had a great passion to turn his dream into a reality. On the other hand, managers are Confident. Sometimes, managers are required to be confident so that the decisions they make are followed without questioning. Zinedine Zidane who has been the manager of Real Madrid sometimes expresses this trait.

The Strengths of Steve Jobs as an Entrepreneur

Steve Jobs had a Vision (Zhao, 2012). Jobs’ visions were to create products which are user friendly and elegant design. Secondly, he is a creative thinker. Thirdly has Strong Leadership. He inspired his employees which led to the success of the company. Entrepreneurs are always ready to Embrace Failure. After Apple became a multi-million dollar company under Jobs, he was kicked out of his own organization. This pushed him to gain more experience from other organizations. Lastly, Jobs as a great entrepreneur was a Serial Reformer. His excellence was observed in Apple and NeXT. Based on Belbin’s team roles theory, Steve Jobs is a Shaper. Steve is famously known to challenge his employees. Secondly, he is an Implementer-get thing done. Based on his vision, Jobs had to get things done to achieve his dream of making apple great.

Conclusions

Apple as an international company which has maintained its market share in the industry. Apple maintains its ability to play with its product prices to attract customers and promising to sell them their product cheaply. Secondly, Apple has to keep finding new customers has it has been the trend. In addition, the company to keep on advertising to advance the knowledge of its products to the market. Moreover, the company is innovative and develop new products to its clients while advancing to new markets. In terms of product development, Apple has been developing new products daily such as smart TV.

Take a deeper dive into A Focus on Performance Metrics and Risk Management with our additional resources.

Recommendations

I recommend that apple to adopt to adopt various market penetration strategies to maintain its market share in the industry. For example, opening new stores worldwide especially Africa. Secondly, I recommend that the company adopt more advertising strategy such as social media, television among others. Other market penetration strategies can also be adopted. I also recommend the firm to be even more creative to come up with more admirable products in the market as new designed iPad well as improving the existing products. I also recommend the company identify and develop new markets such as in Africa and other continents. Lastly, to specialize in other products like vehicles as a diversification strategy.

References

• Heracleous, L., 2013. Quantum strategy at apple Inc. Organizational Dynamics, 42(2), pp.92-99.
• Rudani, R.B., 2013. Principles of management. Tata McGraw-Hill Education.
• Smith, M.A., 2011. Are you a transformational leader? Nursing Management, 42(9), pp.44-50.
• Zhao, Y., 2012. World class learners: Educating creative and entrepreneurial students. Corwin Press.