Apple under the leadership of Steve Jobs

Running head: APPLE UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF STEVE JOBS
Apple under the leadership of Steve Jobs
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1APPLE UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF STEVE JOBS
Introduction:
Steve Jobs, Ronald Wayne and Steve Wozniak found the company Apple in the year
1976. The company developed and sold personal computers. It was developed as Apple
Computer initially and was renamed as Apple Inc. The company has 115,000 permanent
employees in 478 Apple stores around the world. It has an online Apple store and iTunes
store. iTunes store is the largest music store in the world. Whereas Microsoft is a
multinational company of America with headquarters in Washington. The company
manufactures, develops, supports, licenses and sells software of computers and other related
services. Bill Gates and Paul Allen have found the company. Microsoft has 128,000
employees working worldwide. Apple became successful because of Steve Jobs influential
and innovative leadership quality. He was famous for his hard working and demanding
nature. He was yet a simple man. He was a leader with confidence, adaptability and acted
according to the situations. He had a very clear vision for the company. He offered an
autocratic style of leadership. He takes no input from his team members and takes all the
decisions single handedly. The leadership might sound harsh, but it had worked immensely
for Jobs. His innovative ideas have helped Apple to be the market leader in the world. Bill
gates on the other hand, offer a participative style of leadership (Khan, Alam and Alam
2015). He takes inputs from his employees to help in the overall success of the company. Bill
Gates enthusiasm and hard work has made the company successful. He was aware that
businesses face fluctuations and hence he believed adapting to such fluctuations will help in
the company’s success. Microsoft is one of the top most companies of software under the
leadership of Bill Gates. Unlike Gates, Steve Jobs did not work together as a team with his
employees. He chose the dictator style of leadership (Heracleous and Klaering 2014).
However, his techniques were difficult but they were effective for the company. Jobs had a

2APPLE UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF STEVE JOBS
very creative mindset. He recognized the skills in his employees, which was quite different
from that of Bill Gates. He kept motivating his employees. He created a workplace that had
only positive vibes. The leadership styles of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are very different from
one another. Steve Jobs had learned from his previous mistakes. Jobs could recognize the
upcoming challenges in the organization.
Discussion
Leadership style of Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs with his democratic leadership style tries retaining his skilled employees.
He made four different teams to take care of different departments. The teams were iPhone
team, iPad team, iWatch team and Apple television team. He believed that each team would
produce effectively. He supported and encouraged creativity and innovations in the teams.
His style of work can be related to the Fayol’s principles of management which suggest-
1. Division of work.
2. Authority and responsibility.
3. Discipline
4. Unit of Command.
5. Unity of Direction
6. Subordination of Individual Interest to General interest.
7. Remuneration of Personnel.
8. Centralization.
9. Scalar chain.
10. Order.
11. Equity.