Leadership of Steve Jobs - Impact on Business and Project Lifecycle

This report evaluates the leadership styles of Steve Jobs, the late CEO of Apple Inc. and its impact on project lifecycle. It includes the statistics of annual revenue, annual sales growth and annual employee retention rate of Apple to prove the ingenuity of Steve Jobs as a leader.

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LEADERSHIP OF STEVE JOBS
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1LEADERSHIP OF STEVE JOBS
Executive summary
Leadership is considered to be an important aspect for making progress in future. In fact, it
provides a strategic advantage to the business organisations through the effective guidance of the
leader. In this context, the report encompasses its discussion on the role of leadership and its
impact on the business by emphasising the leadership qualities of Steve Jobs, the late CEO of
Apple. As far as the leadership style of Jobs is concerned, it was a confluence of a number of
leadership theories such as the charismatic leadership style, the trait theory of leadership and the
transformational leadership. Based on the features of those leadership theories it can be stated
that the effective leadership behaviour is related to the maximisation of profit and high quality of
productions. The similar outcome can be seen in case of the Apple under the guidance of Steve
Jobs. Henceforth, the report includes the statistics of annual revenue, annual sales growth and
annual employee retention rate of apple to prove the ingenuity of Steve Jobs as a leader.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Biography of the chosen person..................................................................................................3
Leadership style deployment.......................................................................................................4
Effectiveness of leadership behaviour.........................................................................................4
Impacts of leadership behaviours on project lifecycle................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
Reference.........................................................................................................................................8
Appendices....................................................................................................................................10
Appendix 1.................................................................................................................................10
Appendix 2.................................................................................................................................11
Appendix 3.................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
Leadership in business is a subject to extensive research and focuses on the impact of the
leadership on the business orientation of the company. Moreover, it can be argued that the role of
the leaders is to make a better understanding of the organisational aims and in this regard
influence and push the employees through his personality in order to achieve success and
maximise profit for the company. Therefore, it is highly important for the leaders to imbibe such
a character that can not only motivate the employees but also encourage them to do tasks more
passionately. Henceforth, this report is trying to evaluate the leadership styles of Steve Jobs, the
late CEO of Apple Inc. in addition to this, the effectiveness of the leadership quality of Jobs and
its impact on project lifecycle are also incorporated into the discussion to establish a better
understanding regarding the high influence of Steve jobs behind the success of Apple Inc.
Discussion
Biography of the chosen person
Steve Paul Jobs, born in 1955 is famous for his ingenious creativity and foundation of
Apple Inc. which is right now the most successful mobile phone company across the world.
However, the initial phase was not so flawless for Jobs (Yu, 2013). Being a foster child and
college dropout candidates Jobs faced severe challenges in his early phase of life. However, his
creative mind-set drove to establish Apple in 1976 with the help of Steve Wozniak. However, he
was forced out to Apple in the year 1985 but came back as the CEO again in 1997 (Steinwart &
Ziegler, 2014). His comeback was also rejuvenating Apple and made it the most successful
technology company with the production of epic iMac, iPod and iPhone.

4LEADERSHIP OF STEVE JOBS
Leadership style deployment
In course of the discussion, it can be stated that Steve Jobs was not a person resembled
with a single leadership style rather he was a blend of series of leadership styles. For an instance,
Jobs was a right example of charismatic leadership style. It can be argued that his charismatic
presence confluence with the creative mind-set led him impregnable even ousted him from the
Apple Inc. in 1985 (Heracleous & Klaering,, 2014). In addition to this, it can also be stated that
the leadership quality of Steve Jobs was also related to the trait theory of leadership. According
to Sharma and Jain (2013) the trait theory is a combination of different unpopular and
unconventional features. His social manners are considered to be a matter of question.
Nevertheless, he was always proactive in his professions. Conscientiousness caused vision and
self-beliefs for Steve Jobs that elevated him to the pinnacle of success. Furthermore, he was truly
a follower of transformational leadership. In his research, McCleskey (2014) opined that the
basic facet of transformational leadership is to create a better framework beyond the existing
one. In case of Steve Jobs also he always preferred innovation over stability. It can be seen in
every products that were manufactured in his tenure.
Effectiveness of leadership behaviour
According to Niebuhr, Voße and Brem (2016) it can be argued that the leadership
qualities of Steve Jobs are rightly exposed through his different activities. Simplicity is identified
as one of the major qualities that Jobs leadership characteristics portrayed in case of producing
new features for the iPods. In the previous iPods the power on and off buttons were installed for
saving the power. However, Jobs made it simpler and user friendly. In the new iPods he
eliminated the traditional use of power on off button and replaced with more technologically

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advanced software. The Apple iPods were the first devices that could be on or off with a single
swipe in the screen.
On the other hand, Yukl (2013) showed that the leadership quality of Jobs was associated
with a paradigm of proper guidance. He guided and assisted his employees through every
possible steps and as a result of that the company was able to produce unique and reliable
products. Furthermore, the leadership of Steve Jobs shaped the operational culture of Apple and
the organisation took full responsibility for the product from end to end. The development team
did a great deal of effort to ensure the quality and reliability of the products as Jobs always
believed that developing trusts among the consumers was the most effective marketing strategy.
Furthermore, in his research Hurley-Hanson and Giannantonio (2013) imposed deep
focus on the innovative ideas and creativity that Jobs leadership was resembled with. In this
regard, Jobs was reluctant to maintaining the existing framework and always striving for new
ideas and devices. It is also defined as a clear example of the transformational leadership. In this
context, the Apple products were also focused on innovation rather than dealing with the
maintenance of the products in future. As a result of that iTunes software was introduced that
entitled to create an online music library for the customers. In fact, the revolutionary
modifications in the operating system helped Apple to enhance its brand value. Moreover, the
design and the materials that used in the Apple phones were unique and beyond any competition.
As a matter of fact, it can be stated by Sonnenfeld (2013) that the leadership quality of
Steve Jobs was direct and energetic. The high sense of effectiveness and the introduction of
creativity made it more appreciable and acceptable to the employees. As a matter of fact, a strong
bond and relationship between the employees and Steve Jobs made it more effective to build up a

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creative and winning team where each and every players mutually understood others’ perception.
It helped to set up a strategic advantage for Apple to expand its market more aggressively.
Impacts of leadership behaviours on project lifecycle
It can be argued that the leadership quality of Steve Jobs helped Apple Inc. to develop a
better marketization in the international competitive market. There are some exquisite
characteristic features imbibed in the leadership quality of Steve Jobs that enabled the company
to reach the pinnacle of its business (Hackman & Johnson, 2013). Started his innovations
through the Mac operating system the last innovative idea of Steve Jobs was the Apple iPhone. It
can be stated that the advent of the iPhone in the international market changed the equation of
the market extensively and as a result of that it became an important revolution in the global
market.
It can be ascribed that the role of the leadership in Apple was quiet effective enough in
order to establish a better market globally. As a matter of fact, after regaining the control of
Apple, Steve Jobs increased the sales of the Apple products by incorporating innovation
(Odumeru & Ogbonna, 2013). As per the statistics it can be argued that in the third quarter of the
2007 the global sales of Apple iPhone was 0.27 million (Files.shareholder.com, 2017). However,
at the end of the first quarter of 2018 it was escalated up to 77.32 million. This rigorous
improvement in sales was due to the leadership and creative mind-set of Steve Jobs.
On the other hand, the annual revenue of Apple was also increased evidently. With the
growth in the market and the farsighted vision of Steve Jobs was the most crucial factor in this
regard. As far the annual revenue of Apple is concerned, the company had achieved a revenue
turnover of 8.2 million in the fiscal year of 2004. In 2010 it reached the level of 65.2 million

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whereas the annual year of 2017 the growth reached atop with an annual revenue turnover of
229.23 million USD (Files.shareholder.com, 2017). It was obviously the charismatic leadership
of Steve Jobs that fostered a huge brand image and enhanced the brand value as well. It cannot
be exaggerate by stating that the effort and leadership maintained by Steve Jobs was succeeded
to retain the brand image outstandingly. The annual revenue and the annual sales growth can
prove it.
Besides this, the progress can also be identified in the case of the annual employee
retention rate of Apple. In this context, the annual report of Apple stated that the annual
employee of Apple was 14.8 thousands. In course of time it increases up to 60.4 thousands in
2011. However, in 2017 the number of employees heightened almost double rate. In 2017 the
employee number could be accounted 123 thousands approximately (Files.shareholder.com,
2017). It proves that the there was a good workplace culture in Apple Inc. that was created
undoubtedly by Steve Jobs. His direct communication with the employees and a feature of trait
leadership theory helped to shape the organisational culture more relaxed and in return the
production and innovation increased rapidly.
Conclusion
The report tries to point out the role of leadership in delivering an advantage to the
organisational activities such as increase in innovation and productivity. In this context, the
report rightly derived inferences from the leadership quality of Steve Jobs in order to establish a
better market capitalisation. Therefore, it can be concluded that the report is highly valuable and
perfectly connoted the importance of effective leadership in a business organisation.

8LEADERSHIP OF STEVE JOBS
Reference
Files.shareholder.com. (2017). Apple Annual Report 2017. Retrieved from
http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/AAPL/5927980435x0x970347/D2D0AE69-
856A-48FA-BE39-38C6D6D50256/10-Q_Q1_2018_As-Filed_.pdf
Hackman, M. Z., & Johnson, C. E. (2013). Leadership: A communication perspective. Waveland
Press.
Heracleous, L., & Klaering, L. A. (2014). Charismatic leadership and rhetorical competence: An
analysis of Steve Jobs’s rhetoric. Group & Organization Management, 39(2), 131-161.
Hurley-Hanson, A. E., & Giannantonio, C. M. (2013). Staying hungry, staying foolish:
Academic reflections on the life and career of Steve Jobs.
McCleskey, J. A. (2014). Situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and
leadership development. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 5(4), 117.
Niebuhr, O., Voße, J., & Brem, A. (2016). What makes a charismatic speaker? A computer-
based acoustic-prosodic analysis of Steve Jobs tone of voice. Computers in Human
Behavior, 64, 366-382.
Odumeru, J. A., & Ogbonna, I. G. (2013). Transformational vs. transactional leadership theories:
Evidence in literature. International Review of Management and Business Research, 2(2),
355.
Sharma, M. K., & Jain, S. (2013). Leadership management: Principles, models and
theories. Global Journal of Management and Business Studies, 3(3), 309-318.

9LEADERSHIP OF STEVE JOBS
Sonnenfeld, J. A. (2013). Steve Jobs’ Immortal Quest and the Heroic Persona. Journal of
Business and Management, 19(1), 59-68.
Steinwart, M. C., & Ziegler, J. A. (2014). Remembering Apple CEO Steve Jobs as a"
Transformational Leader": Implications for Pedagogy. Journal of Leadership
Education, 13(2).
Yu, H. H. (2013). Decoding Leadership: How Steve Jobs Transformed Apple to Spearhead a
Technological Informal Economy. Journal of Business & Management, 19(1).
Yukl, G. A. (2013). Leadership in organizations. Pearson Education India.

10LEADERSHIP OF STEVE JOBS
Appendices
Appendix 1
Figure 1: Annual sales growth of Apple
(Files.shareholder.com., 2017)

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Appendix 2
Figure 2: Annual revenue growth of Apple
(Files.shareholder.com., 2017)

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Appendix 3
Figure 3: Annual employee retention in Apple
(Files.shareholder.com., 2017)