Leadership Styles and Company Performance: Buffett and Jobs

This report examines the leadership styles of Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, and Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple, comparing their approaches and assessing their impact on company performance. The report analyzes Buffett's democratic, servant, and self-empowered leadership, contrasting it with Jobs' autocratic and transformational styles. It explores how their leadership philosophies influenced their respective companies' success, including financial performance, innovation, and market positioning. The analysis considers the evolution of leadership styles in Fortune 500 companies, evaluating whether contemporary leadership demands have shifted. The report uses leadership theories, company performance data, and external research to provide a comprehensive comparison of these two influential business leaders, highlighting their strengths, weaknesses, and overall effectiveness in leading their organizations.

Warren Buffet and Steve Jobs

Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................1
Warren Buffett biography............................................................................................................................1
Steve Jobs Biography..................................................................................................................................1
Leadership style...........................................................................................................................................2
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................4
Reference.....................................................................................................................................................6

Introduction
Leadership is a theoretical quality in a human being for influencing others and achieving the
common goal of the organization. It is a combination of character and strategy. It includes the
process which is followed and includes the ability for leading the team for achieving the
objectives of the business. it includes the process for planning the action and organizing and
directing for solving the problems. The various leadership styles are included in the leader are
autocratic, democratic, transformational, free laissez, transactional leadership. In this report, the
leadership styles of Warren Buffett who is the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway will be discussed and
Steve Jobs who was CEO of Apple. In any company, it is essential to perform the role of a leader
for achieving the objectives of the company.
Warren Buffett biography
Warren Buffett is the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and he was a legendary investor. He is
one of the richest person in the world. He is one who influence people and motivate the to
acheuve the success and adopt the leadership styles. Warren Buffett is a leader who takes the
inventiveness to lead the team and motivate the employees to work effectively. Warren Buffett is
the CEO and holds the shares in Berkshire Hathaway as it embraces more than 60 subsidiaries.
He is very hardworking and goal oriented person as he was very devoted to his work
(Summerfield, 2014). He always wants to achieve long term goals as well as short term goals. He
started working at the age of 5 and when he was 11 he started financing in the stock market. He
had wide information about the bonds and stocks in the market and with the helps of reading
books he had gained the information and started investing which helped him in achieving
confidence and shareholder's trust. He was very ambitious and he invested in share market
effectively and efficiently. He is a storyteller as he influence the people in doing a great job. He
was born on August 30, 1930 and he is also called as “Oracle of Omaha”. The current net worth
of Warren Buffett is 7,970 crores USD (Kelly, 2011).
Steve Jobs Biography
Steven Paul Jobs is the real name of Jobs. He was born on 24th February 1955 in San Francisco,
California, U.S. He was the CEO and chairman of Apple Inc. He was an investor and American

businessman who also holds the shares of Pixar in majority and is also a member of Walt
Disney’s company. The products which are launched by Steve Jobs in Apple company include
the iPhone, iPad and ipod which are the evolution of new and modern technology. He joined
Apple Inc. in 1977 and transformed the position of the company in market. he has always
followed the visionary leadership in his life who always creates and focuses on the vision to
achieve success in life (Rauf, 2014). When he joined the Apple company, he was recognized as a
charismatic leader (Mohammad Mosadegh Rad and Hossein Yarmohammadian, 2006). He was
very innovative and always focused to bring innovation in products for the satisfaction of
customers. He always followed the principles for the success which he stated that do what you
love as it is necessary for a leader to follow the passion.
Leadership style
Steve jobs followed the transformational as well as the transactional leadership styles. Steve Jobs
was the creator of a unique leadership style. He has stated that in competitive world, it is
essential to have good and influential leadership style as it is a key factor for the success of the
business. He had followed the persuasion and proactive approach to be an effective leader. He
was a composite leader and he always believes in behavioral attributes and he always admired
the people and motivated them to follow the leadership skills. Steve Jobs has followed the
effective communication strategy to make the efficiency at the workplace. Steve Jobs was an
unconventional leader and he followed the effective management style (Walumbwa, et al., 2008).
Steve Jobs followed the Autocratic leadership style. In Autocratic leadership, leader is
characterized as an individual who has all the control over the decisions and does not involve the
team in making decisions. It includes absolute and control over the authorities. It helps in making
the decisions quickly in stressed situations. He believed that he can make effective decisions by
having control over the command and responsibilities (Eagly, et al., 2003).
Leaders follow the transactional leadership style which includes motivating the employees by
using intrinsic and extrinsic rewards which helps in motivating the personnel for doing the work
efficiently and working for achieving the common goal of the company. Steve Jobs always
predetermined the objectives for the employees and helped the employees to understand the
objective and achieve the common goal of the company. Steve Jobs helps the employees and

increase the job satisfaction and engagement of staff (Van Vugt, et al., 2004). In a leadership
style which is transformational, he involved the various levels of communications which helps in
achieving the objectives of the company (Mandell and Pherwani, 2003). Steve Jobs was very
focused on the goals of the company which helps him in changing the organization's position and
improving the productivity and quality of the computers by satisfying the needs and preferences
of the company (Uhl-Bien, et al., 2007).
Apple has achieved the position and reputation of the company as he was the visionary leader.
Steve Jobs has followed the vision and also created the vision of the company. He was such an
inspirational leader who inspired the people to make effective decisions. Steve Jobs was very
intensive on his work as he joined Apple in 1997 and he changed the company as he transformed
the performance of the company (Ogbonna and Harris, 2000). Steve Jobs has improved the
performance and created the position of Apple in market with the help of innovative products.
The various leadership skills are essential in a leader to get the work done effectively and
efficiently. Leadership styles of an individual depend on the attitudes, beliefs, and values of the
people. It is analyzed that various principles are required in every leader to make the team
effective in the business. It is mandatory at each level of the business to follow the leadership
skills. Leadership requires the possible to encouragement the behavior of the employees
(Morgeson, et al., 2010). Leadership skills in an individual helps in growing the business and
make the effective decsions.
Every leader includes a different attitude and perspective. In order to deal with different people,
it is necessary to influence the people and deal with the people at workplace. Warren Buffett
always adopts the leadership styles in his life which help the individuals in doing work and
encourages them in investing in shares in market. He has adopted the leadership style in life
which reflects the personality is democratic leadership, self-empowered leadership and servant
leadership. In democratic leadership, it helps in giving the priorities and encouraging the
employees to make effective decisions (Woods, 2004). He always listens to employees and
listens to the suggestions of employees for effective decision making. In order to accomplish the
goals, he always discussed the projects and work with employees. Leaders help in increasing the
self-confidence for setting objectives and fulfilling the capabilities. Warren Buffett is a leader
who is always self-empowered because of his loyalty in business and strategic for attaining the

objectives. The leadership style of Warren Buffett is very effective as he emphases on leading
the employees and engages them in increasing their productivity (Page, 2019). Warren Buffett is
an effective leader who is committed towards his work as it is essential to follw the skills and
qualitities for being an effective leader. Warren Buffett has acquired Berkshire Hathaway as he
always wanted workforces to act effectively and did not wanted to have control over the rights of
employees. Warren Buffett always acted as facilitator and financier for people as he helps in
businesses at the time of recession and in that situation he financed the money to people and
companies who were facing the financial crises (Schilling, 2009). Warren Buffett applied the
effective leadership skills and knowledge for making the company successful and company has
started earning 1.5 billion dollars profit after application of effective leadership skills. Warren
Buffett also helps the followers to bring the innovation and create trust in oneself and he
emphasizes the employees not to follow the analysis and predictions of others (Finkle, 2010).
Buffett has improved the perofrmnace of the business and created the effectiveness in the
employees in performing the activities and tasks which are assigned to them for the growth and
development.
Warren Buffett follows the democratic leadership style and Steve Jobs followed the autocratic
leadership style. Warren Buffett is very innovative and he is always ready to take risks in
business as he believes that risk is important in every business for growth and success. Warren
Buffet is very competitive in nature and he prefers to make the deals that are effective for
business and employees (Farling, et al., 2009). He always want to influence his audience and he
consider the skills of the people and make it more effective for the business and also helps the
people in enhancing and improving their skills. Warren Buffett is a great leader and influencer
who thinks about employees more and make the effective decisions for the benfits of employees
and helps them in enhancing their skills at workplace. He always consider every employee as
important and always supports the employees for their development in business and personally in
life (Eagly, et al., 2003). Steve Jobs always put his best in making a new product and he was
insane for creating great products in Apple and Steve Jobs returned to apple when the company
was going through with bad phase and by showing the guts and aggression he brought the apple
back on the track. He followed the unique leadership style in Apple for developing the products
and bringing innovation in products (Antonakis, et al., 2003). It is believed that Warren Buffet
and Steve Jobs, both are important and played a crucial role as the CEO of the companies.

Conclusion
It is concluded that leadership and its styles play a crucial in business and it is necessary for
business to run the business smoothly. In order to achieve the objectives of business, leadership
skills help the leader to meet the expectations of employees and help them to achieve the goals.
Warren Buffett fulfills all the skills and qualities of an effective leader as he always motivates
employees at the workplace and stays calm in stressful situations. The leadership styles of
Warren Buffett are democratic, servant and self-empowered leadership styles. He is very must
dedicate to his work. Steve Jobs has achieved success because of leadership skills and his
innovative leadership style as he was very visionary leader. Steve Jobs has followed the
autocratic leadership style and he focused on the objectives and focused on the products by
bringing innovation. He was a transformational leader which includes charismatic and
inspirational qualities.

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