How Leadership Can Change an Organization
Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, was asked to come back as Chief Executive in 1997 when the business was making a loss. Job’s was appointed to provide a clearer vision for the business and to improve its profitability. How easy is it for a Chief Executive to change a struggling business into a more successful one? Justify your answer with reference to Apple and/or other organisations you know. (40 marks)
Depends upon/ points : * How respected the leader is: Steve Jobs acted as an inspiration to many in the digital world, one which grabbed my interest was from competitor Bill Gates who stated “Of all the leaders in the industry that I've worked with, he showed more inspiration and he saved the company.“ Jobs is well known for being high on innovation and initially changing the technological world from large desktops to retina display thin and portable devices which we know today at the lowest possible cost, which has initially lead to Apple’s net worth to escalate to $567bn as of 2013.
* The extent that Apple struggled when Steve was fired: Steve jobs was fired in 1985 for an 11 year period, whilst researching I found that during this period sales rose in apple from $2m- $10m through till 1996, then with the re-hiring of Steve Jobs came a larger escalation from $10m-$65m a figure based until 2006. This is an 650% increase in sales (CHECK), which indicates that Jobs himself through innovation and brand new designs aimed at the variety of audiences through new products such as online music e.g. iTunes open for download in April 23, 2003 leaving jobs to quote “It will go down in history as a turning point for the music industry” those who thought piracy would end the music industry were proved wrong through a 10bn downloads from 2003-2009. Another example of Job’s success can be seen through the portable music player- iPod, released October 23, 2003 that gave the ability to achieve commercial success and innovation where others tried and failed. Job’s
Depends upon/ points : * How respected the leader is: Steve Jobs acted as an inspiration to many in the digital world, one which grabbed my interest was from competitor Bill Gates who stated “Of all the leaders in the industry that I've worked with, he showed more inspiration and he saved the company.“ Jobs is well known for being high on innovation and initially changing the technological world from large desktops to retina display thin and portable devices which we know today at the lowest possible cost, which has initially lead to Apple’s net worth to escalate to $567bn as of 2013.
* The extent that Apple struggled when Steve was fired: Steve jobs was fired in 1985 for an 11 year period, whilst researching I found that during this period sales rose in apple from $2m- $10m through till 1996, then with the re-hiring of Steve Jobs came a larger escalation from $10m-$65m a figure based until 2006. This is an 650% increase in sales (CHECK), which indicates that Jobs himself through innovation and brand new designs aimed at the variety of audiences through new products such as online music e.g. iTunes open for download in April 23, 2003 leaving jobs to quote “It will go down in history as a turning point for the music industry” those who thought piracy would end the music industry were proved wrong through a 10bn downloads from 2003-2009. Another example of Job’s success can be seen through the portable music player- iPod, released October 23, 2003 that gave the ability to achieve commercial success and innovation where others tried and failed. Job’s