Steve Jobs - Leadership
Q: Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, was asked to come back as Chief Executive in 1997 when the business was making a loss. Jobs 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.
A: There have been many different companies in the past which have suffered from internal / external problems. However they have also recovered because of critical decision-making and also because of strong leaders who have also the skill of being potential visionaries and mavericks. Steve jobs had been replaced by John sculley (who was previously CEO of PepsiCo) this was because the shareholders in Apple disagreed with jobs’ vision for the company ahead. He was fired but later returned in 1997 to the struggling apple to lead them to becoming one of the most successful companies in the current world. Steve jobs had essential skills and qualities, which made him a great leader and a visionary. Although he came from a struggling background, he had the passion and the drive initially which gave him the boost to become very successful and he also received help from a great workforce. He recovered the business by restructuring the company’s production line. This shows that he had to take critical and essential decisions which might have seemed risky, however all great leaders have been renowned to be risk-taking and optimistic.
Another example of a leader whose company was struggling is Howard Schultz, who had been the founder of ‘Starbucks’ in Seattle Washington 1997. He left the company initially in 1985 because he wanted to create his own coffee-bar enterprise – later called ‘Giornale’. 2 years later he wanted to acquire Starbucks again, therefore when the deal happened the two companies merged and the company was called Starbucks Corporation. In 2008, Starbucks’ stock
A: There have been many different companies in the past which have suffered from internal / external problems. However they have also recovered because of critical decision-making and also because of strong leaders who have also the skill of being potential visionaries and mavericks. Steve jobs had been replaced by John sculley (who was previously CEO of PepsiCo) this was because the shareholders in Apple disagreed with jobs’ vision for the company ahead. He was fired but later returned in 1997 to the struggling apple to lead them to becoming one of the most successful companies in the current world. Steve jobs had essential skills and qualities, which made him a great leader and a visionary. Although he came from a struggling background, he had the passion and the drive initially which gave him the boost to become very successful and he also received help from a great workforce. He recovered the business by restructuring the company’s production line. This shows that he had to take critical and essential decisions which might have seemed risky, however all great leaders have been renowned to be risk-taking and optimistic.
Another example of a leader whose company was struggling is Howard Schultz, who had been the founder of ‘Starbucks’ in Seattle Washington 1997. He left the company initially in 1985 because he wanted to create his own coffee-bar enterprise – later called ‘Giornale’. 2 years later he wanted to acquire Starbucks again, therefore when the deal happened the two companies merged and the company was called Starbucks Corporation. In 2008, Starbucks’ stock