Steve Jobs Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Steve Jobs - Term Paper Example Background - experience, past and present - impact on the current organization Born in the year 1955, Steve Jobs was in Homestead school, in California. He often visited companies like Hewlett-Packard, after his lectures. Jobs first assignment was at Atari, as a technician where he created a circuit board for a game. Finally Wayne, Wozniak and Jobs founded Apple computers and used to sell it in the garage of Jobs’ parents in the year 1971. As a company Apple started its existence in 1976 with much of funding from investors. (Steve Jobs Leadership Case Study) Apple was expanded over the years until it became huge. It was Jobs who observed the commercial potentials from mouse driven GUI belonging to Xerox PARC and this inspired the creation of Apple Lisa. Based on this a year later, Macintosh was invented in 1984. Due to some incidents of dispute Jobs retired from Apple in 1985, and in that year only formed NeXT Inc. (Steve Jobs Leadership Case Study). NeXT Inc was later was abs orbed by Apple in 1996 bringing back Jobs. It was in 1997, when he once again became the CEO of Apple. Under Jobs’ supervision, the invention of i-Pod, i- Mac, i-Tunes, and subsequently i-Pad ensued. Fighting with cancer since 2003 he finally resigned from his duties as a CEO in August 2011. Finally he was elected as a chairman in Apple (Lomas). Jobs never limited himself to Apple or NeXT only. He bought Pixar, and merged with Disney, produced innumerable computer animated pictures such as â€Å"Toy Story†, â€Å"A Bug’s Life† and others (Steve Jobs Resigns as CEO of Apple) Six leadership characteristics Jobs exhibited Few traits of quality leadership that Steve jobs possessed are enumerated and analyzed below- â€Å"Look-ahead† mindset He set precise goals and had a clear and concise vision of the future. He ensured that the vision got inculcated in the minds of everyone throughout the organization. Effective leaders like him have always envisione d exactly what they want and how they are going to achieve their goals in order to get what they want. (Lomas) Jobs always focused on what Apple should do next in the future. He always invited employee’s suggestions about the future actions. His each and every week started with having a three or four hour discussion regarding the scenario they would foresee in the world in the coming days. In a statement he commented, "We are inventing the future... Come down here and make a dent in the universe" (Jobs). His unfathomable and unparalleled obsession with brightening the future with technological advancements paved the way for Apple to be the first name uttered amongst many, when it comes to everyday gadgets, be it mobiles or digital music players or PCs or even OSs. (Hyatt) Persistence - Steve Jobs epitomizes the virtue persistence and it was most exemplified through his exit from Apple. He refused to give up, and in fact, went on to start NeXT computers which would eventually be acquired by Apple Computers Inc. It would have been obvious for a common person to give up at this point and regret the loss. As a leader, one has to be prepared to encounter and conquer hindrance. It is all the more important to show this character, especially if one would like to form a