I personally think that everyone in the world is not born to have a fixed destiny and to have birth given abilities to lead. Everyone is born not knowing anything and anyone is able to choose their destiny and what they will become. Leadership takes a much experience and time to develop. A Leader would want the best out of the people who follow him or her. A leader would encourage failure to learn from the mistakes. A leader does not simply command his or her follower; a leader shows how it’s done. A leader Is someone who can adapt in any environment and any culture that he or she encounters. A has the will to do what other could not and inspire and motivate others to do the same and achieve great things in life. I truly believe that it takes a long time to develop a leader, some are made sooner and others late. . A leader always knows his or her goals and never quits under any circumstances and encourages people to do the same. Hence, A leader will always be someone who is self developed most importantly through mentality of motivation and strong will power to improve many things and people.
Steve jobs was the cofounder and CEO of Apple Inc. the cofounder of also other companies like Pixar and NeXT, before he had died in October 5th 2011. Steve jobs had many successful professions such as an entrepreneur, Inventor and a designer. He had an array of skills back in his day and he was a wise man with many of his experiences that had thought him to be better everyday as he had also quoted “ knowing that I would be dead soon, is the most important tool I have ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life”. He is known to be one of the greatest people to have changed the world, which had inspired many people and satisfied many from his work and innovative ideas. His great contribution to computers of apple was the format of the computer, which was to be convenient for users. He is known for his innovative ideas to expand and branch out the new ways of living with technology and its satisfaction it may bring in our lives.
Steve Jobs Leadership style:
The style of leadership style did Steve jobs use for his company was autocratic. Steve jobs runs his company by conveying orders to people and to have things being followed by the higher management group. However there have been many complaints of Steve jobs being portrait as having the character of being arrogant and a dictatorial and mean spirited or in other words not caring to help others. Although in spite the complaints, he was still proven to be a very affective leader for his company and it was his own way that he thought best to lead the company. It is no doubt that a leader must adapt to the environments and the people in which to lead, which applies to any leader in general and that is what Steve jobs had done for his adaption to the his own corporate environment that he had chose to create. If he had used another style of leadership, I doubt that he would have had as much achievements as he had before he passed. Steve jobs always has been the type of leader that wants the push his people to become even better and not a leader who “ Takes it easy” on them as he had quoted “My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better.” He may have a harsh way of dealing with his employees, even through hiring them; he wants them to have the same passion and vision of seeing apple flourish and developed. The outcomes of his leadership of autocratic style had result the outcomes of incredible products for people and his style have been enacted for the higher purpose of the company. His autocratic leadership really does encourage discipline and creates the mentality to be successful and always learn new things along the way.
I really do think that Steve jobs did lead his employees in some harsh ways; he still had a vision in his company and what he wants from his employees, which is very positive. The outcomes of this sort of leadership have made Apple as great as it is today. Steve jobs leadership may not be so pleasant in terms of character, but his actions, goals and expectations are seen as being for the best of development of his own company and employees, which he had proven to be true. I think that Steve jobs approach on leadership, which is to be the one who makes all the calls and decisions, may have its pros and cons. I think that a pro to it is that it makes decision making for a product faster and easier to conform. A con about this would be that he may not allow his employees to have the freedom of collaboration among their peers and be more creative or in other words have a democratic feel of being in a company where their opinions and ideas matter to the company, however the time taken to make decisions will be longer and there would be many delays in the project delivery to the consumers.
What do I think of Steve jobs leadership?
I think that Mr.jobs has a very unique way of branching out new ideas and he always wants his employees to improve every second at work or out of work. He is very strict to his employees and he encourages positive and creative thinking. It is proven that he only wants the best recruits for his company as he only wants candidates who are passionate about apple and want to strive to develop apple products for the public. He is a very inspiring leader as he only wants quality products to be made for the public and he only ants to fulfill his vision and mission on creating advanced convenient products regardless of the money he would make out of the products as he had quote “Apple’s goal isn’t to make money. Our goal is to design and develop and bring to market good products… We trust as a consequence of that, people will like them, and as another consequence, we’ll make some money. But we’re really clear about what our goals are.” – Steve Job”. He is very determined in his goals and vision in Apple Inc. and his magnificent creativity that inspired many has already changed the world and forever will he be remembered for doing so.
The Training opportunities that apple provides are of having free collage classes in language skills, computers and other subjects. Workers are also given the opportunity of earning associates or bachelor degrees. Apple has also made a personal development program through apples supplier employee program and development; also know as the Seed program. This Apple-designed program offers workers classes in technical and software skills, life skills, social and environmental responsibility, language skills, management skills, and engineering. Apple also partners with universities to give workers quality education and access to advanced degrees. Since the beginning in 2008, there were over 200 000 workers who have participated in the SEED program. They have expanded their program to reach even more workers. They have now funded classrooms and degree programs in nine final assembly factories, and we have agreements in place for expansion with three second-tier suppliers. They had invested millions of dollars on the programs equipment and tuition.
What type of training do they provide at work?
Apple provides workers education onlocal laws, their rights as workers, occupational health and safety and apple supplier code of conduct. Supervisors and managers are also trained on effective management practices, including worker-management communication, anti-harassment policies, and worker protections. Since 2007, more than 2.3 million workers and managers in apples supply chain have received this training, carrying this knowledge with them in their current role or any future job.
Apple also trains workers and managerson specialized topics that require deeper learning. In 2012, for example, we held focused training on the prevent age labor as well as a variety of health and safety topics.
Apple and suppliers have trained more than 2.3 million workers and managers since 2007.
A corporate culture is the culture in a company where the employees are unconsciously practicing. The corporate culture may include organization values and structure, Motivations and influences, visions, norms, working languages and work habits.
What is Apple’s working culture and environment? And how does the organizational structure influence the corporate culture?
Steve jobs focused role in carefully choosing employees has proven to be very important as Steve jobs assures that the employees visions and missions are the same as Steve jobs and wants them to have the need to improve on a project or themselves everyday. The employees of apple constant strive for perfect with in a product of apple and will constantly be willing to make the products as detailed and attractive and as useful as possible and they really do love doing so, which is one of the vital and key requirement of being an great employee of apple. Another key of being a good apple employee is to be the best at what he or she wants to do and be very passionate about it to bring the best of what they are specialized to do. Steve jobs influences on his employees really drives them to bring the best out of they can be. The common positive motivation that the employees of apple think of is that they will be part something that is huge that would change the world and anything they would do to contribute to working in apple also contributes to changing the world around them and the next generation of technology, it is generally a truly great feeling. The employees never stop improving on the product as time is only the limit and the product is made and aimed to be the best there is in the market.
Is the corporate culture play an important role in success?
The culture with in apple is greatly influenced by Steve jobs as it is not an option to bring out the best in you for what you do best and the limit should only be the time and deadline. Steve jobs really do believes that it is very important for people to know what they love doing to be specialized in that aspect and be the best at what he or she does or have the potential to be the best including the attitude. The culture of apple is really what binds apple together as an affective working community as everyday they are reminded that no one should ever give up no matter what difficulty or failure. The culture also creates such an environment where people are expected to adapt very quickly to changes and to positively work towards enforcing the changes and developing it through refining Ideas. The corporate culture of apple encourages the employees to better people in such a way that allows them to be initiative and enthusiastic about new ideas.
To what extent is the corporate culture of apple different through out the different regions?
Each and different branches of office divisions play their role in apple to be very significant. Each division will have the same goals and visions as a whole company. There are no differences in the culture as the employees all aim for their goals as they have been trained through out the job.
What are some perks of being an employee in apple?
The employee will be given a special discount for apple products and there are sections where the products are available for the employees discount perks or an employee purchase store.
The organizational structure of Apple during the time of Steve jobs was very focused on Steve jobs as the leader and he would make all of the decisions in apple and most of the Ideas came from him. As many people have known especially the employees of apple, that the products research and development process is kept very secretive with in apple and Steve jobs really wants to maintain it very secretive to avoid a give away of apples ideas.
A con to Steve jobs organizational structure is that the company often encounters the bottleneck situations of having ideas that are sourced only from the leader and what ever Steve jobs tends to have a habits of only focusing on one product at a time too much that he disregards the other products. Even his board of directors had also mentioned that he often talks about what he is currently working on only during the enterprise meetings. However the positive side of having this structure of organization is that product.
As you can see in the organizational structure above, Steve jobs really is the backbone of the whole company and he plays a big role in Managing the company among the board of directors. Blue represents vice presidents, orange represents the executive team and grey represents vp reports to jobs. The way he organizes his company is quite unique as he is the one that keep the company going as he is he the main source of motivation and is what basically drives the whole company and has proven to be a very successful organizational structure.
What would I change?
In my opinion I would probably change some aspect of the company to make it more of a democratic leadership. I would personally allow people to have free diverse opinions on the aspects of a problem, a design the product or anything that involve making decisions. I think giving people the freedom to have that privilege would motivate them to branch out much more Ideas for apple and maybe many more successful Ideas, as Steve jobs had said himself that, no matter how good you are, you will always need a group of talented people by your side to work with and I think that he should have given the type of privilege with in that idea to the employees, because the people at apple are already employed to love apple and want to see it branch out new and innovative ideas and I don’t see much wrong in that, although it may take longer to process all the ideas and onions on projects since there would be many people working on it to improve the product together. However either way even though he didn’t use the democratic style of management he still motivated and inspired his employees greatly and Steve jobs has still made apple as magnificent and amazing as it is today.
Steve jobs have always wanted his staff to be very creative and educated people or A+ students to work in his company. However he also finds it hard to find talented people who are very passionate about working in a company like apple as he described “ Like finding a needle in a hay stack”. Steve jobs strictly strains on the aspect of hiring employees and he takes his interviews very seriously as he even stated that “an hours interview with the person is not enough”. Steve jobs dose not only look for what’s in the person’s resume or the typical Answers to a cleverly phrased question. He is also interested in finding out the person’s true personality and capabilities and interests of wanting to see the company grow and improve for the future. His favorite question to ask is “why are you here? The question that always makes anyone thinks openly.
Steve jobs have always been the one who interviews his employees and he had never delegated the duty to another person, in which he thinks that it is very important thing he had to do. What Steve jobs liked to ask himself is “ Are they going to fall in love with apple?” An employee who loves working in apple and is passionate and motivated to create and develop apple is what Steve jobs tries to develop in the working culture of apple and wants everyone to be much more united in a way as such every single person in apple play an important role in keeping apple alive and moving forward. If the employees love apple, the company will flourish on its own. The candidates for apple will always be questioned of their goals and ambitions if working at apple.
I would say that the company and working culture at apple has a feel of play culture and a bit of aggressive corporate culture. The reason is because Steve jobs highly encourage creativity and passion for apple. It is somewhat an aggressive culture because it is very hard to pick the right people for apple and Steve jobs always expects the employees to be very adaptable with new changes and be very quick learners and quick results and he always wants his employees to keep learning and improving in each second of their work.
What drives the employees to work at apple and how does Steve jobs motivate them?
What do the employees think?
A good motivational aspect of working at apple is that every employee in apple feels like they have important roles no matter their duties, I as it comes naturally and also through leadership style, that every worker or employee at apple is free to express ideas and innovation excessively. Employees always feel important and useful, because they are responsible for the next generation of innovative products that would reflect productivity in their society. An apple Inc. software engineer quoted “Engineers at Apple get to make real contributions that will benefit tens or hundreds of millions of people everyday. That’s awesome,” And a store manager of apple quotes “I joined Apple because I wanted to be part of something bigger than myself.” As the manager and software engineer expressed, those Apple employees really do take pride in their own company’s innovation and are interested in seeing the company grow. . Employees at apple really appreciate being surrounded by smart people, as Steve jobs had only want A level graduate students to work at apple. A quote by an apple employee quoted “bright and talented people everywhere” Although this makes the employees work more competitive, it also motivates them to work even harder and give out their best to keep up with their high standards. There have been studies on Apples salary pays according to payscale.com, Employee positions in apple earn above the average industry average. Even the employees working in the retails of Apple are about to get their raise in salaries as they also play a significant role in customer service and satisfaction of Apples. The people ranging from engineers to managers are in benefit of Apples given salaries, which is one of the rewarding aspects of working at Apple. Workers from retails to engineers enjoy going to work and it makes them feel very special to be in a company as big and successful and motivating as Apple Inc.
The motivation that Steve jobs provides not only for his companies employees but to everyone else out there no matter if he or she is a student or working individuals and others. He wants his employees to be the best and he motivates anyone who is about to step in to the real world and in courage’s them to fail and learn form mistakes as he had did in his past life that man him the man he was. He encourages people to do what they love for a living and be good at what they love to do to be successful. Steve jobs also stresses on how we should be very passionate on what ever we do. He says that if we do what we love and we face difficulties in the line of work, He or she will strive to overcome obstacles and difficulties and will have a good chance of succeeding.
” Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick, Don’t loose faith”
Apple Inc. with a closer look 