Steve Jobs Essays (Examples)

Steve Jobs Remarkable Career
There are two current events that make a discussion of Steve Jobs career an especially interesting endeavor. The first is that the co-founder and notorious Apple visionary stepped down as the company's chief executive (Zweig, 2011). Shortly after Jobs stepped down he passed away. Many health care professionals believe that Jobs death may have been preventable and attribute his early death to his choice of trying to treat his disease through an alternative medicine approach (Michelson, 2011). Jobs was actually aware of his condition fairly early in its development which provided him an opportunity to treat it with traditional approaches however Jobs refused.

Steve Jobs is often accredited as the man who turned around Apple Inc. from the verge of collapse on several junctures. Another headline that dominated many of the major media networks recently is that Apple just passed up Exxon Mobile to become the world's most…

Steve Jobs and Entrepreneurialship
College dropouts Steve ozniak and Steve Jobs founded Apple Computer in April 1976. The 1984 launch of the Macintosh computer finally moved Apple into the business office, and by 1988, over one million Mac's had been sold. Jobs stunned the world with the 1984 Super bowl commercial, and literally changed computing for all time (Appleseed, 1984). Now, Apple designs, develops, produces markets and services microprocessor-based personal computers, related software and peripheral products, including laser printers, scanners, compact disk read-only memory drives and other related products; and manufactures communications products that connect Apple systems to local area networks, connect the Macintosh to other computers and integrate the Macintosh into various computing environments. One of Apple's most successful new products is considered by many to be the current "ultimate" smart phone -- the iPhone, capturing over 40 million sales in 2010 alone, and almost 20 million in Q1 2011…

Steve Jobs made sure that his devices were simple and beautiful, and I would be interested in learning how to devote so much passion into the products I am going to be working with in the future.
The 'reality distortion field' is a catchphrase that was attached to Steve Jobs because of his willingness to do whatever it took to get his way in every situation. In his biography, Steve Jobs, alter Isaacson gives the subject of this phenomena a full chapter entitled "The Reality Distortion Field: Playing by His Own Set of Rules." (Isaacson, 117) He would lie to his coworkers, create fake deadlines, and refuse to yield to design choices of his, which caused a lot of friction in his workplace. This attitude got Jobs fired from Apple in 1986, and he did not return to Apple HQ again until 1997 after his successful stint with Pixar Studios…

Steve Jobs
How Steve Jobs demonstrated or used coercive and legitimate power

Coercive power

Jobs was famously arrogant, even pulling up to Apple's front entrance and parking in a handicapped space in the famously crowded Apple parking lot, because no one dared to ticket him (Kahney 2008).

Employees lived in fear of being fired by Jobs at Apple. "At most companies, the red-faced, tyrannical boss is an outdated archetype, a caricature from the life of Dagwood. Not at Apple. Whereas the rest of the tech industry may motivate employees with carrots, Jobs is known as an inveterate stick man" (Kahney 2008).

Jobs was known to curse at or openly berate employees in public whom he felt were underperforming (Mui 2008).

Jobs openly played favorites. "There is a small group at Apple...called the Top 100" which Jobs gathered for "an intense three-day strategy session at a proverbially secure, undisclosed location" annually (Lashinsky 2008). Jobs would remove individuals…

Steve Jobs was a visionary leader, who preferred a centralized command structure in order to execute his visions. He rallied people around his vision, getting a high degree of buy-in, and in the process was able to build a leading consumer products company. He founded Apple and guided it to early success. After his ouster, the company lost its way, but when Jobs came back into the company, he was able to guide the company to incredible success, leaving it as the largest company in the world by market cap. This paper examines Jobs the entrepreneur, and visionary leader who was able to transform the way that people interact with their technology.
Steve Jobs has long been a compelling figure in American business. He was raised in California by his adoptive parents. After high school, Jobs attended eed College in Oregon, but dropped out shortly thereafter. After this time, he visited…

Steve Jobs as the best of the 10 Best Leaders of 2005. In fact, it was not him but his partner who created the Apple and Jobs was shown to have expropriated some of his ideas -- including the original idea for Apple from others. More so, one can claim that Jobs had lousy leadership skills. After all, he was manipulative, frequently cruel to employees and others, egoistical, and bullying. This was the reason why Apples fired him and Jobs was forced to start afresh and failed until Apple hired him again as their leader (Isaacson, 2011).
Job's leadership success it may be argued resulted from his imagination, creatively, and ability to take risks. It also resulted in his love for his job -- a job that he was willing o be paid only $1.00 a year -- a token sum in his last tenure as manager for he was…

Leadership
One of the most influential business leaders of the last century is Steve Jobs. Jobs helped his technology firm Apple, Inc. rise to fame and outpace competitors through the duration of his tenure. He has been called a "business genius," and is on "a very short list of greatest American businessmen ever," (Nocera, 2011, p. 1). Biographer Isaacson (2012) places Steve Jobs in the same sentence as Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Walt Disney, deliberately choosing visionary leaders who were also controversial like Steve Jobs. Some of Steve Jobs's biographers point out that his business acumen extended far beyond the realm of technology. Steve Jobs "helped to transform seven industries: personal computing, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, retail stores, and digital publishing," (Isaacson, 2012, p. 1). It can also be safely said that Jobs transformed the nature of media marketing, as the iTunes model has established a firm precedent…

Steve Jobs' leadership
Steve Jobs founded Apple because he had a passion to create a new, stylish, user-friendly computer. He did not become an entrepreneur to make money. Jobs was motivated by a desire to see his ideals for what technology should look like and feel like become manifest. This passion became clear after Jobs returned to the company he founded after a brief hiatus. "For years, Jobs plugged away at Apple with his more proprietary approach, not worrying much about Wall Street's complaints. In fact, one of his first moves was to take an ax to Apple's product line, lopping off dozens of products to focus on just four… Apple has eschewed calls to boost market share by making lower-end products or expanding into adjacent markets where the company wouldn't be the leader. 'I'm as proud of what we don't do as I am of what we do,' Jobs…

Culture of Ethics
Team-Building

The author of this report is to answer several questions for this exercise. The first question pertains to whether Steve Jobs, prolific late leader of Apple Corporation, was an ethical leader. Further, the author is to explain Steve Jobs was or was not an ethical leader. Further, the author is to answer to the question of whether or not the author is an acolyte or a rejecter and why the answer is one or the other. While Steve Jobs did blur some ethical and legal lines, he was a great leader for Apple and the author of this report is most certainly a rejecter in terms of gleaning onto the traits and aspects of others.

Steve Jobs is certainly one of the more prolific and notorious names in the history of industry, consumer electronics and computing right along with people like Bill Gates of Microsoft and Larry Ellison of…

Steve Jobs: Innovative or Creative?
The difference between creativity and innovation is rather subtle. Indeed, the two words have in the past been used interchangeably. To determine whether Steve Jobs was innovative or creative, we would first have to define the two terms and highlight what each entails.

Creativity, as I have pointed out above is most times associated with innovation. In the words of Clegg (2009, p. 2), "from the origins of the words themselves, innovation would seem to be about newness, while creativity is about bringing something into being." Although it appears rather difficult to firmly put Steve Jobs in either category, upon closer analysis of his life and times, one would say that Jobs was more innovative than creative.

To begin with, in addition to seeking problems, innovators, according to McKenna (p. 237), "derive a challenge from seeking new and possibly unexpected solutions." Most of the products whose development Jobs…

Apple Jobs
Apple's Post-Jobs Shift From Innovation to Ethicality

The death of Steve Jobs would mark a sharp transition in the history of the Apple Company. Driven by innovation under the visionary CEO's watch, Apple would nonetheless be the subject of criticism for its negative ethical performance in areas such as labor rights and environmental compliance. Jobs untimely death would bring new CEO Tim Cook into the office under intense pressure both to maintain the company's high product development standards and to alter its decidedly lesser ethical standards. This discussion considers the ethical flaws which persisted under Jobs and some of the steps taken by Cook to alter Apple's troubled ethical reputation.

Section I. General description of the enterprise and its environment

Apple has enjoyed a reputation as a progressive and ethical company largely on the strength of its image is a cutting edge technology company whose products are used and enjoyed by progressively…

Leadership Lessons From Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs was a transformational leader, both from a technological and human leadership standpoint. Having not only launched Apple but also saved it from bankruptcy when he returned in 1997, Steve Jobs showed a unique set of transformational skills that would set both him and his company apart globally more than any other technology-related brand. The intent of this analysis is to evaluate Apple Computer from the standpoint of Steve Job's major impact and influence on it, including a discussion of the three major business challenges that needed to be overcome for the company to succeed. The leadership style Steve Jobs relied on is also discussed. His role as a transformational leader is clear by how effectively he could communicate a product vision and mobilize organizations in the tens of thousands of people to accomplish them (Cheung, Wong, 2011). Third, his effectiveness as a transformational leader…

Corporate Leadership
Case

The late Steve Jobs was a pioneer and leader in technology and in leadership. He has been praised as being one of the best leaders during the 21st century (2005) by Forbes. The paper will discuss concepts of strong and good leadership as well as how Steve Jobs' performance as leader of Apple, Inc. coincided with these criteria.

It is no secret that Apple is one of the most prominent companies in its industry with a strong international presence. Apple technology has influence global culture and the global economy. There were periods during the company's existence where Jobs was not the leader, but the company saw some of its most dramatic growth and profit under his leadership until his recent passing. One trait of a strong leader that Jobs had that he commanded and engaged groups well. He knew how to speak effectively in front of others and to get…

here are many changes affecting business operations of companies; producers change their production method to save on cost and to maximize on revenue, consumers' tastes and preferences do change. Apple's marketing environment face the following challenges, high rates of inflation, stiff competition from other producers, high costs of production and influence from the natural environment's policies. Apple's political and legal environment has a broad spectrum, laws and regulations impact on the marketing strategy of a company.
Without regulations and laws in business, means that some firms will transact unfairly, laws are not only limited to, legislations, but it can also include public policies that protect consumers of product in any said market. Apple is faced with legislations and laws that govern its market operations, some of these laws and policies not only include, price controls, labor laws, tax policies, import and export laws and consumers protection Acts and legislations. On…

According to Fred Vogelstein in his anecdotally-driven “And Then Steve Said, ‘Let There Be an iPhone’,” Steve Jobs was a very driven leader—determined to unite showmanship with performance, and he manifested this determination in no uncertain words, often expressing his dissatisfaction with his engineers by telling them directly, sternly and seriously, “‘You are [expletive] up my company,’ or, ‘If we fail, it will be because of you.’ He was just very intense. And you would always feel an inch tall” (Vogelstein). Jobs did not mince words or dance around what he wanted. Even if what he wanted was technically impossible—like sending radio waves through metal—he would insist that the engineers figure out a way to bring his vision to life. He was insistent, but he could back up his insistence with a vision that was truly innovative and revolutionary, which made his insistence meaningful. Vogelstein identifies other personality traits of Jobs—such…

There are different types of leadership power; position power and personal power are two types of power. These can be exemplified by examining two different leaders who leveraged the two power types.
Position Power

Position power is obtained based purely on an individual's position within a hierarchy, seniority within a hierarchy can be used in order to reward or punish an individual. One well-known example of a leader, often cited as a visionary entrepreneur, Steve Jobs. While he may have had a high level of focus, and achieved great things, he was also an individual who leveraged position power. Jobs was known to have a low level of tolerance, expected everybody to comply with his orders, without question (Celse, 2014). He was able to make these high demand because of his position, which meant that his power was legitimate (Schein, 1992). However, to demonstrate he was leveraging position power, rather than simply…

"
Congress allocates approximately $220 million annually for TAA training (Labor, 2006). Each year, the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration allocates 75% of available TAA funds, or $165 million (Labor, 2006). The remaining 25% of funds are reserved for states experiencing large, unexpected layoffs during the year. States may request additional money from the reserve account after they have spent at least 50% of the allocated TAA funds (Labor, 2006). "

As this allotment and others like it illustrate the job programs in place are designed to help those who have educations or trade backgrounds and experience.

They provide additional benefits and perks to those in that position but for those who are unskilled and have been laid off of minimum wage positions the job programs do very little to assist them.

A case in point was when Kmart opted to close down more than 300 of its stores nationwide that…

Jobs Overseas and the Effect it has on Employees in the Financial Industry: A Correlational Study
After globalization

Global changes in the banking and financial sectors have cause flow of not only work but finance to countries that were unreachable like China and Indian have opened markets globally owing to the international and U.S. pressure after globalization. The need to invest in these countries stem from the fact that Indian market is very lucrative especially with the Forex and commodities. These changes have resulted in the introduction of information technology, networking, the way work is done, and qualifications has caused the outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries and thus has become the biggest economic issues of recent years. Thousands of American jobs are lost each year resulting in a fall of pay for workers around the world thus: "We need taxation on companies that export jobs and incentives for those that…

Steve Harvey impact on TV and Radio
Steve Harvey has continued to attract attention in every major entertainment arena, the screen, stage, radio, and the television. The resume or the Cleveland native reads like some kind of mini novel: as anchor of the popular show, "It is Showtime at Apollo," for seven years, anchor for the W sitcom, "The Steve Harvey Show," for six years, a tour with the famous 'Cedric the Entertainer', ernie Mac and D.L. Hughley in their hugely successful Kings of Comedy Tour. He featured in the movie, "Fighting Temptations" alongside eyonce Knowles and Cuba Gooding Jr. He was recently featured in a hit movie titled, "The Johnson Family Vacation" alongside Vanessa Williams and Cedric. The W renewed his "Steve Harvey's ig Time" for one more season and continuously supplies the largest turnout of audiences the W network has ever seen per week. He is also known to…

Intuit's New CEO: Steve Bennett
In many ways, Intuit was a classic entrepreneurial success story. Seventeen years after its founding, the company reached $1 billion in sales, was solidly profitable, and its stock price was 40 times FY 2000 earnings. Evaluate the state of Intuit's development prior to Bennett's arrival in early 2000 using the frameworks described in Models of Organizational Growth and Evolution (stages of organizational growth; pyramid of organizational development, the eight hurdles model). What hurdles have they successfully cleared? Where have they stumbled?

Evaluation of the state of Intuit prior to the arrival of Steve Bennett can be in the form of the organizational development and evolution models. This would determine the level or degree of success in relation to the strategies and objectives of the company. The first model to apply in the examination of the situation of Intuit within the economy is the stages of organizational growth.

Stages…

Perhaps the author chose the most sensationally bad decisions from his year of research to show the inherent problems with the system. Of course, he could not chronicle every case and every decision, that would be impossible in a 300-plus page book. However, the reader has to wonder what he left out, and if it would have given the book a different feeling and tone if he had included some more positive cases, as well. Perhaps, like the beat reporters he discusses in the book, he fell under the spell of showcasing the "heater" cases that would be interesting and noteworthy.
Certainly, most of the people in this book are criminals, and they committed the crimes they were accused of. However, there seems to be no way to end this cycle of crime and jail. Many of these people clearly need help, not jail time, but there seems to be…

Employing Linguistic Anthropology Theories
There are myriad facets of the cultural ramifications for linguistics and its convergence with anthropology. As such, these cultural consequences pertain to people in various nation states and the verbal expression that reflects how people communicate in those countries. The early 2000's film The Italian Job offers an accurate portrayal of certain linguistic tendencies evinced within American culture. Specifically, it delineates certain facets of power within social constructs as it applies to the way people speak to one another. A close analysis of these proclivities reveals that three linguistic anthropology theories -- remaining polite and clear when speaking to others to demonstrate competency as a speaker, turn-taking among various participants, and deploying bald directives as a means of demonstrating power -- abound more than others do. All of these theories are manifest in this film to prove that the leader of the group attempting to steal stolen…

Ironically this passion and transformational leadership is what also makes the Apple customer base so incredibly loyal over time and even elitist at times in their commitment to the Apple brand and its products (Burrows, Grover, Green, 2006). All of these factors are directly influenced by Steve Jobs; transformational leadership style.
Third, Steve Jobs is also exceptionally transparent and honest with his employees, and in the case of his commencement address at Stanford University, with the world about his cancer condition. The YouTube video of this speech is worth looking at; it is inspiring to see a transformational leader speak with the conviction and passion he has. This honesty and transparency inspires trust in not only the vision but also the person. Steve Jobs is known for being brutally honest about his assessment of the quality of work done at Apple, and it is this candor that has been part…

raster graphics, wire-frame and 3D modeling performance, and refresh rates of their screens. What began to occur in the company's culture as a result of this focus on graphics performance and CPU acceleration was a bifurcation or splitting of product lines. At the high end Apple was gradually turning into a workstation company that could easily challenge Sun Microsystems or Silicon Graphics for supremacy of graphically-based calculations. At the low-end, the company was pursuing an aggressive strategy of dominating special-purpose laptops.
This strategy was entirely predicated on the core metrics of price/performance on hardware defining a culture that put pricing above all else, paradoxically nearly driving the company out of business during this period. The focus on metrics that were meant to purely define the Apple competitive advantage made the company descend into pricing wars with competitors whose business models were much more attuned to pricing competition. The metrics the…

ERG and Herzberg's Motivational Theories:
The life of Steve Jobs

The response to the death of Steve Jobs can be described as nothing short of extraordinary. Mourners placed flowers at Apple stores all over the world. How can this be explained, given the fact that Apple was a commercial product that people bought, not a spiritual movement? The answer is that in his design philosophy Steve Jobs made use of ERG motivational theory, tapping into the potential for self-actualization in terms of how his machines were constructed. Instead of simply being functional, Apple products embodied a concept of sleekness, excellence in design, and belief in human potential. The ERG concept was likewise embodied in Jobs' own life -- Jobs was a businessman who strove to make a profit, yet he also sincerely loved his work and continued to work, long after he could have retired or delegated more of his work to…

The launch of The Apple Store, Apple's online retail center that made it the first major computer manufacturer to sell its products directly to consumers, was the third largest online retailer within a week of its launch, signaling the success of Jobs' new vision (Sanford 2010). Having bought out many of the company's licensing agreements with other manufacturers, Jobs was focusing on making the company entirely contained in its vertical integration, and this has served the company incredibly well ever since (Sanford 2010).
The iPod was released to phenomenal sales, and these sales continue with newer models and with other products like the iPhone and the most recent iPad. No sales strategy could account for all of these products' success, however; obsession with detail is one of Jobs' overriding traits, and the aesthetic and practical design elements of these products are huge factors in their ongoing domination of sales for…

Apple Company and how it recruits talent, how it selects and trains talent, and why it has become the most successful and most visible technology company in the world.
Description of Apple

The Apple Company (Apple Inc.) was first incorporated on the 3rd of January 1977. Apple is known for its excellence in "…designing, manufacturing and marketing mobile communication and media devices," according to the Apple profile written by Reuters. Steve Jobs and Steve ozniak worked together to invent the Apple computers (Apple I and Apple II), and Apple II was the first successful computer designed for home computing using a mouse-driven graphical device.

Meanwhile, today, the devices that Apple designs and manufacturers include personal computers, portable digital music players, iPhones, iPads, Macintosh products, apple TV among other electronic devices.

In addition to these products, Apple sells many peripherals, a variety of software programs, networking solutions and "…third-party digital content and applications," Reuters…

Apple Computer is one of the great corporate success stories of the past decade. On the back of a successive string of hit products, the company has experience rapid growth over the past several years. In its last fiscal year, ended 9/25/2010, Apple earned $14 billion on revenues of $65.2 billion (Apple Inc. Fiscal 2010 Form 10-K). These figures increased 70% and 52% respectively in fiscal 2010. Apple has a stellar balance sheet and its stock price is now at a lofty $315 per share (MSN Moneycentral, 2010).
Apple's primary business is in consumer electronics. The company's core businesses are in personal computers, mp3 players, smartphones and electronic media. Apple's leading products include the Mac line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad tablet computer. The company's media properties include the iTunes music store and the iPhone App Store. Apple operates a number of proprietary retail outlets and markets…

Both of these presenters also move away from being overtly positive or self-congratulatory in how they describe their accomplishments. Rather, they both show how failure stripped away all non-essential aspects of their lives so they could concentrate on what mattered most to them. This was a very liberating aspect of the J.K. Rowling presentation. Steve Jobs uses the sober reality of cancer to make the same point. This is an advanced approach to making a presentation; they are both relying on the paradox of defeat to show how success comes out of the focus and discipline it requires. These are very powerful techniques in public speaking and presentations because both of these celebrities aren't afraid to admit so publically how far they fell in their lives before experiencing exceptional success. In doing this they make their presentations resonate with an exceptionally high level of trust and transparency. Combining this with…

Visionary Leaders
Leaders come in many different types and flavors with the visionary leaders being the most prominent and cited much of the time. Names that come to mind are Oprah Winfrey, Steve Jobs and Warren Buffett. This report will cover the topic of visionary leadership in general as well as a focus on one leader in particular, that being Bill Gates of Microsoft fame, and how he himself signified and exemplified visionary leadership (USA Today, 2013). The author of this report is asked to what makes Bill Gates a visionary with some specific examples. The author is also asked to clarify and explain what a visionary leader brings to the workplace they operate in. The author is asked whether a visionary leader is needed in every workplace with a clarification of why or why not. Finally, the business conditions that call for visionary leadership are also asked for.

Questions Answered

The author…

Functions Management
The purpose of this report is to analyze the leadership and planning systems at Apple Inc. Apple has been one of the success stories of the past decade. Leadership has played a strong role in Apple's success, with the company generally thriving under Steve Jobs and struggling under other leaders. ith Jobs' passing, the company faces a challenge of adapting its leadership and planning systems, both of which were centered around Jobs' charismatic leadership.

The study focuses on two sources of information. There is little academic literature on Apple, in part because of the company's famous secrecy. The business press, however, has analyzed the company's leadership and planning processes and was used as a source of information. In addition, literature focusing on the leadership and planning theories was used to develop the frameworks for analysis.

The findings of this report are that Apple's success in the past has relied on charismatic…

Deutschman, Alan. (200) The Second Coming of Steve Jobs. New York, Doubleday.
For those individuals with short memories, Steve Jobs of Apple Computer is the technical guru who led his company to prominence with the iMac and the iPod. But this recent success is the second act of a business career that has spanned many highs and lows over its long course. For Alan Deutschman, author of The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, the tile subject is the comeback kid of the technical business world. Jobs began his Macintosh Company as a rival to IBM. His company remains the greatest rival to Bill Gates' behemoth company Microsoft. How did Jobs accomplish this? hat is his leadership style that enabled him to scale such heights?

Deutchman, a great storyteller, begins his text with Jobs expulsion as leader of the company he founded in 1985 and ends with Jobs' return and success. Rather than…

Charitable Contributions and Tax Benefits
Unfortunately, much of the elite of the upper class are afforded leeway and loopholes on tax obligations that allow them to pay much less percentage wise than other taxpayers in different income brackets. Much of this is due to the ability to use tax deductions, like charitable contributions in large amounts, to lower their annual personal incomes before taxes. However, many of the top contributors to charity donate above the maximum allowances for charitable deductions, showing a clear resolution to give based on ethics, rather than for the sole purpose of tax deductions alone,

Bill Gates is currently one of the top money makers in the world, yet he is also one of the largest contributors to charitable institutions as well. The amounts of donations Bill Gates contributes to various charities, including his own charitable foundation, is well over the top end limit of what is allowed…

Strategic Development
Supporting Strategic Development

One of the biggest development issues any company ahs is if they are at a stage where growth into new markets is possible. At some point the market place is going to get so crowded that a company has to decide whether it is going to try and survive in the present market or forge into new ones. Or, the company can simply create a new market through a niche product. Whatever the solution, the company first has to tak a close look at itself to determine if it is a good idea for them or not. The process by which companies do this is by determining a strategic plan whereby it is possible. To implement this strategic plan a company will have use different approaches that take into account how the company is doing at all levels of the process. Considering that a certain company is…

Managing to Keep Apple Fresh: Organizational Culture
Issue Identification

Employees

Competitors

Critical Discussion

Path-goal Model

Today, Apple can be regarded one of the most successful companies in the industry within which it operates. At some point, the company was headed for collapse. After Steve Jobs took control as CEO (from 1997), he instituted a drastic turnaround of the firm which has since then more or less dominated the industry. A number of factors have contributed to Apple's success; one of those being effective leadership skills. Steve Jobs knew how to set goals and get everyone to work towards achieving them by amongst other things aligning the organizational culture with the organizational goals. Apple's success story is proof that effective culture management is one of the ingredients of effective leadership. This text will explore the different culture-management practices that have been employed by Apple's leadership.

Issue Identification

Organizational culture refers to the values, practices, and beliefs held by the…

Human Resource Retention
Human Resources Membership and Retention

Organized labor unions have seen a decline in membership retention of the last twenty years because of a loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States. There are many different perspectives in which to view this phenomenon from. Due to the rise of the globalized business environment, labor is no longer necessarily required to be in proximity to the parent company. More and more organizations are outsourcing labor or opening foreign operations in locations where the labor force is far less expensive and yet still highly skilled. Therefore businesses have a strong financial incentive to explore labor markets around the world. Furthermore, in many cases, there are also significantly relaxed or no regulations present in foreign markets. All of these factors make it difficult for labor in the United States to be competitive and in turn the organized labor unions have diminished from their…

Business -- Apple Computers
Historically, what was Apple's competitive advantage in the computer business?

Apple's competitive advantage began almost immediately after the company's launch in 1976. Within months, the first 200 units produced by Jobs and Wozniak enabled them to secure venture capital to grow the firm into the leading producer of computers in a market that quickly grew to $1 billion in annual sales, of which Apple's Apple II product accounted for 100,000 units sold. Apple subsequently overcame the initial setback of the challenge from IBM's Windows-based products by opening new markets after 1985, in connection with which its expansion into desktop publishing and education and peripherals allowed Apple to recapture more than half the entire computer market and accumulate $1 billion in cash reserves and recognition as the world's leader in computer manufacturing.

The company's competitive advantage was further invigorated by the release of the iMac in 1998 that supported Windows-based…

Ethics at Apple
Apple has been for some time now the leading manufacturer of innovative wireless technologies, including the iPhone, the iPad, iPods, and Macintosh computers that do more and set the table for other manufacturers to emulate "Mac" innovations. Following the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs -- and the emergence of Tim Cook as the new CEO -- the technology media and happy Apple consumers wait for the next launch of an innovative device that will change the way people communicate and retrieve information.

hat are the Apple values and ethics? The "Apple Values" section of the Apple Employee Handbook (circa 1993) sets the record straight on what is expected of employees. In short, Apple asserts that "…we will not compromise our ethics or integrity in the name of profit" (seanet.com). hat Apple does is "…set aggressive goals and drive ourselves hard to achieve them" and "build products" that "extend…

planning, assessment and measurement of proposed idea plays the most important role. Steve Jobs, Michael Dell and ill Gates are renowned names for their ideas in computer businesses. ut in fact there is no mystery behind any successful business; just you need is the right procedure and decisions to follow.
Preparing a business model is the first step towards the path of successful business. However, before you start developing model one must estimate whether idea has the potential to return enough value to the business, sponsors, stakeholders and customers. For this purpose, one must do complete research of the target market.

This assignment is based on building a computer company that would supply desktop, PCs, software and hardware parts to the customers. It first requires identification of target market and needs whether there is an opportunity for this business. Develop model and structure your business accordingly; how the hardware and software…

Furthermore, there are a number of similarities and overlaps between such leadership theories that do not prevent their being characterized as transformational in nature. For example, "Most leaders behave in both transactional and transformational ways in different intensities and amounts; this is not an entirely either-or differentiation" (Miner, 2002 p. 743).
One of the more interesting issues to emerge from the research is the need for transformational leaders to teach what they know to others. Certainly, it would be reasonable to assume that most leaders got where they are by virtue of some innate skill or ability within an organization, and while it would likely be easier - and faster -- for them to simply do some things themselves, teaching others how to become effective leaders in their own right is a fundamental responsibility and effective leaders and serves to differentiate a truly transformational leader from others leadership styles: "True…

Possibly the reason this particular principle comes across as counterintuitive in the first place is precisely that it so often not the case at all. Few sports teams are devoid of internal factions or "cliques" and of antagonistic relationships among certain individuals who do not necessarily like one another. This is also true of members of coaching staffs. In business, it is more likely rare than common that all members of a successful team necessarily like one another. Therefore, this conclusion of Wooden's may be among the least supportable and the most dependent on conjecture, personal experience, and contrary to many counterexamples in sports and in business.
2. Enthusiasm -- Wooden maintains that individuals in positions of leadership must be highly motivated and that they must also be positive types of people. This seems counterintuitive because so many successful leaders in sports and in business are actually negative people who…

Apple Strategy
Apple: An Application of the Strategic Management Model

Current Situation

Apple Computer still has a small market share in the computer sector compared to some other PC manufacturers as of 2006, particularly Dell and Hewlett-Packard, however its share is growing and its profitability is quite high thanks to huge shares in the mp3-player market and in other technologies (Case Study, nd.). The company's vision and strategy of innovation and almost rabid protection of intellectual property rights (real or imagined) are made quite clear by both its actions and its own statements, and the company's performance also speaks volumes about the brand image and operational practices it pursues as a means of achieving greater market share and profitability (Apple, 2012; NY Times, 2012; Yahoo Finance, 2012). There appears to be a great deal of cohesion in the mission, objectives, values, and operations of the company, which functions quite cohesively (NY Times, 2012).

Corporate…

Leadership
The ole of Leadership in Developing and Implementing Strategy

The role of a leader is important in the determination and implementation of strategy within an organization. The potential impact of a leadership maybe seen with many examples; one is the return of Steven Jobs to the role as CEO of Apple when the firm was struggling. Jobs returned to this role in Apple in 1997 when the firm was struggling. It was under the leadership of Jobs, that the firm adopted a new strategy, rebuilding the image of Apple and developing the lifestyle product range starting with the iPod and iTunes (Stone, 2011). As well as increasing market share the success may be seen in the capitalization of the firm which increased from $5 billion in 1997 to $350 billion in 2011 (Stone, 2011). Another example may be seen when Howard Schultz returned as CEO to Starbucks in 2008, a time…

83% in 2008 compared to 2007, but by 127.10% when compared to 2004. Shareholder equity is also included in the ascendant trend revealed by Apple for all financial highlights. By 2008, it had increased by 314.30% relative to 2004. Compared to the previous year, the growth was of 44.71%.
The final row of the table deals with the net cash provisions used by the investing operations. These do not reveal a trend, increasing in some years and decreasing throughout others. They however show that Apple has been active in seizing investment opportunities, and that, while some project have returned a significant return on investment, in other cases, the benefits have yet to materialize. In 2008 as compared to 2007, the cash provisions used by the investment operations met an increase of 152.04%. This is the single sign in the financial analysis which may suggest that Apple should not invest any more…

In short, I would attempt to coach them to where they felt their passions were for work so they could be successful. It would be more consultative and coaching to them. I think this approach would help to diffuse the stress of the employee not doing the work correctly or at all, and help them get to a position in their careers where they could excel. I think they would appreciate that; ultimately the best managers specifically focus on helping their subordinates get to their goals, regardless if those goals are in their department or not. it's best, I believe, to have honest discussions like these with subordinates to show that I would care about them as people too, and that working for me is more of a coaching and developmental experience and less of a dictatorial or demanding one.
Describe some of the major stressors in the workplace? What…

In China, that is not the case and there are tens of millions of peasants who would read such descriptions and think those workers lucky. Such context would have made for a more balanced and honest article.
Indeed, the initial article is one of the more flawed in the series of reports that the Times put out on the Foxconn issue. The article begins with an anecdote about a worker who was killed in an accident. The reality is that workers are killed on the job every day in America, too. The company paid his family quickly with a check as compensation. Again, the article makes this sound somewhat harsh, but an American firm might drag the case through the court system for years. There is no sense of contrast provided in the scathing original article that would allow a reader to have a better sense of why China's working…

organizational Behavior Matter?
Organizational behavior is basically the study of how establishments can be structured more successfully, and how more than a few events in their outside circumstances result administrations. Learning a lot in regards to organizational behavior in today's commerce environment could aid those that are supervisors that are building up a better work that relates to an understanding of themselves and their supplementary. Organizational behavior matters because it is everything an organization cares about. Organizational behavior can assist a person in becoming more betrothed as an organizational member. Being able to get along with other people, finding a good job, bringing the level of stress, making decisions that are effective, and working successfully with a group. All of these things are good attributes and Organizational behavior addresses them! Organizations are all over the place. hen we come into this world, we are in an organization, we live, and…

But, significantly, the category "politics and history" is the second most popular at 15 per cent" (Cohen, 2008).
Consensus vs. Credentials -- Scholarship implies a certain level of expertise on a given subject. The public must trust its sources, and those sources must be authoritative and peer reviewed. Most anyone can "read up" on a subject, but lack the rigorous academic analysis required in graduate school -- the pool that forms experts. Individuals may, or may not be, familiar with the latest in scholarship because they may or may not have access to the journals within a given field, or have the time to attend conferences to listen to the new directions and discoveries that academics are paid to pursue (Boyd, 2005).

eliability and Accuracy -- Without any general editors, fact checkers, or other controls, Wikipedia encourages those without verifiable credentials to present material on which no one knows if they…

I used Yahoo Japan, a kind of Japanese eBay, and bought Pokemon cards from Japanese people at a low price point. I was able to resell cards at a premium price to Americans on eBay. While still in high school I became a top-rated seller on eBay, meaning I sold more than $12,000 in merchandise in 3 months.
My special something is my entrepreneurship. My business taught me the need to research what consumers want and look for new ways to do business. The world has just overseen the passing of a great entrepreneur -- Steve Jobs -- who changed the way human beings communicate because of his entrepreneurial genius. As Jobs said: "Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work." I know that if I love what I…

Operations at Apple Inc.
Statistical technique to measure the quality characteristics of Apple Inc.

Six-sigma was created in the 1980s at Motorola as a strategy to measure and enhance high-volume processing procedures. Its overall objective was to measure and dispose of waste by endeavoring to accomplish nearly perfect outcomes. The term six sigma refers to a statistical technique of measuring quality with a maximum of 3.4 imperfections out of a million. Various organizations like General Electric, Ford, and Apple Inc. have used six-sigma in their operations and have been able to save billions of dollars (Hubbard, 2009).

Six-Sigma is a statistically conscious strategy-to-process change that uses many tools to guarantee success. These tools include total quality management, statistical process control, and experimental designs. It may be facilitated with other vital activities and frameworks like a new item improvement, planning of material requirements and controls of just-in-time inventory. Initially, Six-sigma was considered a framework…

The Apple II computer was successfully launched and the company began to take shape and in 1980 the company went public and was able to produce more money than any company since Ford in 1956 (Thirty years of apple). When the company went public it also created more millionaires than had ever been created up to that point (Thirty years of apple).
There were several other computers that were released prior to 1984 when the Macintosh computer was released. By 1986 Wozniak left the company and in 1983 Steve Jobs had been ousted from the company (Thirty years of apple).

Charismatic leader of Apple Computer

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs is known as one of the most charismatic and successful CEO's in the world. It has been asserted that "While Wozniak was the technical brains, Jobs was the idealist. He wanted his computers to be both technically and visually beautiful - and he was…

CEO
According to Taylor (2009) of the Harvard Business eview, Steve Jobs, "for all of his virtues, clings to the Great Man Theory of Leadership -- a CEO-centric model of executive power that is outmoded, unsustainable, and, for most of us mere mortals, ineffective in a world of non-stop change." Taylor may be right. After all, Jobs is renowned for his eccentric yet egocentric leadership style. But whatever Jobs is doing seems to be working. As Kahney (2008) points out, "When Jobs retook the helm in 1997, the company was struggling to survive. Today it has a market cap of $105 billion, placing it ahead of Dell and behind Intel. Its iPod commands 70% of the MP3 player market. Four billion songs have been purchased from iTunes. The iPhone is reshaping the entire wireless industry. Even the underdog Mac operating system has begun to nibble into Windows' once-unassailable dominance; last year,…

Summary
Ideas are part of the grand process of business. Businesses create unique products and services that are then marketed to a customer base. This involves the use of innovation, commercialization and intellectual property rights to both create something unique, have the ability to market, and have the rights to protect it. Without either of these aspects, it can be difficult for a business to generate something worthwhile.

The case study of Apple Inc., and the iPhone is one that provides the tell-tale sign of innovation. People like Steve Jobs work hard to contribute something to their respective industries that is one of a kind, thus making their companies highly successful. To be a pioneer in an industry is to gain a chance to dominate in an emerging or established market. The iPhone represents the epitome of a new product revolutionizing the cell phone and electronics industry.

Without the hard work and dedication…

Apple (Mac) Finances and Globalization
Apple's goal is not making money, claims Sir Jonathan Ive - Apple's head of design. For a mega company that is worth a reported $539 billion, this might pass as a frivolous statement and Ive admits this. However, he asserts that his sentiments are true and factual. Ive clarifies that their goal is producing excellent products. These statements were made at the British Embassy's Creative Summit and were reported by The Telegraph. He stated that in being successful at this goal, consumers like the products Apple produces and when the company operates efficiently then revenue will definitely follow.

What happened in a courtroom in California does however negate these statements as Apple has engaged Samsung in several patent law suits in a number of countries the world over. In one such case against Samsung tablets and smart phones, Apple claims that Samsung products are blindly copied --…

Steve Jobs was removed from the Lisa project in 1982 by Apple before its debut in 1983. The computer also flopped badly, being too far ahead of its time and too expensive (priced at $10,000).
Jobs joined the Macintosh team in 1982 and proceded to make the product surpass Lisa by incorporating an advanced GUI in the computer. The Mac was launched in early 1984 and was succesful initially. By the end of the year, however, it started to lose out to overwhelming competition from IBM and Microsoft. (Sanford; "History of Apple Computers," ikipedia)

Jobs Loses his Job

By 1982, Steve Jobs had begun to realize that Apple was faced with increasing competition from heavyweight competitors such as IBM and Microsoft and needed outside help. He wooed John Sculley from Pepsi-Cola, who joined Apple as President and CEO in April 1983. The two, however, soon fell out and after an unsuccesful bid…

SWOT esource and Capability
Ethics and Social esponsibility

Fundamental principles of ethical leadership comprise of having honesty and integrity, taking note of all stakeholders, building community, and respecting the individual. Leaders ought to seek solutions to a sequence of significant questions prior to reaching a decision regarding an issue that is not clearly either ethical or unethical (DuBrin, 2016). The leader in question is Mary T. Barra, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of General Motors Company. Barra is considered to be a fantastic leader that is extensively respected around the industry, trusted by consumers across the globe, admired by the company's board and well-regarded by her personnel. Meticulously and transparently, Barra has restored trust and vivacity in the organization when it had been destroyed by a number of inconsiderate predecessors. In addition, Barra shaped General Motors' global footprint by bringing an end to Chevrolet sales in Europe and also ending…

This was accomplished by: breaking down into small teams and having everyone work directly with some of the top executives at the firm (i.e. Steve Jobs). This created an atmosphere that encouraged employees to discuss their ideas and the impact they are having on consumers. It is at this point, that Apple was able to integrate these different ideas into their performance evaluation procedures. (Stone 38 -- 40) (Snell 143 -- 179)
Conclusion

Clearly, the performance evaluation system that Apple is using is helping the firm to attract and retain the best employees. This is because there is a focus on ensuring that all candidates for a position meet: the basic educational and experience qualifications. During the next stage, is when they will be subject to: a series of interviews, a practical exam and other criteria. This allows the company to decide which individuals would be the best choice for the…

Skills for Complex Concepts
Skills for Handling Complex Concepts

There are various kinds of skills needed for handling of jobs. The three essential skills are human skills, technical skills, and conceptual skills. Human skills entail interpersonal and communicational relation skills applied to finish the task. Technical skills include human knowledge and proficiency regarding the methods, tools, or practices to be utilized in the task. Conceptual skills, on the other hand, allow an individual to view the situation as an entity and exercise his analytical skills for the task's completion.

I was needed to seek and assess data and to communicate my understanding to others and this was when I was in a group of four individuals in the course of my final year project. I was responsible for gathering data and relevant project information from the internet and documenting it using my individual assessment. I had to communicate my understanding of what I…

Operational implications iPod and iTunes downloads iPod must be an internet-based application. When the customer is online, the iTunes software is automatically tied to the iTunes store in such a way as to ensure that the user is up-to-date. The cover page of the iTunes site is the "store," which assures that any special promotions are immediately visible to the user.

From an operational standpoint, that means that iTunes and Apple need back-end intelligent customer recognition software -- similar to that pioneered by Amazon.com (Moser 2007). The customer's choices, demographics and other elements are gathered and used in order to help suggest additional purchases that the customer will enjoy.

A iPod purchase

Steve Jobs insists that the entire customer experience be stylish, easy and transparent. This extends to the packaging used by iPod: simple, elegant, and ready to use. While there is an instruction manual, everything is done on the iPod itself --…

Organizational behavior is a study that encompasses the examination and analysis of the influence that persons, groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations with the main intent of employing such understanding on behavior so as to make organizations function in a more effective manner. In other words, it is the analysis of what individuals undertake in an organization and how their behavior has an influence on the performance of the organization. By having an understanding of the manner in which interrelation and working together with others in the organization, followed by improvements can be undertaken for a company. An apparent characteristic of organizational behavior is discerning the detailed behaviors of personnel or groups of workers in diverse settings or how they respond to certain occasions or circumstances (obbins and Judge, 2013).
Organization's Background and Nature of its Business

Apple Inc., formerly known as Apple Computer, Inc., is a transnational American organization…