Steve Jobs was the co-founder and CEO of Apple Inc. who revolutionized multiple industries with his innovative products. As the leader of Apple, Jobs had an intense focus on product excellence but lacked strong interpersonal skills. He demanded perfection from employees and could be harsh. However, Jobs was also a visionary who empowered employees and surrounded himself with strong executives. While controversial, Jobs transformed Apple and the technology industry through his passion and willingness to take risks.

1. 1
Robert Amabile
Ranya K. Abdullah
Organizational Behavior & Management
Dr. Julita Haber
May 9, 2015
LLeadership Paper on Steve Jobs

2. 2
Table of Contents
THE MANBEHIND APPLE INC. ............................................................................................................ 3
LEADERSHIP ANALYSIS....................................................................................................................... 7
REFLECTION ........................................................................................................................................18
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................20

3. 3
The Man Behind Apple Inc.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Steve Jobs is the inventor of the well-known company, Apple. He was born on February 24, 1955 in
San Francisco, California by two graduate students from University of Wisconsin, but was given up for
adoption. Since a kid, Steve Jobs would work on electronics with his father, who also taught him how
to reconstruct different electronics (biography.com 2012). However, Jobs had always been intelligent,
he had a hard time adapting to the traditional way of schooling. In 1971, when Jobs enrolled at
Homestead High School, he met his future partner, Steve Wozniak. Wozniak was at that time attending
college. Even though, Wozniak was older and had had more experience with electronics than Jobs, they
had their common interests. After enrolling at college, Jobs dropped out after only six months, and
spent the next 18 months on attending classes that he found interesting, which were mostly creative
classes. The one class that turned everything upside-down was a calligraphy class, where Jobs
acknowledged his love for typography (biography.com 2012). Even though he was inspired, Jobs was
still a teenager and decided to travel around India and experiment with drugs. Finally, in 1976, Jobs and
Wozniak started Apple Computer. The focus of the duo was to democratize the technology, by making
the machines smaller and more accessible for everyday consumers (biography.com 2012). While
Wozniak created a series of user-friendly computers, Jobs was in charge of the marketing, which lead
to an earning of $774,000 for the first computer, Apple I (biography.com 2012). With some
improvements, the sales increased with 700 % three years later, to $139 million (biography.com 2012).
By 1980, Apple had a market value of $1.2 billion by the end of its first day trading (biography.com
2012). Jobs got advice from the marketing expert of Pepsi, John Sculley to fulfill his role as Apple’s
President. The future products of Apple, however, were not received well, and since Jobs did not have
an official title at Apple, Sculley, thought that Jobs was hurting Apple, since, the company’s executives

4. 4
began to phase him out. Because of this, Jobs found it easy to leave Apple in 1985, and begin a new,
similar enterprise called, NeXT, Inc. With his success, Jobs bought an animation company, which later
became, Pixar Animation Studios. Jobs could see the potential in Pixar, and decided to invest $50
million of his own money, which, lead to him, being Disney’s largest stakeholder, since Disney in 2006
merged with Pixar (biography.com 2012). Even though Jobs succeeded with Pixar, NeXT, Inc. was
struggling, and in 1996, Apple eventually bought the company, and had Jobs taking over his post as the
CEO of Apple. Jobs, was very dedicated to his vision and his branding of Apple, so dedicated that it
came in first place in his life.
“With a new management team, altered stock options and a self-imposed annual salary of $1 a year,
Jobs put Apple back on track.” (biography.com 2012)
In 2003, Jobs discovered that he had a rare but operable form of pancreatic cancer, instead of having
the surgery immediately, he kept postponing it, and after nine months of postponing the surgery, the
board of Apple became nervous. Finally, in 2004 Jobs had a successful surgery to remove the tumor.
Even though, Jobs had had his surgery and gotten better, years after, in 2009 his drastic weight loss was
noticed. Since Jobs was very private and never disclosed any information about his family or his
personal life, only some was invited to an Apple event where he came back to the spotlight after being
sick to tell his side (biography.com 2012). On October 5, 2011, it was announced by Apple that their
co-founder had passed away, after battling with cancer for almost a decade (biography.com 2012).

5. 5
Although Steve Jobs has left us in October 2011, he remains a relevant figure in today's business world,
with news coming out constantly. Whether it be details of business transactions made in the closing
years of his life or the true feelings and views of the people around him, someone that commands about
334,000,000 results when searching Google is someone that will not be going away any time soon. The
influence over the technology community is so well-renowned and respected by the world, it is
undeniable to even some of his biggest enemies and biggest competition. This coming arguably his
biggest rival and partner:
“The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which
will be felt for many generations to come".
This is a quote taken from an interview with Bill Gates, following Jobs's death illustrates how
significant the legacy he left really was (wsj article).
January 2007, Steve Jobs and Apple release the iPhone, saying it is 5 years ahead of any other mobile
device. Although Microsoft executive Steve Ballmer touts it to be the most expensive phone in the
world, the unveiling of the iPhone undoubtedly changes the world of cell phones forever, in turn
starting a race between tech giants like Google, Samsung and of course Apple (The Guardian). Not
only has it been a race, but a list of ongoing lawsuits between Samsung and Apple since 2007 over
patent infringement. Two years past a federal jury's decision, ordering Samsung to pay Apple $900
million in damages and an obvious appeal, it seems as if the lawsuit is coming to a close. Note this
closing argument from “Apple attorney Harold McElhinny, invoking the late Steve Jobs, told jurors
that Apple's products, including its iPhone and iPad, had been "created by true geniuses," according to

6. 6
the Associated Press. He accused Samsung of "unfairly and brazenly ripping off" those geniuses' work”
(ABC news article).

7. 7
Leadership Analysis
___________________________________________________________________________________
Steve Jobs was, is one of the most ambitious entrepreneurs the 21st century has ever seen. Though, he
was the creative mind of developing and changing Apple to what it is today, he was best in his own
playground. Steve Jobs had a reputation of being impulsive, but as impulsive as he was, as patience he
was, too. He operated the way he wanted to, with a stubborn independence and a unique creativity
(Schlender 2004). His way of interaction with his company showed his ability or some would say
disability of his emotional intelligence. Jobs was aware of his own emotions, though he did not show it
in the open. His passion and vision for the future of Apple Inc., restricted his detection of other
people’s emotions. Jobs had an ability to convince anyone to do anything (Steinwart og Ziegler 2014).
The interpersonal skills in his leadership were not present; the terms interactive or empowering would
not be used in the same sentence as his name (Steinwart og Ziegler 2014). This is one point of view,
John Lasseter, the director of Toy Story said:
“He was willing to be open to the talent of others, to be inspired by and challenged by that talent, but
also to inspire them to do amazing things he knew he couldn’t do himself (Tetzeli 2015).”
Jobs was an innovator, who always was willing to take risks and was open to get knew experience and
knowledge (Steinwart og Ziegler 2014). He was a learning machine (Steinwart og Ziegler 2014). He
was a great asset for Apple Inc. since he was always willing to launch new ideas; the problem he had
was though his interpersonal skills. Jobs lacked the skill to communicate informally with his employees
as easily as other people are able to (Steinwart og Ziegler 2014). He was and is still remembered as a
leader who demanded a lot from his employees. However, his followers saw him as being

8. 8
unpredictable, harsh, and potentially impulsive in his evaluations of employees’ work (Steinwart og
Ziegler 2014).
Theory X and Theory Y explains the way a manager perceives the employees. Jobs was known for his
habit of categorizing things. As for example, when it came to his employees they were either
enlightened or assholes. The same came to the work the employees performed, it was either the best or
totally shitty (Steinwart og Ziegler 2014).
When it came to having the employees dedicated to their work, Jobs was very empowering. The
employees’ job involvement was empowered by Jobs; he wanted his employees to complete tasks and
to develop new ideas (Steinwart og Ziegler 2014). Jobs never looked back, he always started high when
it came to decision making, he fully believed in never looking back and knew how to get what he
wanted. He was very power-oriented and self-aggrandizing (Steinwart og Ziegler 2014). The famous
leader had a vision, and always aimed to follow his passion. Former Apple hardware chief, Jon
Rubinstein said:
“Steve can be truly charming. No one ever manages to explain that. And he always cared deeply
(Tetzeli 2015).”
After Jobs was laid off and returned to what would be his legacy 10 years later, he wanted to improve
both in his business decisions and in his private behavior. Ed Catmull the president of Pixar said about
Jobs:

9. 9
“I look at Steve as someone who was actually always trying to change. But he didn’t express it in the
same way as others, and didn’t communicate with people about that. It didn’t come across as him
being personally introspective (Tetzeli 2015).”
Steve Jobs was extroverted when it came to his passion, and how he wanted people to fulfill his vision,
but when it came to personal connections to his employees and the public he was very introverted.
After returning to Apple Inc., Jobs was more mature in his 10 years of working and innovating with
and for other companies. When he returned he wanted to maintain an excellent and stable executive
team. With his maturity and confidence growing, he became more aware of that he needed to surround
himself with strong, opinionated executives, who felt comfortable with arguing with the so-titled
tyrannical micromanager (Tetzeli 2015). While having a stable team of executives, whom had the
technical skills in order of their titles, Jobs was also aware of his technical skills. Retail chief of Apple
Inc. told the magazine, Fast Company:
“Steve didn’t interfere much in the financial operations of the company. It wasn’t his strength, and he
knew it (Tetzeli 2015).”
As mentioned in Fast Magazine, Steve Jobs was the essence of a technologist and that was his skill. He
had a team, where every single person was dedicated and chosen, and was the best in their field. As the
founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates mentioned:

10. 10
“That is a really crack team that bonded with each other in toughness. I mean, you can point to every
member of that team and say ‘Okay, he earned his pay, he earned his pay, he earned his pay’. There’s
no weakness in that team (Tetzeli 2015)”.
This might be surprising to people outside of the Apple Inc. empire, but Steve Jobs had formidable
empowerment skills. He knew how to get his employees to sparkle and if they did not attract to that, he
had others that would take the spot. When he finally returned to Apple Inc. he had to turn everything
upside down, since the company was struggling. His first goal was to set fire to his employees’ passion
to their main goal, to change people’s lives through technology. He did this by launching the campaign
Think Different. The campaign’s primary goal was to reclaim the spirit of Apple for the company’s
employees. He found his A-players and laid of the C-players (Tetzeli 2015).
Despite his reputation as having an exotic, narcissistic, and obsessive personality (Appleyard 2011), he
wanted to hand the company to a group of executives who wanted to apply the same thorough decision-
making process that he himself had been applying throughout his years at Apple Inc. (Tetzeli 2015).
Jobs wanted his company to keep collaborating without his charismatic leadership. Steve always knew
what he wanted, how he wanted it do be executed, and who should do what. He was unsentimental
regarding his executive team. He knew best (Tetzeli 2015). It is though important to mention that his
followers, and the people in his in-group which he saw to be the best of the best all adapted some of his
personality traits as being, rigorous, collaborative, and open-minded. As with Jobs they would never
look back, but always follow their noses (Tetzeli 2015).

11. 11
The group dynamic at Apple Inc. was affected by its diversity as being more diverse than the big tech
companies as Google and Microsoft (Fung 2014). Jobs did not care about his reputation or how neither
the public, the employees, nor the media portrayed him, he had his passion, and people followed him.
He created Apple in his own image-relentlessly perfectionist and insanely great (Appleyard 2011). His
passion of end products was his fuel, which he demanded was the best of the best. He saw himself as
the customer, and it is said that the only market research he ever did was with the mirror. Jobs was the
customer, and he felt he had the insight of what people wanted (Appleyard 2011). This might sound to
people as arrogant and narcissistic, but in his time at Apple Inc., he did not fail.
He did not not trust his team of executives and employees, but he was determined by his passion. Steve
Jobs was, even though he lacked many technical skills in technology, the brain behind every single
detail of the Apple products. He oversaw every button, every corner, and every chime. Jobs would lose
sleep over the fonts in the menus, the cardboard of the packaging, even the color of the power card. He
was over it all. Every single detail. Not one flaw was accepted (Pogue u.d.).
Considering his lack of management skills, the low degree of emotional intelligence, after doing this
paper it has become obvious that Steve Jobs was selective when it came to how he treated people.
Your quintessential transformational leader, someone who inspires followers to transcend their own
self-interests and who is capable of having a profound and extraordinary effect on these followers, fully
describes Jobs. Isaacson presents this quote (2012):

12. 12
“By expecting them to do great things, you can get them to do great things. Ask any member of that
Mac team. They will tell you it was worth the pain (Tolerate only “A” Players, para. 4)”.
Jobs did not transform into the icon he would eventually become by trying to make friends with his
employees, he did so by communicating his high expectations, providing his vision, and instilling pride
in all willing to work for him while undoubtedly gaining respect from all. He was an authentic leader
who knew exactly what he was put on this earth to do, openly acting on his beliefs and values, without
losing the trust of his employees and followers. Looking as far back as 1997 when Apple was not the
global super power it is today, Jobs was not afraid of the competition, he encouraged his employees to
do what he had always set out to do, make better products for the consumer (Hyatt, 2012). Isaacson
goes further (2012):
“He never spoke of profit maximization or cost trade-offs. 'Don’t worry about price, just specify the
computer’s abilities (Put Products Before Profits, para. 1).”
Although this is exactly the attitude costing Jobs his position at Apple Inc. originally, it is that same
approach that makes Jobs such a charismatic leader; someone willing to take personal risks to achieve
their vision while exhibiting extraordinary behaviors.
Not only was Jobs one of the most established leaders of our time, he was one of the most influential
and powerful individuals as well. He undoubtedly had formal power being one of the founders of
Apple and CEO for the last 14 years of his life but he exhibited tremendous personal power by having
both expert and referent power. Influence based on identification with a person who has desirable

13. 13
personal traits, or the referent power Jobs had is clear after looking at countless interviews of close
associates who love telling tales of Jobs and his ways of making you believe the impossible was
possible.
“Jobs’s ability to persuade and influence has come to be called a 'reality distortion field” (Bauer &
Erdogen, 2012).
His influence based on special knowledge, or expert power, is seen throughout, not only used inspiring
people to achieve the impossible but Jobs had a different understanding of how things should work.
When faced with a declining business in his return to Apple, a radically different mental model is born
and he applies this innovating mentality to Apple's business models. Kapia explains how (2012):
“Two years and 50 million iPads later, Jobs/Apple is credited with having created a new market (Steve
Jobs the master reframer para. 12).”
Media consumption was the market modeled by Jobs, and the iPad satisfied the needs of that consumer.
Without any proven track record, and while his critics expected a monstrous failure, Jobs commanded
perfection of his vision and took advantage of what he saw to be an untapped market.
While some think Jobs' thought process is the most unorthodox element to his interesting road to
success, others would say it is the start-up atmosphere, which is rarely seen at an organization
employing over 50,000 individuals. An insider at Apple comments further about his approach (as cited
by Savitz & Elliot 2011):

14. 14
“No-decision-without-my-approval way of creating products and running the company -- a style that
with almost any other corporate leader has been a virtually guaranteed formula for failure”.
A simple-structure is characterized by a low degree of departmentalization, wide spans of control, little
formalization and authority centralized in a single person, which is exactly the way Jobs would have
liked to keep running Apple if he was still healthy enough to do so. This organic structure is a direct
result of Apple's innovating strategy, going a step further than the simple structure to rely on
comprehensive information networks and participative decision making. One of Apples own says, (as
cited by Lashinksy 2011):
“From a design perspective, having every junior- level designer getting direct executive-level feedback
is killer,' says Andrew Borovsky, a former Apple designer.”
Not only did Jobs hold a yearly meeting with “his” top 100 employees to discuss the direction of the
company and new ideas, but he kept a tight-knit family of ideas flowing throughout no matter what
your status or rank was. With all this focus on innovation, we see Apple tends to be viewed as a
boundary-less organization, seeking to have limitless spans of control, replacing departments with
empowered teams and ultimately breaking down cultural barriers. Strategic alliances and joint
partnerships with numerous other organizations, tend to blur the lines of distinction between each
organization while promoting the coordination necessary to get jobs done overseas (Robbins, 2013). In
addition, Jobs was a control freak who needed to have the final say, yet he took the necessary steps and
he built teams that could be fully functional in his absence (as cited by Savitz & Elliot 2011):

15. 15
“So far, it's clear that Steve Jobs has created a team and structure that are capable of functioning
splendidly even without him at the helm.”
Even with Steve Jobs absent from Apple's operations, the culture that he formed will keep Apple on top
long after his departure. Although Jobs has left us all at this point, it was his emphasis on the primary
characteristics of culture; innovation, aggressiveness, attention to detail, team, people, and outcome
orientation are all examples of how Steve is still alive and what is constantly behind Apple's relentless
drive. When speaking about Apple U, he says how he does not want to leave behind people trying to be
him, however Tetzeli states (2015):
“He did want to hand the company to a group of people who would apply the same rigorous decision-
making process that he applied during his last 15 years at Apple (Apple is an attitude, para 2).”
Jobs was an individual that would rarely get stuck on the past, he was someone that was constantly
focused on and infatuated with the future. Socialization, or the process that adapts employees to the
organization's culture, was clearly one of Jobs' main focuses when looking at Apple U. According to
Dyki (2011):
“His success came from making technology friendly and appealing to users, from hiring and nurturing
the best designers and engineers.. (para 1)”.
Jobs believed accountability is essential to yielding the best possible results, therefore “DRI” or
directly responsible individual is common language used all around Apple. Keeping in mind that

16. 16
simplicity is a major factor when defining Apple culture, (as cited by Lashinksy 2011) any effective
meeting will have a list of actions and people responsible for each, therefore everyone knows who
needs to do what (para 12).
You cannot talk about Apple without talking about its ability to adapt and change, whether expanding
into new markets, or what seems to be never ending change internally. Looking back to Jobs' return to
Apple, we see someone with a completely knew perspective on how things should be done and
therefore changes were inevitable. Resistance to change is a major problem in large corporations for
numerous reasons but can be easily overcome if the proper tactics are used such as education and
communication, participation, developing positive relationships and selecting people who accept
change. Upon Jobs' return he says (as cited by Guglielmo, 2012):
“What I found is rather than anarchy, I found people who can’t wait to fall into line behind a good
strategy. There just hasn’t been one (para 5).”
Jobs' started his tenure as CEO in the 90s by identifying the issues and presenting them to all, not by
beating everyone up about what they were doing wrong but encouraging his new team that they had
everything they needed, they were just focused on the wrong objective. In addition to his presentations,
he fired the board of directors and hand picked new ones. When asked about replacing two senior
executives, new CEO Tim Cook says (as cited by Tyrangiel, 2012):
“The key in the change that you're referencing is my deep belief that collaboration is essential for
innovation -- and I didn't just start believing that. I've always believed that. It's always been a core

17. 17
belief at Apple.”
Forces for change may be the nature of the workforce, competition, economic shocks, social trends or
world politics, but what forced this change is a combination of competition and technology. Although
none of these forces were the reason for the CEO change to Cook, he understands the demands of
technology and competition which is ultimately what forced Scott Forstall and John Browett out of
Apple. All this change adds up to a very stressful environment for all parties involved, whether you are
at the top, or bottom of Apple there is undoubtedly pressure being constantly exerted. Apple does a
good job from an organizational approach in setting goals for employees and formally communicating
with multiple staff meetings each week to run down some basic agenda. In addition, Apple goes further
in redesigning jobs to either give more meaningful work to individuals or to recycle brains when they
are not producing the way they should be.

18. 18
Reflection
___________________________________________________________________________________
Steve Jobs will forever remain in history as one of the most successful individuals in history, with one
of the most unique success stories, he went from founder to fired to completely redefining entire
industries at a time. He was driven by an insane passion to produce not only the best products but the
easiest to use, almost like he was empathizing for the consumer, never satisfied unless his products
were as user-friendly as possible. Without letting the pressures of money get in the way he was able to
single-in and focus on completing the task at hand instead of worrying about satisfying investors.
Finally, maybe his most important quality was his ability to delegate work to the right individuals.
Jobs was a true visionary. Relentlessly focused on what was in front of him, he would identify
problems whether known by the consumer or not, and find the solution, not stopping until the final
product was something worthy enough to put his name on it. Although he rarely took the most friendly
approach, it was this almost lack of social skills that made him so abrupt, in turn, resulting in an
unimaginable level of perfection. He was constantly hungry for the next endeavor, not interested in
wasting time and energy on things that were not important or furthering him in some way.
This assignment has opened our eyes to how many different ways there are to be a successful and
powerful leader. Although Jobs did not do anything by the book, he managed to do a lot of things right.
It is not any specific leadership quality or power tactic, but it was Jobs' thirst for knowledge and
obsession with learning which was most important; not so much to say dwelling on the past but
learning from prior mistakes, turning everything into a learning experience.
What made us learn the most from this assignment was looking for credible and relevant sources.

19. 19
Although Google gives you 286,000,000 search results when you Google “Steve Jobs” digging deeper
to find real sources though the library database offered real experiences and primary sources to better
portray a real sequence of events.

20. 20
References
___________________________________________________________________________________
Appleyard, Bryan. »End of The Genius Era.« New Statesman, 10 2011.
biography.com. Bio. 6. June 2012. http://www.biography.com/people/steve-jobs-9354805.
Fung, Brian. »Apple Has More Black and Hispanic Workers Than Other Tech Companies.« The
Washington Post, 8 2014.
Pogue, David. New York Times.
Schlender, Brent. »What Does Steve Jobs Want?« 2 2004.
Steinwart, Marlane C, og Jennifer A Ziegler. »Remembering Apple CEO Steve Jobs.« March 2014.
Tetzeli, Rick. »The Real Legacy of Steve Jobs.« Fast Company, April 2015.
Isaacson, W. (2012, April 1). The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs. Harvard Business Review.
Retrieved on April 22nd, from https://hbr.org/2012/04/the-real-leadership-lessons-of-steve-jobs
Hyatt, Michael. (2012). “The 5 Marks of Authentic Leadership.” Retrieved on June 24th, from
http://michaelhyatt.com/the-five-marks-of-authentic-leadership.html
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice (6th edition). Thousand Oaks, California:
Sage Publications.
Bauer, T., & Erdogen, B. (2012). Focus on Power:The Case of Steve Jobs. In An Introduction to
Organizational Behavior (1st ed., Vol. 1).
Kaipa, P. (2012, June 1). Steve Jobs and The Art Mental Model Innovation. Ivey Business Journal.
Lashinsky, A. (2011, May 23). How Apple works: Inside the world's biggest startup. Forbes.
Robbins, S., & Judge, T. (2013). Foundations of Organization Structure. In Organizational Behavior
(15th ed., p. 494). Uppper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson.

21. 21
Savitz, E., & Elliot, J. (2011). Apple After Steve: An Insiders View On What's Next. Forbes.
Dyki, J. (2011). Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America (2nd ed.,
Vol. 30, p. 1). Chicago, Illinois: The University of Chicago Press.
Guglielmo, C. (2012, October 7). A Steve Jobs Moment That Mattered: Macworld, August 1997.
Retrieved April 25, 2015, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/connieguglielmo/2012/10/07/a-steve-jobs-
moment-that-mattered-macworld-august-1997/
Tyrangiel, J. (2012, December 10). Tim Cook's Freshman Year. Bloomberg Businessweek, 62-76.