Steve Jobs Case Analysis
I have been assigned to develop a document of synopsis of the article “Steve Jobs – The Silicon Valley Pioneer” by our respected tutor Mr.
Adnan Rafiq. I have worked all alone on this document. This article is written by V. Sarvani for the purpose of class discussion about an entrepreneur Mr. Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Computers.
He exposed the early life and later life achievements of Steve to a proper know how about the topic that how Steve built the Apple empire and lead other businesses.Moreover, it also discusses his ousted from the Apple and reasons behind his return to Apple Computers. Synopsis Steve Jobs became a very famous person as a rock star in 1970s through his amazing skills of being an entrepreneur. He made many successful businesses including the Apple computers. He initiated personal computer (PC) which got a lot of appreciation. He also established entrepreneurial ventures like “Pixar Animation” and “Next” which also have great popularity.
Many magazines, newspapers and other media gave him importance throughout the decade of 1970s.However, the board of Apple expelled Steve from Apple Computers in 1983 and after that Apple faced many problems and loses, which compelled the board to appoint Steve back as CEO in September, 1997. And the current statistics prove the abilities and skills of Steve that he really is an entrepreneur. Steve learned about electronics from an engineer named Larry Lang got some understanding about the electronic gadgets causing his interest towards it and building more confidence.His performance during the education in School was outstanding that even the School decided to promote him to high standard but his parents only allowed skipping only one standard. Later on, his parents moved to California where he learned more about electronics and did started job in HP and he also worked later in Atari Inc.
After visit from India his concept of electronic gadgets got more speed which caused the establishment of PC. Steve was a very impressive and ongoing entrepreneur as he made his first computer with the help of Stephen Wozniak and starting selling it in market.He took a lot of risk along with Wozniak and invested the amounts of their valuable assets after selling. They established the company through these amounts and Steve also persuaded some former marketing and other relevant people from different companies like Intel and HP. He keep going on research and continues work and established more and more effective computer versions including Apple I, II and then Apple III.
After having some technical faults in Apple III, Steve took over the Chairmanship of the company as management caused the problem, he withdrawn the Apple III from the market and after resolving that problem he re-launched it.Moreover, he also improved it with different new options and facilities including color video monitor, networking slots and floppy disk etc. During the era the Apple has growth of 700% and market value reached to $1. 2 billion. Steve never stopped working after all these achievements and worked to go higher and grow the Apple. He started to overcome the problems of Apple computers and its expensiveness, moreover, also to compete IBM efficiently. He introduced some programs to donate the computers to Schools and Universities to promote the product, which of course gone well.However, later on he established the new machine with operating system, Macintosh, more effective, smaller and less expensive. Many new features and advancement introduced in it. However, as the Apple machines were not compatible with IBM’s computers, so it couldn’t replace IBM computers in the major organizations that were already using their PCs but Steve never affected by it. As a leader Steve have a very impressive personality.
His employees were so inspired from him and get motivated by his activities.He was so attached to his work and always wanted the work to be done in proper way with meeting the deadlines. However, he was more task oriented person towards his work and wanted his work done at any cost. And he wanted his employees to do the work on time. Normally, he had a polite behavior that attracts and inspires people and his employees towards him but sometimes suddenly his mood goes totally opposite don’t even care about the feelings of people that they are hurting. After Macintosh failed to achieve the targets very badly, Steve started plan to out Sculley.
But when Sculley heard about it he initiated to the plan to out Steve from the Apple. He argued in board that the behavior of Steve taking the company towards more expenses and loses. He said that his too much attention towards Macintosh department regretting other departments. Moreover, his behavior is also hurting the employees which can cause more problems for the company. So, the board decided and took the head of Macintosh department authority from Steve and they also made sure that no major decisions and company notes were coming under the pen of Steve.
So, he took long leave and went to some tours.After meeting a doctor and identifying an opportunity about DNA test problem he came back and decided to left the Apple and establish another company with the name “Next”. Apple tried to pressurize Steve to not to start other company and reconsider the decision of resignation but Steve kept his words and initiated to establish Next. He worked harder to give better output by improved computer products launching. So, he succeeded to develop a new computer with extra ordinary features but couldn’t get success in the selling of these computers in long early eight year and remain in loss.
But after some compressions and magazines reports the users realized the benefits they were missing of Next computers over the current computers of IBM and Apple including the faster speed etc. So, at last it began to popular and many organizations and schools started to use it. On other hand, Apple Computers started to collapse. It’s per share price dropped to $13 from $60 and begin huge losses, which were forecasted to be increased in coming year. CEO and President tried to sell Apple Computers to other reputed organizations but all went in vain.
Apple’s CEO decided to call back Steve to Apple but he refused but after some negotiation Steve has been hired as informal advisor and he started to work in apple. He initiated new steps towards the benefits of company. He met with Bill Gates to do some diplomatic ties with Microsoft. After some time, Steve announced to be the Interim CEO of the Apple Computers. He also introduced iMac as new version of Macintosh, which was a lighter, better and cheaper version.
Later on, he merged the Next with Apple but made both the brands different and also announced as a full CEO of the Apple Computers.Now, the Apple Computers is in great repute, generating high profits and very well known in throughout the World. Conclusion and Analysis After reading the whole assigned article thoroughly I came to know that Steve has worked a lot in his life to achieve certain tasks. He worked throughout his life and innovate a whole new world of computer technology. He proved to be a real entrepreneur of his era. He regularly keeps innovating new things and technology with more improvements from Apple I, II, and III to Macintosh Mac including the NextStation machines.
He also worked hard for more and more growth by hiring professionals and attracting new investments. He was also a risk taker for the purpose. He was more task oriented leader and always wanted the work to be done properly and on time. He was quite a person who always looking for opportunities and after getting it, initiate to take that opportunity and work it out for new innovations. So, finally I can conclude that Steve Jobs gave the right meanings to entrepreneurship by proving him to be an entrepreneur.
