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DC_Xtreme
Guest
Hi Everyone, I dont know if this is the best place to ask, but after reading the forums you seem to have a great deal of knowledge on steve jobs. I have to do an essay on him and I am having trouble meeting the key points that i have to highlight in his life, these are:
Times when he has used Entreprenuerial management as opposed to "general" management.
The use of theoretical management in his venture
Uncertainty and risk, and its recognition and management in the apple venture.
How Steve encourageged entreprenuership within his company (intreprenuership)
I've come up with some examples but I seem to be lacking:
Steve Jobs’ Management Thinking
Steve Jobs is different from most “General Managers” in that he takes personal responsibility for what Apple makes and how those products feel to the end user. Jobs directs the design process from start to finish, asking endless questions, expressing opinions, unfailingly pushing the comp any toward better products. The sort of decisions that at most companies are considered finishing touches like the colour of a computer case, the sound a product makes when it is opened or closed are to him the very heart of the user experience and so are at the core of the design process. It is this that sets him apart from normal managers, in fact one of the key attributes that entrepreneurs display is that they take the initiative and feel a personal responsibility of their company / product.
Steve Jobs’ Entrepreneurial Qualities
Steve Jobs attended lectures at the Hewlett-Packard electronics firm in California. There he was hired as a summer employee. Another employee at Hewlett-Packard was Stephen Wozniak (who would later become the co-founder of Apple with Jobs) who had dropped from the University of California at Berkeley. His passion was engineering; at that time he was making a "blue box," an illegal telephone attachment that would make free long-distance calls. Steve Jobs actually helped him sell a number of the devices to customers, this is interesting also because it has been said that there is sometimes a thin line between an entrepreneur and a criminal. In fact Ket de Vries (1977) theorized that entrepreneurs are “deviants” because they deviate from the norm and that many criminal elements in society are highly entrepreneurial.
After finishing high school Jobs went to Reed College but dropped out after one year, he continued to stay on campus though and dropped in on philosophy classes frequently. After a short stint working at Atari (a famous arcade games company) in 1974 he went travelling to India with a friend from college to find enlightenment, on his return he started to attend home brew computer classes which were run by his old friend Stephen Wozniak. While Wozniak was very keen on creating and learning more about computer electronics, Jobs was much more interested in the marketability of these items and talked Wozniak into helping him make a personal computer. A good entrepreneur always looks to surround himself with people who can help him make his vision a reality, even though Steve Jobs had a good idea of what he wanted to do, his interest and knowledge of electronics at the time was not sufficient to achieve that, so he enlisted the help of someone he knew had the right attributes.
The Apple II was incredibly successful (See Appendix B) but a while later IBM released their personal computer, after 2 years they were beating Apple in units sold and had a large market share, this forced Steve Jobs to have a rethink of how the Apple was put together and marketed. The problem was that the Apples operating system was not compatible with IBM’s; people were buying IBM computers because they had made an industry standard operating system which was not compatible with Apples products. He realised that he needed to make the apple compatible with IBM computers and also introduce new computers which could be marketed in the business world, which IBM currently had a grip on.
Because of Steve Jobs powerful vision he had amazing ideas that everyone thought was practically impossible. He had great vision for different kinds of computers, for example he wanted the computer case to look good and not just a box, something that wasn’t a characteristic of normal computers.
Steve Jobs & Risk Taking
The “Apple I” prototype was designed in Jobs’ bedroom and put it together in his garage, Jobs went on to show the machine to various electronic retailers locally and one ordered 25, he gathered advice from an ex CEO of Intel as to how to market the product. To start their company they had to sell their most valuable possessions, Jobs sold his VW Micro Bus and Wozniak sold his HP Scientific Calculator which raised $1,300 as capital, to add to this they went to local retailers with their idea and basically begged for credit to set up their first production line, Wozniak was encouraged to quit his job at HP by Jobs which he did, he then became the vice president, in charge of research and development of Jobs’ new company, Apple.
They both took risks by selling off their most prized possessions to start this company, but they were calculated risks as an order had already been placed for 25 of the computers from a local store, so this identifies Jobs as a calculated risk taker, something that he displayed though out the years.
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple after they bought neXT as interim CEO, he immediately halted the Mac Clone market, signed an alliance with Microsoft, one of its fiercest competitors and cancelled the “Rhapsody” operating system before it could be released. He risks criticism and failure by making gutsy decisions to take his companies in the direction he wants.
Steve Jobs’ Encouragement of Intrepreneurship
The Apple II had some basic additions to the Apple I, but mostly stayed the same; the main thing was the addition of a hook up so that colour VGA monitors could be connected, something rarely seen on computers at that time. Steve Jobs encouraged budding coders to create their own programs for the Apple II, this resulted in the Apple II having a software library of over 16,000 applications, this not only made the Apple II more desirable because of the huge software library, but also gave coders the chance to showcase their talents and get noticed themselves.
It has been said that Steve Jobs possesses a 'reality distortion field' - by a mixture of charm and exaggeration, he can make people believe almost anything. His particular ability has been to gather together small groups of highly talented people, and inspire them to work tirelessly to do things that previously weren’t thought to be technically possible, within a ridiculously short time frame. Many of these people felt positively murderous towards him at the end of these stints, but it is testament to his powers of persuasion that all stayed the course and got the projects completed on time.
Steve jobs can inspire people in a very unique way, he can motivate them easily and can get them to do what he want them to do. He can make them believe anything is possible. Because he has this power of inspiring people, the people usually work really hard for him, most of the time working for hours and hours to meet a set target. The mac team which brought out the first GUI home computer were working amazing hours so that they can meet their targets.
It would be of great help if those of you that know Steve much better than me could throw some suggestions into the hat, I've hit a dead end, i guess what i need is Steve here to use his reality distortion field on me!
Thanks alot Guys
Jon
Times when he has used Entreprenuerial management as opposed to "general" management.
The use of theoretical management in his venture
Uncertainty and risk, and its recognition and management in the apple venture.
How Steve encourageged entreprenuership within his company (intreprenuership)
I've come up with some examples but I seem to be lacking:
Steve Jobs’ Management Thinking
Steve Jobs is different from most “General Managers” in that he takes personal responsibility for what Apple makes and how those products feel to the end user. Jobs directs the design process from start to finish, asking endless questions, expressing opinions, unfailingly pushing the comp any toward better products. The sort of decisions that at most companies are considered finishing touches like the colour of a computer case, the sound a product makes when it is opened or closed are to him the very heart of the user experience and so are at the core of the design process. It is this that sets him apart from normal managers, in fact one of the key attributes that entrepreneurs display is that they take the initiative and feel a personal responsibility of their company / product.
Steve Jobs’ Entrepreneurial Qualities
Steve Jobs attended lectures at the Hewlett-Packard electronics firm in California. There he was hired as a summer employee. Another employee at Hewlett-Packard was Stephen Wozniak (who would later become the co-founder of Apple with Jobs) who had dropped from the University of California at Berkeley. His passion was engineering; at that time he was making a "blue box," an illegal telephone attachment that would make free long-distance calls. Steve Jobs actually helped him sell a number of the devices to customers, this is interesting also because it has been said that there is sometimes a thin line between an entrepreneur and a criminal. In fact Ket de Vries (1977) theorized that entrepreneurs are “deviants” because they deviate from the norm and that many criminal elements in society are highly entrepreneurial.
After finishing high school Jobs went to Reed College but dropped out after one year, he continued to stay on campus though and dropped in on philosophy classes frequently. After a short stint working at Atari (a famous arcade games company) in 1974 he went travelling to India with a friend from college to find enlightenment, on his return he started to attend home brew computer classes which were run by his old friend Stephen Wozniak. While Wozniak was very keen on creating and learning more about computer electronics, Jobs was much more interested in the marketability of these items and talked Wozniak into helping him make a personal computer. A good entrepreneur always looks to surround himself with people who can help him make his vision a reality, even though Steve Jobs had a good idea of what he wanted to do, his interest and knowledge of electronics at the time was not sufficient to achieve that, so he enlisted the help of someone he knew had the right attributes.
The Apple II was incredibly successful (See Appendix B) but a while later IBM released their personal computer, after 2 years they were beating Apple in units sold and had a large market share, this forced Steve Jobs to have a rethink of how the Apple was put together and marketed. The problem was that the Apples operating system was not compatible with IBM’s; people were buying IBM computers because they had made an industry standard operating system which was not compatible with Apples products. He realised that he needed to make the apple compatible with IBM computers and also introduce new computers which could be marketed in the business world, which IBM currently had a grip on.
Because of Steve Jobs powerful vision he had amazing ideas that everyone thought was practically impossible. He had great vision for different kinds of computers, for example he wanted the computer case to look good and not just a box, something that wasn’t a characteristic of normal computers.
Steve Jobs & Risk Taking
The “Apple I” prototype was designed in Jobs’ bedroom and put it together in his garage, Jobs went on to show the machine to various electronic retailers locally and one ordered 25, he gathered advice from an ex CEO of Intel as to how to market the product. To start their company they had to sell their most valuable possessions, Jobs sold his VW Micro Bus and Wozniak sold his HP Scientific Calculator which raised $1,300 as capital, to add to this they went to local retailers with their idea and basically begged for credit to set up their first production line, Wozniak was encouraged to quit his job at HP by Jobs which he did, he then became the vice president, in charge of research and development of Jobs’ new company, Apple.
They both took risks by selling off their most prized possessions to start this company, but they were calculated risks as an order had already been placed for 25 of the computers from a local store, so this identifies Jobs as a calculated risk taker, something that he displayed though out the years.
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple after they bought neXT as interim CEO, he immediately halted the Mac Clone market, signed an alliance with Microsoft, one of its fiercest competitors and cancelled the “Rhapsody” operating system before it could be released. He risks criticism and failure by making gutsy decisions to take his companies in the direction he wants.
Steve Jobs’ Encouragement of Intrepreneurship
The Apple II had some basic additions to the Apple I, but mostly stayed the same; the main thing was the addition of a hook up so that colour VGA monitors could be connected, something rarely seen on computers at that time. Steve Jobs encouraged budding coders to create their own programs for the Apple II, this resulted in the Apple II having a software library of over 16,000 applications, this not only made the Apple II more desirable because of the huge software library, but also gave coders the chance to showcase their talents and get noticed themselves.
It has been said that Steve Jobs possesses a 'reality distortion field' - by a mixture of charm and exaggeration, he can make people believe almost anything. His particular ability has been to gather together small groups of highly talented people, and inspire them to work tirelessly to do things that previously weren’t thought to be technically possible, within a ridiculously short time frame. Many of these people felt positively murderous towards him at the end of these stints, but it is testament to his powers of persuasion that all stayed the course and got the projects completed on time.
Steve jobs can inspire people in a very unique way, he can motivate them easily and can get them to do what he want them to do. He can make them believe anything is possible. Because he has this power of inspiring people, the people usually work really hard for him, most of the time working for hours and hours to meet a set target. The mac team which brought out the first GUI home computer were working amazing hours so that they can meet their targets.
It would be of great help if those of you that know Steve much better than me could throw some suggestions into the hat, I've hit a dead end, i guess what i need is Steve here to use his reality distortion field on me!
Thanks alot Guys
Jon
