Steve Jobs and the 21st Century Entrepreneur, Essay Example

In recent years, many authors have examined leadership and entrepreneurship in terms of personality traits and interpersonal relationships. Undoubtedly, Steve Jobs was one of the most influential modern leaders of recent years. Creating a multi-billion dollar company from one single idea, and focusing on constant innovation, he keeps on motivating entrepreneurs all around the world, even after his death. The below essay will focus on four areas of Steve Jobs’ leadership approach: interpersonal relationships, entrepreneurship, innovation, and simplicity and focus.

Enterpreneurship In The 21st Century

According to Kanchana et al. (71), “an entrepreneur can be regarded as a person who has the initiative, skill and motivation to set up a business or an enterprise of his own and who always looks for high achievement”. The below review of Steve Jobs’ entrepreneurial career will reveal that he indeed possessed all the above mentioned traits: he had the initiative to do what others did not dare to: creating personal computers, he could maintain his motivation, and continuously aimed higher.

Embracing challenge

Steve Jobs was looking at other people as a challenge. He surrounded himself with people who were at the same wave length, or at least as intelligent as him. Steve Jobs was focused on his company, and used other people to serve the same goal. If they did not, they had to leave the circle of Apple. This review also indicates that Steve Jobs focused on productivity and goals.

Transformational leadership

He was also able to motivate others, and this indicates that he manifested transformational leadership skills. According to Toma and Marinescu  (267), Steve Jobs was a charismatic leader who believed in face-to-face communication. Further, “Jobs had the ability to create small teams of top talents and to express ideas to the team for their realization” (267). Transformational leaders can provide intellectual stimulation for employees, inspire, and motivate others, just like Steve Jobs did.

Entrepreneurial personality traits

Some of the personality traits of Steve Jobs have made him a unique, charismatic and transformational leader. He did not only have an idea, but also the ability to create and communicate the vision towards people. He had the clear vision in his head well before he founded Apple. As the interview is quoted by Isaacson (57): “My vision was to create the first fully packaged computer… We were no longer aiming for the handful of hobbyists who liked to assemble their own computers, who knew how to buy transformers and keyboards. For every one of them there were a thousand people who would want the machine to be ready to run.” From this quote, it is evident that having a clear vision and the ability to execute the ideas made Steve Jobs successful.

Having a clear vision

Many entrepreneurs are able to come up with a rough idea, but only visionary people can transform them into visions that drive companies forward.  Toma and Marinescu (266) call him  “genius and a visionary”. According to Bass, transformational leaders can raise their level of organizational goal consciousness, rise above their self-interest, and address higher level needs. They can act like a strong role model, provide intellectual simulation for employees, and inspire others.

Identifying Opportunities and Creating Them

When creating  the iPod, Steve Jobs found an opportunity for making music consumption simpler, while allowing Apple to transform from a computer manufacturer into “being the world’s most valuable company” (Isaacson, 196). Every development was about identifying, and creating markets. At the time of creating the iPod, there was no real demand on the market, as the type of product did not exist. However, based on his initial vision, Steve Jobs  managed to create an opportunity for Apple to become the first company that would fulfill a market demand that does not yet exist. While many people would consider this business decision bold,  creating the iPod was the first step of transforming Apple from one of the many tech companies into the leading innovator of the industry.

Aiming higher

Steve Jobs had the drive to aim higher. When he created a new product, he did not simply sit on it, but carefully researched the competition and the market to find new needs to fulfill. He wanted to provide customers with better solutions than the competition. While Steve Jobs was  keeping an eye on other companies’ development, he kept his focus on being better than them. Competition motivated him, and he could motivate others to aim higher,  too. He pushed for perfection all the time, and expected his employees to do the same. According to the Harvard Business Review article, he only tolerated “A players”, while constantly looking for a “better way”. The article (Harvard Business Review, 10) states: “. He infused Apple employees with an abiding passion to create groundbreaking products and a belief that they could accomplish what seemed impossible”.  He also lived by the principle: “Stay hungry, stay foolish” (Isaacson, 51). He believed that he could create a better world, and never stopped working on it.

Works Cited

Bass. B.  Leadership and Performance Beyond Exceptions. 1985. Print.

Harvard Business Review. The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs. April 2012.

Isaacson, W. “Steve Jobs” Simon & Schuster. 2011. Print.

Kanchana.R.S, Divya, J. and Beegom, A. Challenges faced by new entrepreneurs. International Journal of Current Research and Academic Review. Volume 1 Number 3 (2013) pp. 71-78  2013. Print.

Toma, S. and Marinescu, P. Steve Jobs and modern leadership. Change in Leadership. Manager. No. 17. 2013. Print.