The Leadership
and Management
Styles of Steve
Jobs
by: Mher Anthony A. Ampo

I. Introduction
Steve Jobs has been lauded as
innovator, technologist,
designer, thinker and a person
who synergizes humanities and
science.
He co-founded Apple Computer
with Steve Wozniak in 1976.

Steve Jobs resigned in Apple in
1985 following unsuccessful
product launches and power
struggle.
After such experienced Jobs
founded NEXT, a computer
manufacturer and bought
PIXAR, a visual effects company.
In 1997 Apple acquired Next and
appointed Jobs as its interim
CEO and permanent CEO in the
year 2000. With Jobs return
Apple diversified, branched out
and innovated with its products.

•Personal Background
An unwanted child has been
what the post modern world
wanted so much as he changed
the course of the world in terms
of technology and
communication. Steve Jobs was
set to adoption by his biological

•Leadership and Change Management
A. Focus
The first management lesson
that we can learn from Jobs is
Focus. It is not doing a lot of
products then flooding the
market with but create only few
but make sure it is the best and
the greatest in the market
b. Simple
Simplicity is the ultimate
sophistication. Jobs espoused
simplicity which is evident in
the software of Apple
compared to Microsoft

C Visionary but Detail Oriented
He envisions the iPod and the
iPad while at the same time so
involve with the details on
developing the product design
including the color and other
minute details. Steve Jobs
obsession to the product even
goes to its packaging
D. Push for perfection
Steve Jobs has been known of
even delaying the products in
the market as long as he felt
that it didn’t attain first the
perfection he wanted from it.

•The Reality Distortion Field
It has been considered as a legend
that Steve Jobs has this what we
called Reality Distortion Field. RDF
means that Jobs can extract the
seemingly impossible assignment or
demands from his people.
•Hires Disciples
It has been said that Steve Jobs
only hired the best in his company.
He is a man only expect the best
from these people.

•Steve Jobs is a team player
Steve Jobs is not a lone genius working
himself to the top. He surrounded himself
with great people as he had his second
reign in Apple in 1997.
•Control
Steve Jobs controlled the
hardware, software and other
peripheral devices in Apple and
they were seamlessly integrated.
This is to make sure that Apple
products simpler, elegant and even
perfect.

• Leadership Challenges
One of the greatest challenges that
Steve Jobs has to overcome was his
being ostracized or ousted from the
company he has founded. It was one
of the hardest obstacles that he has to
hurdle in life.
As he connected the dots it paved
the way for him to be more creative as
he founded the company NEXT and
bought Pixar that made a big scene in
the animation industry. This period
was critical to Steve Jobs learning in
management as it prepared him for
his second reign in Apple as CEO.

Apple was in the trading
loss when Steve was
appointed CEO. Apparently
his appointment is a rescue
mission before the boat sinks
as the company was incurring
losses in the year 1996 and
1997.
In the succeeding years the
net profit of Apple noticeably
rise and drastically propelled
high when the iPod, iPhone
and iPad were introduced to
the market.

•Corporate Governance and Values
•Products before profits
He believes in creating great
product first and profits will follow.
Jobs wanted to put up a company
that endures in making great
innovative products.
In the order of motivation
products comes first before the
profits.

• Apple Embraces Secrecy
Apple knows to keep secrets internally
and externally. Revealing Apple secrets will
be punished with swift termination. stories
to themselves.
It has been said that Apple employees
and their projects are pieces of puzzles. in
which only the top and chosen people knows
the whole picture of the puzzles.

•Innovation
•Man of Humanities and Sciences
Jobs considered himself as a
humanities person who loved
electronics.
•Approach to business
and product
development
Even in developing his products
Jobs shun away the traditional
market research to see what the
customers need. He believes
that the customers don’t know
what they need until they have
shown them.

•Product Innovations during the
time of Jobs
•Steve is Changing
Steve Jobs is not simply born or
frozen with his leadership skills
but a dynamic leader who
changes through time.
•The best product
It is not only the matter of to be
the first but what matter most is
to be perfect. To offer the best
product that would make the users
satisfied and happy has always
been the goal of Steve.

•Corporate
entrepreneurship
In keeping its brand of excellence
Apple believes in owning and
controlling its technology from end
to end.
Apple has the best solution
for the digital music piracy as it
created iTunes an online music
store in which 80 percent of the
profit goes to music labels.
Through these actions Apple
dominate in the market at the
same time allow other companies
in the industry to earn.

• Conclusion
Walter Isaacson asked Steve Jobs on
what is his important creation. He
thought that Jobs would answer
Macintosh or iPad but Jobs answered it is
the company Apple (Isaacson, 2012). PC
magazine’s Lance Ulanoff even gone as far
as to say that “Jobs was Apple”.
Indeed Jobs DNA has been ingrained in
the company and the people who work on
it. He has left a legacy not only to the
people of his company but to the world
that would be benefitting the innovative
and disruptive technology of Apple.

I. References
Desmond, J.F. (2011). Steve Jobs: An “unwanted” child. USA
Human life review .Fall 2011 pp.126-128
Isaacson, W. (2012). The real leadership lessons of Steve Jobs.
USA: Harvard Business Review April 2012 issue pp.
93-102
Yu, H. (2013). Decoding Leadership: How Steve Jobs
Transformed Apple to Spearhead a technological
Informal Economy. Journal of Business management
Vol 19, no. 1, 2013.
(2012). Apple Inc. The Steve Jobs Effect Marketline Case
Study February 2012
(2015) The real legacy of steve jobs. Fast Company