The Ethics and Values of Steve Jobs Jonathon Aguilar GEN 200 February 21, 2011 Douglas Edwards The Ethics and Values of Steve Jobs To define the ethics and values of Steve Jobs, one can look at his actions throughout his life. Steve has a history of hard work and dedication, not only to himself and his ideas, but also to his employees. A look into the values of Steve “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance” (Morrow, 1995, ch.13). Steve’s perseverance and willingness to risk everything for what he believes in is what drove him to success. Not every move he made was successful, but it was pushing through the failures that ultimately led him there.
Has Steve Jobs finally solved Apple’s long-standing problems with respect to the Macintosh business? (Please use Microsoft and other companies you see useful in attempting this question. 4. The iPod-iTunes business has been a spectacular success. Has Jobs found a new formula to create a sustainable competitive advantage for Apple?
Characteristics and skill levels differ for every individual however; the three that I find most common in all successful Entrepreneurs is passion, tenacity, and intelligence in their field (Barringer and Ireland, 2010). I emphasize these three because each characteristic brings new meaning to the service or system being developed. Passion stems from the core of the individual and the need for achievement. Passion never dies out, it only relights itself for the need of a greater good. Having the love for what a Entrepreneur is creating is a must and will drive the force behind the business.
Even with that, they were immensely successful. For the time being, Gates attended Harvard College, while Steve Jobs attended Reed College. Both these men were the founders and CEO of their companies. Next, I want to focus on their creations. Second, their creations were life changing.
He became a Buddhist after he visited India, searching for spiritual enlightenment. Moreover he experimented with psychedelics stating that his LSD experiences are one of the two or three most important things he has done in his life (Wikipedia, 2011). Moreover, he is creative, trusted and challenging. Jobs returned back to Atari and while working as a circuit board creator, he managed to negotiate and win a big bonus by surprisingly decreasing the cost of a machine (Wikipedia, 2011). In 1976, with the foundation of a then-semi-retired Intel product-marketing manager and engineer Jobs founded Apple along with two partners, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne (Wikipedia, 2011).
His life went downhill, and in the long-run it became better than ever before. (Wikipedia 13) Another interesting point about Steve Jobs is how his life changed so quickly. The company he manufactured grew from a garage enterprise, into an enormous company worth more than Poland. Job’s ambition was incredible. It all started when Jobs recruited John Sculley to “change the world” with him as Apple’s CEO.
The assignment focuses on comparing Chapter 2 and 5 of J.A. Krames’ article, What the Best CEOs know: 7 Exceptional Leaders and Their Lessons for Transforming Any Business (2003). The activity contrasts the similarities and differences between the business philosophies and innovations of Michael Dell of Dell Computers, Inc. and Andy Grove of Intel, Inc. It describes the business innovators, their contributions to their field and industry, the resistance encountered in furthering their ideas and programs, and the factors that influenced their success. Chapter 2 focuses on the Dell Computer founder and CEO, Michael Dell.
PROCTER & GAMBLE 1. Lafley claims that his key objectives are to make the firm more agile and flexible. Come up with specific steps that Lafley has taken to push the firm in this direction. When A.G. Lafley took control of Procter & Gamble, everyone looked to him for answers. But the truth was he didn’t know how to get the faltering P&G back on track but then he manages to turn P&G into an operations and innovation powerhouse.
He constructively suggested the efficient cost management, when he showed that Xerox was over-packing in distribution and found that the company would be more economically by having vendors’ ship directly to end users in Xerox rather than through central corporate warehouses. His excellent performance in the internship made him stay in the company and for more achievement in the future. From a productivity consultant to administrative manager for the area, John elevated to the head of the Xerox’s Multinational Development Centre (MDC) in 1986. Just within short three years in this position, Clendenin had led his group gaining a great achievement by improving the efficiency of the company’s worldwide logistics and inventory management system. His team had discovered and exploited business opportunities that saved Xerox millions of dollars a years.
1) On a scale of 1 (Very Poor) to 5 (Excellent), how would you rate Jeff Bezos as an entrepreneur? How would you rate him as an operating manager? We rate Jeff Bezos with a 5 as an entrepreneur, due to the fact that he was a visionary who in the early days of the internet was able to build an innovative big data business model through identifying a gap that traditional retailers were not filling. Jeff’s approach at building a team of cross functional seasoned executives from key industries resulted in the creation of a best in class distribution, fulfillment, and customer service center that helped position Amazon.com (AMZN) for future success. He was smart about aligning the IS infrastructure to meet the company strategic growth goals and set his business off for future success.