Running head: APPLE LEADERSHIP 1

Apple Leadership

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation
APPLE LEADERSHIP 2

Introduction

Leading has been one of the most studied and explored phenomena in the last

few centuries. Leadership is important as a multidimensional term in all facets of contemporary

organizations. Since its inception, Apple Corporation has successfully been largely accredited to

leadership styles. Apple Inc. is without question one of the most creative and transformative

businesses in the world. The transition in the business started with the leadership styles of Steve

Jobs, which led it to success. However the company's worse performance since leaving the

business under new management was rising its debts to $741 billion, a staggering 37,000% in

less than 20 years. Significant growth was achieved in 2015 in major performance metrics,

including revenue, earnings and assets. The company then reappeared as one of the world's

leading technology firms. In particular, with the development of its revolutionary technology, the

company has gradually overtaken other firms, capturing more market segments than Samsung.

Tome Cook, Steve Jobs' predecessor, is a significant contributor to the company's phenomenal

growth through current leadership styles. The organization has since recovered its global sources

of revenue production. The research focuses on the various leadership styles employed by the

organization for its efficacy.

Leadership Styles

The success of the firm is reflected in the highly skilled and trained administration of

every entity, and Apple is no exception in this case. The leading Apple executive directors are

Steve Jobs and Tim Cook. As their various leadership styles influenced, their views on customer

loyalty, best marketing policies, product growth philosophy and personal views for these leading

companies were diverse (Toister, 2020). Strongly charismatic leader Steve Jobs was able to

define the leadership style of Tim Cook as democratic leaders. There has been
APPLE LEADERSHIP 3

a contentious discussion about who is the best CEO of the company. Both CEOs have many

strong and successful claims regarding them. Its management structure is a multinational

corporation, which represents its mission and ideals, which are essentially its efforts to be the

best consumer electronics supplier, digital distributors and the best proprietors in computer

science. Mission statement from Apple Inc. is 'creating a leading digital network, revolutionizing

mobile technology and identify the future of mobile media the world's top PC's and apps. The

vision is: 'Targeted at creativity, simplicity, the ownership and control of primary technology

behind the goods, through cross-pollination and partnerships. These elements are demonstrated

in the leadership styles employed by the organization. Currently, Tim Cook has strong respect

for Apple staff. Steve Jobs has spent more time in the growth of Apple's top-class products. As

CEO, he made great efforts to achieve the highest quality in the event of any product. Any

employee on a vacation is reminded of coming over overnight and making the necessary

adjustments. The psychological loss of workers under his management was not considered. Their

main goal was to create an outstanding and exclusive product and service for the foreign

custodian. Apple employees were purely considered as facilitators in this case.

The other quality of leadership that clearly presents itself in this category is the

transformation leadership style. Both Jobs and Cook has transformed the company in various

ways for the better enhancement of service delivery and also in terms of profits gained by the

organization. I conducted an Analysis of Leadership Styles specifically transformational

leadership style (Yoffie & Rossano, 2012). The transformational leadership style involves

adjusting the organizational systems through simplifying tasks and then assigning to employees,

ensuring that the organizational goals, visions, and missions align with the newly introduced

structures. Generally, it involves leaders that create visions and make their teams follow by
APPLE LEADERSHIP 4

inspiring and activating their follower’s .The transformational leadership style helps cultivate an

APPLE INC.’S culture in employees to enhance their performance. Adaptive Leadership Style

The adaptive leadership approach adopts a pragmatic framework that helps employees and the

organization adapt and excel in a challenging workplace. Additionally, research proposes that the

firm also has elements of making changes in leadership and also the laborers in a way that shows

continuity of work and targets overall improvement of existing conditions (Kovácsová, 2013).

For Steve Jobs, he is a man with high confidence level and does not tolerate any unbecoming

conduct for the employees. He understands the mission and vision of the organization and

strictly focuses his mind in sincerity to achieving the set goals of the organization. The fact

mentioned earlier has led to massive benefits in creating high quality products and thus

introduced a brand trusted by almost half of the global IT and electronic products and services

consumers.

The other style applied in Apple Inc. is the Adaptive Leadership Style. The adaptive

leadership approach adopts a pragmatic framework that helps employees and the organization

adapt and excel in a challenging workplace. The adaptive leadership style makes employees

work collectively and individually, advancing the proposed organizational. According to Tim

Cook, all aspects in the business are of much necessity (Wilkes, 2011). Cook seems to have been

a democratic leader and he knew the necessities of the employees and assumed that company

success and achievement were focused primarily on the results of the employees. The primary

duty of Cook is to devote more time and money to improve the culture of the business. The new

management gap that rebellious under Steve Jobs' leadership, which strives to invent and grow

products, has no respect for employees, affected Apple's innovation strategy. Under Cook's

guidance, less new items are available than jobs, but the existing range has been highly
APPLE LEADERSHIP 5

improved. According to Apple staff, Steve Jobs was a wartime CEO. When Jobs returned to

Apple, the company was in a poor stage of coordination. Jobs showed exceptional vitality and

aggression in putting Apple out of the swamp. His aggressive management was valued at the

time, since the organization is the world's top communication technology, people questioned the

aggression that is presently to be alleviated (Dolata, 2018). Tim Cook, by comparison, is cool

and composed and has made the business gentler in this style. Steve Jobs only wanted to create

quality goods and achieve success while at the same time meeting the needs of staff because they

were easy to help Steve meet his objectives. Tim Cook is still anxious to see the whole of the

company's well-being. These leaders were chosen in a quest to adapt to the prevailing conditions

in the market and also within the organization.

The other style presented in the case study is the visionary leadership quality where every

leader responded to the firm’s core values, vision and objectives. Confusion prevailed before

Cook in Apple's financial and organizational divisions (Blanchard & Hodges, 2016). Though

Job's innovative leadership and premium product design were undermined by quality and

insufficient availability and excessive cost. Apple was a steady player in the technology of

communication industry. With Cook's entry, something has changed. Cook tenure incorporated

promotion and expense minimization techniques. Changes in product design, integrated

marketing and manufacturing in Apple were implemented by Tim Cook with excellent

experience in the supply chains administration. To do this, he initiated massive marketing

initiatives and cost cutting methodologies in order to find an easy solution to complicated

problems.

Conclusion
APPLE LEADERSHIP 6

In summary, the secret to turning the assets of an organization around is how a

turnaround leader such as Steve Jobs managed the Apple Inc. Nevertheless, workers have gained

a great deal in inventing and developing new goods which are of high quality and lures the

consumers. Unlike Jobs influential role which compelled his opinions on staff as regards what he

believed about the enterprise to detach employees in the important organizing decisions, Cook is

the Apple CEO who developed an effective strategy plan. The overall leadership styles employed

by Steve Jobs and Thomas Cook have produced immense changes within apple organization

leading to productive outcome and corporate culture of efficiency.

References

Blanchard, K., & Hodges, P. (2016). Lead like Jesus revisited: Lessons from the greatest

leadership role model of all time. Thomas Nelson.

Dolata, U. (2018). Internet companies: Market concentration, competition and power.

In Collectivity and Power on the Internet (pp. 85-108). Springer, Cham.

Kovácsová, L. (2013). Making You" Think Different": Apple's Marketing Strategy and its

Comparison with Competitors.

Toister, J. (2020). The Service Culture Handbook: A Step-By-Step Guide to Getting Your

Employees Obsessed with Customer Service. Tantor Media.

Wilkes, G. (2011). Jesus on leadership: Timeless wisdom on servant leadership. Tyndale House

Publishers, Inc.

Yoffie, D. B., & Rossano, P. (2012). Apple Inc. in 2012. Harvard Business School.