PROJECT:

“Case Study Questions”

PRESENTED BY:

MUHAMMAD IRFAN

SP09-MBE-036

SUBMITTED TO:

MR. IMRAN ALI

QUESTION NO#1
“All through the 1970s, the Wall Street Journal did not cover
entrepreneurial ventures like Intel, whereas Apple was always in news!” Analyze
the factor that contributed to Apple’s success in the 1970’s and early 1980’s.
What role did Steve Jobs play in creating successful products and establishing
Apple the brand, and Apple the company?

ANSWER:
Apple is a computer manufacturing company established by Steve and
Wozniak in 1975 to produce and sell small computers.
There are number of factors that contribute to Apple’s success.
Apple computer was a unique one in 1970’s and early 1980’s. The Apple 1 was
the first single board computer that had a built in video interface. It also basted of
an on-board ROM (Read Only Memory) that could tell the computer to load the
programs from external sources. Market strategies also played a vital roll in the
success of Apple computer. Steve developed excellent marketing strategies for
selling his new products with the help of his friend (a retired CEO from Intel).
Innovation is an other factor that play very important roll in the success of Apple
computer. Although the Apple computer was well received by the market and
brought in high revenues, buoyed by this success, Steve and Wozniak developed
the Apple II, a general purpose computer. Apple II’s design was similar to that of
Apple I – simple and compact. However it had several enhancements over its
predecessors. It had the first ever floppy disk drive and eight peripheral device
slots that provided connectivity to external devices. To further increase the
usefulness of Apple II, Steve invited independent programmers to write
applications for the system. In response Apple got the liberty of 16000 software
applications that could be run on its system. Marketing strategies to compete its
competitors are very excellent that also play a vital roll in the success of Apple
computer.
Steve jobs play a vital roll in the success and establishment of Apple
computer and company. Steve was a highly skilled and competent person with
having high electronics knowledge and skills. Despite the lake of resources Steve
established Apple company. To get the required capital he sold some of his most
valuable possessions.

QUESTION NO # 2.
Despite being known as a ‘difficult person to deal with’, Steve was
regarded as a charismatic personality with great interpersonal skills. In light of
the above statement, critically examine the various aspects, of Steve’s leadership
and management styles?

ANSWER:
It is not a doubt that Steve was a very good leader. Due to his high
leadership qualities Steve was appointed the ‘interim CEO’ of leading information
technology (IT) company in September 1997. Although Steve was very hard in
deal but very polite with skilled and hard workers. Louise Kehoe, a Financial
Time reporter who had covered Steve for a long period, said “He does make you
‘love’ him and then he turns around and slaps you in the face. It seemed to be
unclear whether this unusual people management style was a conscious effort
on Steve’s part to make people work harder or led by simple instinct. Conscious
or instinctual, it seemed to have worked for him. Because Steve was a very good
leader so he had ability and potential to get his employees so motivated that they
worked maniacally to achieve goals or to build technology far beyond what the
thought was possible. Steve management style attracted criticism from various
corners and he was often referred to as a difficult person to deal with. The Apple
board was also beginning to show disapproval of Steve’s behavioral and people
skills. Steve was a talented and competent leader. He was a good market leader
and he had honored many of times, Steve earned many awards for the services
he rendered to the computer hardware and software industry. He received the
Nation Medal for Technology in 1985 and The Jefferson Award for Public Service
in 1987. He was named the Entrepreneur of the Decade in 1989 by inc
magazine. He was also placed as 39th on the Advertising Age ‘Top 100
Advertising People’ list. In 2000’ the College of Journalism and Communications
honored him with the ‘Millennium Award’ in recognition of his ‘singular
professional leadership, vision and creative achievements.

QUESTION NO # 3.
Steve’s return to Apple in 1996 gave a dramatic boost to its stock price,
what steps did Steve take to increase the sale of Apple products? Steve
leadership had always played a significant role in shaping Apple’s future,
Discuss?

ANSWER:
Steve played a significant role in the success of Apple’s products. Steve
had sold even his most valuable possessions for the establishment and
betterment of Apple. He took some finance from a local supplier to fulfill financial
need. Steve gave his first personal computer to the world with the name of Apple
I and reinvented the computer year to years. Steve developed the high level of
marketing strategies for selling Apple’s products to the market with the help of his
friend (retired CEO from Intel). Due to his excellent marketing strategies Apple I
became very famous in the market and started to gave very high return and
customer satisfaction. In spite of good response of Apple I from the market,
Steve started innovation in his Apple’s products. After a little time he introduced
an other computer Apple II with some extra characteristics and functions in the
market and then Apple III with the addition more characteristics and functions.
Steve was regarded as an excellent arbitrator with great inter personal
skills even during in his early days as an entrepreneur. During late 1970s IBM
was Apple’s biggest competitor. Steve realized that he needed better marketing
techniques to compete against IBM. Therefore he recruited Regis McKenna, a
public relation officer and Nolan Bushnell a former supervisor at Atari and
persuaded them to invest in Apple, to get finance for compete against IBM. To
capturing more market Steve undertook many initiatives to introduce PCs into the
field of education further added to the popularity of apple’s products. The
success of projects like Kids Can’t Want (KCW), Apple Education Foundation
(AEF) and Apple University Consortium (AUC) was a significant achievements of
Steve. Through above steps Steve had got major market share and growth.

QUESTION NO# 4.
Would you agree that Apple was too dependent on Steve and that without
him the company would not be able to perform well? With reference to issue of
succession planning, comment on the above and mention what could be in store
for Apple in the future?

ANSWER:
Yes, I extremely agree with above statement that Apple was too
dependent on Steve. Because Steve was an excellent leader for Apple. He was
a life blood for the Apple Company. He worked with heart and soul and was
ready to sacrifice his each and every thing for the betterment of Apple. Without
the leadership of Steve the Apple Company could not perform as well. Steve had
done much more for the success and advancement of Apple.
Steve success at Apple came to be seen in the global corporate world as
proof of his excellence as a leader and entrepreneur. He was regarded as a
tenacious, resilient and driven leader who successfully over came great set
backs and challenges time and again. He was come out the company from many
problems and bad situations with high skills and techniques. Steve did get
knocked down many a time but he always rebounded with tremendous
determinations. Indeed it would not be too far- fetched to regard him as one of
the very few survivors of a quarter century in one of the most unforgiving
industries in the world. He did much more for the Apple and gained so much
respect. In short Steve was a really excellent leader and entrepreneur.