Article Writing Homework Help
Provide a 7 pages analysis while answering the following question: Steve Jobs And Mary Kay. Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide. An abstract is required.
Provide a 7 pages analysis while answering the following question: Steve Jobs And Mary Kay. Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide. An abstract is required. Nevertheless, to enable us to arrive at the decision that Steve Jobs and Mary Kay being different we use Weber’s definition of the elements that are requisite for charisma.
Jobs was a visionary who sought to change the world through technology (Yoffie & Kwak 1) and most definitely manifested exceptional ability with regards to coming up with strategies that enabled Apple to make a turnaround from making losses of US$ 1.6 billion to making profits in five straight quarters. In addition to this Jobs, like Weber’s elements of charisma dictate, was able to demonstrate his ‘gift of grace’ through the continued success of his mission to turnaround Apple into a ‘happening’ brand. Mary Kay differs from Jobs in the sense that she was able to not only attract a following but also convert them into devotees of her way of working. Steve Jobs seems unable to transfer his ideas to his ‘charges’ in that he has to be present for his vision to be realized. Mary Kay, on the other hand, has been able to arguably transfer her vision to her followers to prepare them for succession. In a nutshell, we can argue that Steve Jobs is a strategy genius in so far as setting the direction for Apple to go while Mary Kay is more of an inspirational leader who attracts independent individuals and gives them the belief that they will succeed if they join her and follow her tenets.
Apple derived its competitive advantages from the following three unique attributes: technology leadership, proprietary technologies and its horizontal and vertical integration. Apple’s technological leadership is demonstrated several times through its early years. Good examples are: the Apple II that drove the PC industry to US$ 1 billion in annual sales in less than three years, and the Lisa – the first PC to use a graphical user interface and a .point-and-click mouse in addition to having a windowing system that allowed multiple applications to run at the same time (Yoffie & Kwak 2). Apple consistently launched revolutionary products that set the bar for computing.
