Two Leaders S. Jobs and R. Branson
This project report is based on comparison made between two leaders knows as CEO of Apple Company Late Steve Jobs and CEO of Virgin Group Sir Richard Branson. In this project report both Leaders have been compared and contrasted according to their leadership qualities, skills, attitudes, personalities and value system owned by each of them. According to this given project report comparison made between both the leaders shows that Richard Branson is considered as an effective Leader because he is participative and charismatic in nature.
He possesses several leadership, managerial and entrepreneurial skills and qualities. Sum up, according to analysis of given project, this report provides some recommendations regarding the Leadership styles and qualities to be followed in organizations.
* There is no single style of leadership to be followed by leaders because leaders must change their styles according to required situation. * An effective leader has qualities such as honesty, loyalty, responsibility, excellent communication, enthusiasm, motivation, competence and etc. * Successful Leaders are required for managing conflicts, framing appropriate decisions, thinking strategically, empowering employees, and designing team based structures (Mind Tools Ltd 2013).
* Steve Jobs and Sir Richard Branson both applied similar approach of being a transformational leader and valued factors such as quality and innovation for creating a successful and sustainable business.
* Steve Jobs Late CEO of Apple Company was an autocratic and transactional leader. He was having excellent communication and technical skills for applying it to new technologies but he lacked interpersonal skills with him. * Richard Branson CEO of Virgin Group is considered as participative, charismatic, and leader.
He possessed skills such as interpersonal, communication, negotiation and persuasion for diversifying several brands under a single virgin group. * Sir Richard Branson is compared and contrasted according to certain attributes such as personality, values, emotions and leadership qualities and is found more effective as compared to Steve Jobs. Table of ContentsPage No
1.0Introduction
Leaders are typically thought to be individuals who create a strong influence on others. For an example in global business environment Leaders have been creating difference with their qualities and styles followed by them. The effective Leaders have qualities such as honesty, responsibility, loyalty, enthusiasm, determination, creative, adaptability, good communication, empathy, competence, respect and acting as a source of motivation for the followers. In an era of globalization Leaders are creating an edge over their competitors by applying leadership Qualities.
1.1Aim
The aim of this project report is to compare and contrast two global Leaders such as Steve Jobs and Richard Branson. It will highlight similarities and dissimilarities between two leaders and their leadership styles. Among two leaders, best Leader and his Leadership qualities followed by him to lead the organization is being explained in this report. The effective leadership skills and qualities making them successful are described in detail. The factors that can make a successful Leader, manager and entrepreneur in any situation are explained in this project report. In this project Report, Steve Jobs and Richard Branson have been defined as Leaders from Business perspective. Both the Leaders have been compared and contrasted according to their Leadership qualities. Among the two Leaders one of an effective Leader is identified by comparing and contrasting the leadership qualities.
2.0 Who is a Leader?
To begin with the discussion, Leaders need to be defined in detail. A Leader is one who leads from front and has got an ability to influence others for getting the work done successfully (Macmillan Publishers Limited 2012). In an organization Leaders are required for managing the conflicts, framing appropriate decisions, thinking strategically, empowering employees, and designing team based structures. Leaders possess knowledge, skills and expertise regarding several fields. Several Leadership styles can be followed by Leaders such as participative, directive, charismatic, transformational and transactional style. Participative leaders are those who support the employees by providing them resources and helping them. Directive Leaders are autocratic in nature and want the employees to complete their task in given time frame.
Charismatic Leaders are those who can inspire employees to follow his instructions. They are the vision creator for an organization. Transformational Leaders are those who can create self interest within employees for achieving the objectives. Transactional Leaders want employees to achieve the set goals and targets. This report is provided fair analysis of Leadership qualities and styles followed in Business environment globally. There is no single style of leadership which is considered the best one. According to situations Leaders must have an ability to adapt particular leadership style (MGR Consulting 2006). However, there are many examples which highlights that Leaders are developed in organization by implementing Leadership development programs.
3.0Discussion
3.1Two Leaders as Steve Jobs and Richard Branson
In this project report the two Leaders Steve Jobs and Richard Branson are being explained. Steve Jobs was the Late CEO of Apple Computers Inc (Leadership with You 2012). He was born on 1955 at US and was a Board Member at Walt Disney Company. He was innovative and critical thinker in nature which helped him to climb the ladder of success. He created one of the most valuable companies of world. Steve Jobs loved to experiment with electronics products which helped him to create a niche market for apple products. Apple is a leader in I-pod and I-phones which attract the youths. The competitors of Apple used re-positioning strategies immediately after launching of their products.
Richard Branson is the chairman of Virgin Group and was born on 1950 at United Kingdom. He started his career by recording and latter he owned Virgin Airlines. He is being addressed by giving title as “Sir” & listed in the list of wealthiest entrepreneur’s of Britain. Virgin is one of the most reputed brands existing in more than thirty countries of world, and it is diversified into several segments. Steve Jobs & Richard Branson both are treated as global leaders for following their respective leadership qualities and styles.
3.2 Compare and Contrast Two Leaders
The two leaders know as Late CEO of Apple Steve Jobs and owner of Virgin Group Sir Richard Branson is being compared and Contrasted in this paragraph. * Comparison between two Leaders
Steve Job was autocratic in nature and wanted to work with likeminded people. He wanted himself to be involved in each and every detail for getting expected result from his employees (Richard Hughes, R Ginnett, Gordon J Curphy 2009). He was a transformational and transactional leader too. He acted as transactional Leader, by creating vision for Apple Company and encouraging all employees to link their performance for achieving set goals and targets. He acted as a transformational leader by focusing all around Apple’s technology and motivating employees to create self interest for making it one of the most valuable and appreciated Brand all across the Globe (Conceivably Tech 2012).
He carried such as personality which will be remembered in terms of technology for many years. Richard Branson and Steve Jobs worked with passion and dedication to get effective results for creating things which could make them feel proud. Sir Richard Branson also worked with people for creating difference in similar manner as Steve Job created. He believed in creating something which worth for quality similarly as Steve Jobs did for Apple. Richard Branson and Steve Jobs acted as transformational Leader for striving best qualities among their people. In brief both Leaders positioned their organization all across the globe by providing superior quality of product, services with strong Brand Image.
* Contrast between Two Leaders
The difference between both the Leaders and their Leadership styles are being listed with bullet points. * Steve Jobs was an autocratic Leader and followed an Authoritarian Leadership style. He believed in getting excellence from his employees whereas Richard Branson is participative and delegative in nature. * Steve Jobs had a personality to be centre of attraction for getting any activity being done at Apple whereas Richard Branson provides complete autonomy to his employees for getting things done in a better manner. * Steve jobs acted as a good communicator where as Richard Branson believe in listening others for avoiding mistakes (Finnie, Scot 2011).
* Steve Jobs believed in holding power in his hand whereas Sir Richard Branson believe that distribution of power is effective for diversifying the business. * Steve Jobs used concept of firing and forcing for employees to deliver the desired outcome whereas Sir Richard Branson believe that an organization is created and developed by people. * Jobs believed that Business can be managed with great ideas whereas Richard Branson stated that fun should be created, employees should be rewarded for their ideas. According to skills, qualities and attributes required by the Leaders, effectiveness of Richard Branson as a Leader will be explained in this project report.
3.3One of the Effective Leader’s
According to both Leaders, Sir Richard Branson can be considered as an effective leader. The leadership qualities possessed by him are being researched and explained in detail. Richard Branson is the figurehead of Virgin Group. According to researchers, the three factors which highlight the leadership traits of Richard Branson are smile and work with friendly approach, enjoy fun at work, and appreciate the ideas of employees. According to (Paul Beeston 2010) there are certain attributes which is being possessed by Richard Branson. They are segmented below. Personality: Richard Branson Personality states certain attributes such as he is a charming, caring, sensitive, frank and enthusiastic Leader. Values: He applies attributes to value system for growing the business at Virgin Group. It includes factors such as quality, working in team, competition, reliability, fun and innovation.
Emotions: He is emotional and applied attributes by being good listener, encourager, and communicator. Leadership Attributes: Richard Branson is a charismatic, participative and transformational leader who could create vision of Virgin Group and diversified it by being participative. He applies principle of time management and valued contribution of employees at Virgin Group. He is having and ability to find right talent and create an environment where he can fit them. According to Branson, Learning takes place by committing mistakes and negotiation takes place by persuading others. He is a true motivator for employees at Virgin group by encouraging informality. He believes in building interpersonal relationship, accepts the challenges by experimenting things. Therefore from the above attributes which are being highlighted it can be stated that Richard Branson is more effective as compared to Steve Jobs while applying Leadership qualities. However Richard Branson we will explain the skills being possessed by Steve Jobs and Richard Branson in this project report
3.4 Skills Demonstrated by Both the Leaders.
The leaders need to demonstrate certain skills for marking their presence as Leaders in Business environment. To grow the business effective communication should take place. Steve Jobs had a good communication and an entrepreneur skill. He acted as a good team Leader and implemented strategies upon the team members. He worked with perseverance skill and focused on providing quality products. He had innovating skill and technical skills which was applied for designing new technologies to make apple a reputed brand all across the globe. According to him Continuous Learning is required for a Leader and his employees of Organization to create a valuable Brand. He believed in hiring loyal people which shows that he was ethical and loyal towards Apple Company. However, Steve Jobs lacked to build better interpersonal relations because he had autocratic leadership skills. He had entrepreneurial skills which helped him to bear the risk at Apple (Mansueto Ventures LLC 2013). Virgin Group is one of the most reputed companies of the world.
Richard Branson applies several skills to manage the business which is diversified into more than 300 brands. He is a good listener and values employee’s contribution a lot. He believes in learning from the past mistakes so that time could be saved from committing a new mistake in future. People management skill is being applied by him for empowering the employees at Virgin Group. He applies interpersonal skills to build relationship with customers, stakeholders, and suppliers of virgin group. He possesses additional skills such as being flexible, selling skills, negotiation and appropriate leadership skills. However he also applies leadership and management skills by being participative, charismatic and transformational. Thus it can be demonstrated that both Leaders possessed different skills to manage the business in global environment. However Richard Branson has got more skills which helped virgin group to grow immensely.
3.5 Reasons making successful Leader, Manager’s & Entrepreneur Nevertheless, there are certain factors which affect the business environment such as changing customer demand frequently, technology, and fluctuations in the economies. To cope up with such factors organizations need to develop leaders for sustaining and growing their business by accepting the challenges. Steve Jobs and Richard Branson both became successful leaders in their respective areas by creating ideas and vision for their companies, giving respect to customers, stakeholders and employees, communicating transparently, implementing appropriate decisions during critical situations, assuring accountability, supporting the team based working structures, enforcing the learning attitude among themselves and their employees, and adapting changes made in terms of technologies (Donald Patterson 2009). According to Henry Fayol managers are those individuals who have an ability to plan, organize, coordinate and control the flow of activities for achieving the organizational goals.
Steve Jobs and Richard Branson acted as Managers to become successful and created an edge for their organization by coaching and counseling their employees, delegating the work appropriately, valuing each other to motivate the employees, developing and following a proper corporate culture, managing the time, and analyzing the risks with analytical skills (Management Advisory Service UK Ltd 2011). As an entrepreneur Steve Jobs and Richard Branson have qualities such as an ability to take higher risks, enjoy the work, act as a promoter, know their customers, experimenting with technologies, creating an edge over others, grabbing the opportunity, negotiating with stakeholders, and managing the time effectively. As an entrepreneur Richard Branson states that he admired Steve Jobs a lot. According to him, one should hire employees according to need. When there is an unnoticed opportunity to everyone, there are high chances of converting it to the vision in reality (The Branson Centre of entrepreneurship 2011). Thus these were the reasons which made Steve Jobs and Richard Branson as successful leader, manager and entrepreneur in their respective business.
4.0 Conclusion
From the above report it can be concluded that Leaders have an ability to lead from the front by creating influence upon their employees in an organization. In an era of globalization business has to undergo several changes in terms of demographics, technology, culture and economic changes. To cope up with existing and emerging challenges leaders need to implement the successful qualities such of leaders, managers and entrepreneurs. In this project report Steve jobs CEO of Apple Company and Richard Branson CEO of Virgin group are being compared and contrasted. They have been compared in terms of their leadership qualities, styles being followed, skills implemented by them, personality, values, and emotions with respect to certain attributes.
Steve Jobs was considered as autocratic and self centered Leader who focused more on technical skills whereas Richard Branson is considered as charismatic, participative and transformational leader who has strong interpersonal skills for managing the business. Steve Jobs focused more towards work whereas Richard Branson enjoys fun at work. Thus according to leadership, managerial and entrepreneurial qualities possessed by both the Leaders, Sir Richard Branson is considered as an effective Leader because he has ability to diversify business into several segments under a single virgin Group.
5.0 Recommendations
However, perfect and effective leaders are those who have an ability to accept the critics and move ahead by managing several changes. The recommendations are listed in bullet points. * There is no single style of leadership which is considered the best one. There are several qualities possessed by leaders and styles must be changed according to required situation. * An effective leader has qualities such as honesty, loyalty, responsibility, excellent communication, enthusiasm, motivation, competence and etc. * Successful Leaders are required for managing conflicts, framing appropriate decisions, thinking strategically, empowering employees, and designing team based structures (Mind Tools Ltd 2013). * Steve Jobs and Sir Richard Branson both applied similar approach of being a transformational leader and valued factors such as quality and innovation for creating a successful and sustainable business.
* According to this project report, Steve Jobs CEO of Apple Company was an autocratic and transactional leader. He was having excellent communication and technical skills for applying it to new technologies but he lacked interpersonal skills with him. * Richard Branson CEO of Virgin Group is considered as participative, charismatic, and leader. He possesses skills such as interpersonal, communication, negotiation and persuading for diversifying several brands under a single virgin group. * Sir Richard Branson is compared and contrasted according to certain attributes such as personality, values, emotions and leadership qualities and was found more effective as compared to Steve Jobs. Although Richard Branson admired Steve Jobs a lot but he states that fun should be created to bring new ideas into business.
6.0 References
R. L. Hughes, R.C. Ginnett, G.J. Curphy, 2012, Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience, 7th edn, McGraw-Hill Irwin, New York. Macmillan Publishers Limited 2012,”Leader”, viewed on 11-01-2013, http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/leader MGR Consulting 2006,”Why we need Leaders”, Accessed on 11-01-2013, http://mgrconsulting.com/Newsletters/eNewsletter_06_02.pdf Leadership with You 2012,”Steve Jobs Leadership Case Study”, Accessed on 11-01-2013, http://www.leadership-with-you.com/steve-jobs-leadership.html Conceivably Tech 2012,”Defining Leadership: Sir Richard Branson”, viewed on 11-01-2013, http://www.conceivablytech.com/9668/business/defining-leadership-sir-richard-branson Richard Hughes, R Ginnett, Gordon J Curphy 2009, Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience” Journal of Education for Business”, vol.6, pp-189 Finnie, Scot 2011,Steve Jobs’ Indelible Mark,” Finnie, Scot 2011”, vol.45, no.19, pp 49 Paul Beeston 2010, Belief Model for the Leadership of Richard Branson,” Change in Mind Ltd”.
