Steve jobs: A Visionary Business Tycoon
Steve Jobs was a successful American inventor, entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Apple computers, which today dominates the technological world. It is not just a technological tool in corporate world but also a symbol of luxury and comfort even in the life of an ordinary man. The company has unclosed all the possibilities what modern technology is capable of doing.
The person who’s sweat and grit was involved and resulted into this revolution is Steve Jobs. His birthplace is San Francisco, California. He was adopted by his father Paul Jobs and Clara Jobs, his mother. Paul Jobs was a Coast-Guard mechanic by profession, Steve got the fascination towards electronics tools and gadgets from his father in inheritance.
He was among the sharp and brightest students in school. After graduating, Steve moved to Reed College in Poland. Though things did not well as expected, he dropped out after his first semester. The days was quite struggling for him, but his creativity did not leave his side. Sooner, he developed a certain kind of interest in typography.
In 1974, he had attracted towards Eastern way of spiritualism and decided to visit India, a holy land of Gods. He worked as a part time worker in a company known as Atari, specialized in video games. The only motive of Steve behind doing a job is to collect enough money to visit India and learn about their culture and religion. After a month, he left Atari and moved to India.
After spending seven months of his life in India, Steve returned to United States. As told by his biographer- Steve’s visit to India was not a waste of time. His time in India taught him “Intuition”.
Soon after his return to United States, he met with his friend Steve Wozniak who was engaged in developing a computer. Steve had vision and Wozniak had skills, both had something common – love for electronics. Thus, they agreed to join hands for developing something bigger and transforming.
In 1975, the duo started working on their venture Apple, kept their mind eyes and hands on the prototype of Apple I. Their first venture Apple computers had its first headquarter in Jobs parent’s garage. Everything was going smooth until the funding became a problem. Steve sold his Volkswagen and Wozniak sold his Hewlett Packard calculator.
After all the efforts, there were something missing, it was lack of marketing strategy. They soon found the way and attended seminars on marketing presided by Homebrew Computer Club. Apple I was sold to the few hobbyists, but it generated enough amount of money which could easily afford the cost for future improvement in designs.
Apple II was on its way and got launched in 1977. It was a first personal computer having a keyboard and comprised of colorful graphics. It was a revolution in personal computing and also made its presence in Silicon Valley. Initial first year sale rose to $3 million which after two years turned into an elephant-sized mammal standing at $200 million.
However, with time and because of rising competition and less sales of Apple III put Apple behind IBM. After Apple III, the next creation LISA, did more harm to the company. It was a big blow to the company. After facing continuous failures, Jobs came with up Apple Macintosh, first personal computer controlling a graphical user interface through a mouse. It was an innovation led breakthrough but could not make it space because of its cost $2,495 and marketing failure.
Macintosh was failed as a home-computer, Jobs declared it as a business computer. However, this idea also fell straight to the ground. Less memory, no hard drive, no networking potentials Macintosh was absolutely not desirable and did not align with what was needed.
These series of events were destructive for Steve Jobs and his reaction towards it pushed him into unwanted circumstances. He clashed and got involved in heated conversations with the board of directors of Apple, the incumbent CEO of that time, John Sculley ousted Jobs from the board. Eventually in aggression, Steve sold his shares and gave his resignation.
Not been a part of a company which was founded by him, instilled a strange kind of motivation in Steve to do something beyond ordinary. He created NeXT Computer Company. Steve was sure that it was going to be transforming in every aspect. Comprised with fast processing speeds, optical disk drive and fantastic graphics it had everything.
But price was the issue, stood at $9,950 was highly expensive. So, he gave a try to replacement. He turned the company’s focus from hardware to software.
Along with that, Steve gave attention to his side business, Pixar Animation Studios, specialized in generating computer animated feature films. Steve bought it from George Lucas and invested a capital of $50 million. The company flourished unexpectedly and gave birth to the blockbusters- Finding Nemo, Toy Story and The Incredibles.
Pixar movies earned $4 billion. Later, it had a merger with Disney in which Steve had the largest shareholder. Success hit different when Apple acquired NeXT in 1996 at $426 million. Not only this, but Apple appointed Steve again to the board of directors and also made him an advisor of Apple CEO.
In 1997, quarterly loss of Apple was estimated at $780 million. Within months, the CEO resigned, and Steve was positioned as new CEO. The company had many expectations from him as it was facing severe downfall.
With innovation Steve produce amazing products which occupied the marketplace at large. It was the booming period for the company. Under the stewardship of Steve Jobs, Apple was flourishing again and reaching new heights. Numerous breakthrough products were produced. In 1998, sales reached to $5.9 billion, the company was once again in profitability.
In October 2011, Steve Jobs passed away suffering from pancreatic cancer, left behind a legacy to cherish forever and ever. Today, Apple occupies the largest market in the world.
Must Read: –
