Entrepreneurial leadership is a contemporary and innovative method of management that combines leadership abilities with an entrepreneurial mindset. Furthermore, entrepreneurial leadership involves creating innovative products, processes, and options for growth in established firms, collaborating in societal structures and interacting with neglected societal problems, engaging in political agendas, and influencing the transformation of existing programs and regulations implemented by non – governmental organizations and authorities. This essay aims to analyze Apple Inc.s entrepreneurial leadership by exploring CEOs’ activities since these two historical figures demonstrate different approaches to the understanding and purpose of managing the same company.
The main theories include the definition of entrepreneurial leadership as a way of focusing companies on transforming issues into possibilities that provide societal and financial benefits, as Stephen Spinelli Jr suggested. For Jay Rao, entrepreneurial leaders are more than just risk managers; they all seem multifunctional, specialists at overcoming unpredictability, and constantly strive to improve things (Atwater, 2020). Therefore, the conceptual examination of Apple Inc. leaders’ behavior, considering the peculiarities of their management, is a key to understanding the practical performance of this theoretical notion.
There is no magical solution for becoming an entrepreneurial leader. However, an executive can only be considered a leader if they are willing to improve and has the ability to inspire others to follow. First-class managers are high achievers; the greater their ability to cultivate a studying mindset, the higher they will be about processing innovative thoughts, analyzing opposing viewpoints, and making smarter decisions (Štofová & Szaryszová, 2017). Researchers have three basic viewpoints on entrepreneurial leadership: mental viewpoints, behavioral approaches, and skill-based standpoints (Bagheri & Harrison, 2020). Entrepreneurial leaders, like people in business, are created rather than inherited. Leadership is a skill related to the manager’s personality that can be developed and permanently improved through influencing human behavior.
According to theoretical notions, leadership is a complicated phenomenon pervasive in all spheres of human existence. Therefore, the difference between the definitions of leadership concepts has to be established to denote an unerring understanding of entrepreneurial leaderships features. Transformational leadership involves each individual in the managerial procedure. Nevertheless, the downsides include weakening the chief’s influence and communication difficulties. Generic leadership is indeed a complete antithesis. Crew members’ ideas are not considered when concluding business-related decisions, and executives assume that others will follow their example (Tycoonstory, n.d).
Strategic leadership is the application of a chief’s talents and qualities to assist entire teams and organizations in achieving protracted aims. Transactional Leadership is functional, implying that employees surpassing the manager’s requirements would be acknowledged while others would be penalized. Coach-style leadership is focused on determining and developing a staff member’s capabilities and limitations (Xie, 2019). Thus, entrepreneurial leaders should work for the future with the application of different strategies and be ready to adapt their approaches to the performance of duties following the business’s specific needs.
The qualities of emerging entrepreneurial leaders include addressing problems jointly, respecting performance, and being results-oriented. Furthermore, they assume that improvements are necessary and that individuals can influence organizational performance (Imran & Aldaas, 2020). Entrepreneurial leaders may establish control from whatever rank. They understand that authority can not necessarily originate from the top and that it emerges through performance rather than bureaucracy; these individuals are high-performance, collaborating critical thinkers, many of whom are widely required in many sectors.
Since its foundation, Apple Inc. has fought for recognition in computer technologies, which was still an unoccupied niche. At that time, numerous companies of different sizes worked on their products to achieve the highest possible quality and capture the market, which is quite different from the company’s current policy, which was formed under the influence of a leading position in the sphere (Liu, 2021). Theoretical models of entrepreneurial leadership will be highlighted through CEOs behavioral examples. Comparative analysis of the entrepreneurial leadership of the CEO, who was the companys founder and inspiration, and the CEO, who constantly improves the company’s state, may disclose the secret of this company’s success.
Steve Jobs, the founder of the company, was an entrepreneurial leader who mainly focused on the companys product. Through analyzing his traits and beliefs, he was, first and foremost, an inventor and experimenter who sought to improve the world using the technologies that should be constantly improved. His desire for constant development did not allow him to stop at what he had achieved, and therefore such skills as leading by example, transparent communication, building trust, self-awareness and self-development. Therefore, Jobs was the true face of Apple Inc. and the first human to be associated with that company. For example, the slogan “It’s revolution, Johnny!” had its direct meaning due to the introduction of all new technologies. Their implementation reinforced the desire to purchase new products constantly (Liu, 2021).
However, any business’s main aim is constant income multiplication, and this sphere never interested Jobs. The company’s development lacked funds invested into the product, not in increasing production rates and creating marketing strategies. The abovementioned features made the perception of the Apple company and the image of Steve Jobs as a dedicated inventor who changed the world for the better.
Tim Cook, the current Aplle Inc. CEO, can be characterized as the complete opposite of Jobs in business style. Cook analyzes the industry and is accustomed to soliciting feedback from the target consumer to assess which solutions have a significant profit margin (Liu, 2021). Consequently, Cook’s mentality is distinguished by his strategic thinking, which is focused on obtaining as much profit as possible. For example, the most recent inventions that can be applied to a product are used according to pre-established plans and schedules, resulting in each product generation having predetermined innovations (Drucker, 2015). The brand reputation constructed by Jobs created a large customer base focused on using only Apple products. In turn, this eliminates the need to fight with direct competitors since the company has long occupied its niche in the market and only supports its status. Since the appointment of Cook as the head of the company was caused by the death of Jobs, a direct battle between the philosophies of these entrepreneurial leaders is impossible to spectate.
The notion of an entrepreneurial leader taking into account different approaches to its understanding may include different concepts of the behavior of such a leader following its characteristics. Steve Jobs is considered a pacesetting manager who aims to establish high achievement standards for a business’s leader and staff. This leadership is appropriate for highly skilled and dedicated teams working under tight schedules (6 styles of entrepreneurial leadership in Business. (2022, February 19).
It is one of the corporate management styles that should assist a team’s talents. Tim Cook is a transformational leader who is the finest commercial management for a company. In this technique, a CEO will also employ good communication abilities to cooperate immediately with a crew. A transformative leader will possess exceptional attributes, including identity, compassion, honesty, and boost a company’s efficiency and expansion (Iqbal, Nazir, & Ahmd, 2022). Therefore, these leadership models were necessary for Apple Inc. at certain stages of its development and promotion.
An important limitation of this case is the state and status of the companies run by Jobs and Cook. Even though they ran the same company, Jobs was an inventor who created technology to comfort people who used his company’s products. It was Jobs’ ideas and charisma that formed the foundation of the company and brought it recognition, but because of his commitment to these ideas, the interests of the company’s owners did not come first. Cook became a CEO of a thriving company and transformed it to meet the needs of the business by applying strategic and marketing skills. Entrepreneurial leadership is universal for companies that are just founded and aim to change the world of technologies, and Apple’s direct competitors, as seen from their behavior, try to follow its example. Today, many still unbreakable technology companies are being created worldwide; consequently, analyzing the leadership concepts will be useful for their confidence and rapid development (Latif et al., 2020). The cooperation of these approaches could take Apple to a whole new level, but the focus of its management is shifted to maximizing profits.
The limitations of the notion of leadership in this essay are practically not used since the very concept of leadership was analyzed from many aspects and indicated the interrelationship between entrepreneurial and other leadership types. Theoretical views on the application of the concept of entrepreneurial leadership were also considered through the prism of a significant number of sources, which contributed to the derivation of a unified understanding of this concept (Imran & Aldaas, 2020). Analysis of the practical circumstances of business leaders at Apple Inc. made it possible to understand all the features of applying this type of leadership in business.
Thus, alternative concepts of entrepreneurial leadership are present in Steve Jobs and Tim Cooks management. Although in the first case, the fact that managerial activity was motivated not by the profits desire but by much more altruistic goals is indisputable. Even though Tim Cook was unexpectedly authorized to lead Apple Inc., his leadership is much more economically justified, which indicates his entrepreneurial success and the rise of employees’ innovative behavior. While Steve Jobs remains the inspiration and creator of the analyzed company, and his success is written about in books about entrepreneurship, the real genius of business is Tim Cook. A comparative analysis of the development of Apple Inc. under the leadership of these CEOs indicates the peculiarities and difficulties that arise when applying the theoretical concepts of entrepreneurial leadership in practice.
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