A631.9.2.RB_SchreterPaul

After Steve Jobs lost his job at Apple during a power struggle, he created a new company called NeXT. After watching a video, I was able to get a sneak peek at how the company was run during its early stages of development. With my recently acquired Management Assessment (MA) profile, I will be able to explain how I would best fit into the company based on how my personality type handles resources, how it handles challenges, and finally what I would do as an introverted tactical leader.

In a new start up, efficient use of resources becomes vital. According to the MA, my characteristics with regards to the use of resources is primarily aimed at achieving goals as opposed to gaining additional power. Steve Jobs was known to have spent an abundance of resources on things like logo design, the gutting and rebuilding of the company’s offices, and the removal of imperfections their molds had left (Nicholson, 1993). My characteristics of trying to reach goals would have been keener on spending money to bring the company closer to the demanded $3,000 price point of the product. In this way, I may have been a devil’s advocate in the group.

My second characteristic would be on of how I deal with challenges. Nearly all challenges can be conquered is the attitude this report would suggest, it only takes the right mindset to do it. In the case of NeXT, the major challenge would have been to release a new product within 18 months at a price point less than $3000 (Nicholson, 1993). Admittedly, I don’t think this characteristic would have been unique in the company as I believe everyone would have had to share this characteristic. Or maybe perhaps not, considering they weren’t able to achieve their goals by the given deadline.

Finally, it’s been stated in my report that I am an introverted tactical leader. This type of leader is likely to “have good skills in blending tools and resources to accomplish goals and will negotiate and orchestrate resources and activities to achieve desired results. Tactical leaders have strengths in troubleshooting, acquiring, and delegating, and are capable of unifying people in an organization toward a concrete focus or goal” (NextSteps Research, 2015). While not seemingly fit for a Steve job’s strategic and visionary position, it does seem more fitting to be on the operational side of the house with trying to get results. Within the context of the NeXT retreats, I may try to orchestrate the various resources, tools, and personnel into solving very specific and smaller goals, before tying them together with achieving the bigger one (Nathan, 1989). Sometimes tackling very big challenges might be too much of a burden to take on all at once, so by breaking it down into smaller chunks, more progress might have been made.

Discussed was how the results of my MA would have tied into the NeXT organization: characteristics in relation to the use of resources, characteristics in relation to dealing with challenges, and finally the characteristics of an introverted tactical leader. Overall this assessment has been quite an interesting one and I hope to see where my future will take me and how it’ll relate to the results and predictions of this assessment.

References

Nathan, J. (1989, Mar 17). Entrepreneurs. Nathan/Tyler Productions. Retrieved November 26, 2012, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loQhufxiorM&feature=related
NextSteps Research. (2015). Management Assessment Profile.

Nicholson, D. (1993). Book World; How Steve Jobs Hexed NeXT. The Washington Post , B02.