Steve Jobs: The Brains behind Apple’s Comeback

If you want to learn how to succeed in business and entrepreneurship, pay attention to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. In a recent interview, Steve Jobs says, “My job is to not be easy on people. My job is to take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better, coming up with more aggressive visions of how it could be.” If you are interested in a career in business, entrepreneurship or marketing, examine Jobs’ impressive resume. Jobs’s Key to Business Success: Smart Innovation
As CEO, Jobs introduced a line of innovations that raised the value of Apple’s stock from a paltry $3.30 a share in 1997 to $94 a share just ten years later. Among these innovations:

• iTunes: Network television and music are now available online
• iPod: The portable music player made stocks sky-rocket
• The Mac Store: Combining computer sales with one-on-one interaction has lead to more than $1 billion in sales
• MacBook: If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Die-hard PC users are converted by the thousands when the MacBook incorporated the Pentium processor

Staging a Revolution: Marketing the Mac Image
Jobs emphasized the importance of aesthetics when marketing a product to the public. Robert Cringely, writing for Inc.com on America’s 25 most fascinating entrepreneurs, noted Jobs’s skill in product design: “He has the best taste in product design and the greatest skill at making the rest of us want to buy stuff we don’t strictly need of any American industrialist, ever.” Could You Be the Next Steve Jobs? Try an Online degree in Business or Marketing
If you’re interested in entrepreneurship, an online degree in business or marketing can help you get the skills you need. Online degree programs in business typically cover economics, administration and project management. If you think you have the charisma to be the next Steve Jobs, many online degrees offer specializations in business and information technology. If you want to learn more about the technical side of business, look at the many computer courses offered by technician schools.
About the Author
Elizabeth Buckner is a freelance writer and current Fulbright grantee to Morocco, where she is conducting research on language education and the growth of English. She holds a B.A. in Sociology/Anthropology and Education from Swarthmore College.