Heroic Figures of the 21st Century: Steve Jobs and Julian Assange essay
The 21st century is the century of new technologies and overwhelming power of information. The 21st century is often associated with the age of information that means that information plays the key part in the life of the society and global community. In this regard, individuals, who contribute to the development of information technologies and facilitate information sharing or contribute to the sharing of information and knowledge, play an important part in the life of the society or even the entire world. This is why many heroic figures of the 21st century are closely associated with the world of high information technologies, communications, and science. At this point, it is possible to refer to such figures as Steve Jobs or Julian Assange, who may be viewed as heroic, although the latter is quite controversial. In fact, views on these figures may vary but their impact on the world in the 21st century can hardly be underestimated, while their role in the development of the modern world has been already recognized internationally (Hesselbein, Goldsmith & Beckhard 129). In such a way, Steve Jobs and Julian Assange are two heroic figures, who have made the information available to the public and shared by the public to make the public more capable to control the government and policy makers.
Steve Jobs was one of the prominent figures in the business world and in the field of information technologies, who had made the breakthrough of Apple, reviving the company and helping the company to introduce innovative products that have revolutionized the IT industry and telecommunication systems. At this point, it is worth mentioning the major innovations introduced by Apple under Steve Jobs, iPod and iPhone, which revolutionized the IT and telecommunication industry. In actuality, his name is closely intertwined with the development and successful introduction of innovations that have changed the modern world, especially iPhone (Trent 32). Moreover, it is Steve Jobs, who has revived the now popular brand Apple, which faced a steep decline and was in a deep crisis, when Jobs returned to the company. In such a way, he became the person, who contributed to the mass production of what used to be the most popular smartphones, when it has been just introduced, and what is now still one of the most popular smartphones in the world.
Today, Steve Jobs is the iconic figure associated with the revolution in the field of information technologies and telecommunications, since Steve Jobs made high technologies available to mass consumers bringing them virtually universal mobile device which is still one of the most popular product and every new generation of iPhone takes a large share of the global market. At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that Steve Jobs did not just introduce the device that became extremely popular in the world but he contributed to the introduction of the device that has changed how people communicate or even live. Moreover, it was Steve Jobs, who contributed to the development of the particular lifestyle of clients, who own iPhones and, thus, it was him, who shaped the target customer group of the main product of Apple under his lead. Steve Jobs was responsible for the performance of all departments of Apple, including sales and promotion ones. This is why the image of the lifestyle of iPhone users created by the company was, to a significant extent, created by Steve Jobs, while currently there are millions of users of iPhones worldwide.
However, the major achievement of Steve Jobs is not the technological breakthrough, Apple has made under his lead, but his contribution to the business development of the company. Steve Jobs became the leader, who has managed to change the company, to revive Apple and help the company to regain its position as one of the leaders in the IT industries. His leadership style and his personality became iconic for many leaders, who try to follow his lead and to conduct changes in their companies as successfully as he did. But what makes him different and unique and, therefore, heroic, is his uniqueness since many try to use the same strategy and policies, which he applied to Apple, but it was only him who has managed to apply those strategies and policies successfully. Some researchers (Benfari 191) even speak about the phenomenon of Jobs’ leadership, which was far from perfect or ideal from the standpoint of a subordinate but which has proved to be extremely efficient from the organizational standpoint. In the time of multinational corporations and complex organizational structures of public and private organizations such leadership is very important and Steve Jobs is recognized as one of the most successful and efficient leaders in the 21st century world so far.
Steve Jobs became the iconic figure because the public perceived him as a person, who made technologies closer to people. Moreover, iPhone and other advancements of Apple under the lead of Steve Jobs has eliminated frontiers between people making communication more effective and closer to people. As a result, people have expanded their communication opportunities due to innovations introduced by Apple under Steve Jobs’ lead. As Jobs was the leader, the public personifies the major achievements of Apple in the 21st century with him. At the same time, Steve Jobs became the iconic figure as a new type of leader, who can lead the organization through consistent, revolutionary changes and bring it to success.
Furthermore, some proponents of Steve Jobs view him as an opponent of the government machine that attempts to set control over people and their private life because new technologies introduced by Apple under his lead had opened new opportunities for information sharing that limited opportunities for the government to manipulate with the public opinion (Sarewitz, Pielke & Keykhah 147). In this regard, Steve Jobs has offered people with the universal means that they can use for sharing information immediately, regardless of their physical location due to the wide opportunities for the communication offered by the device (Mars & Frosdick 125). In fact, iPhone has changed the philosophy of the communication and many people attribute this change to Steve Jobs as the person responsible for the introduction and promotion of iPhone in the global market. To put it more precisely, people have got ample opportunities not only to talk to each other or send messages each other but also they have got access to online resources, share various information and files of different types, and conduct many other operations, including payments and others via their iPhones, and many of those opportunities were options uniquely attributed to iPhones by that time.
Heroic Figures of the 21st Century: Steve Jobs and Julian Assange essay part 2
Do you like this essay?
Our writers can write a paper like this for you!
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading...