Welcome to the AP Economics Blog for Students of Boston College High School. It is in this forum that students will discuss issues in AP Economics class.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Comparing Adam Smith, Steve Jobs, and Herb Chambers
How are these three people: a philosopher, technological visionary, and entrepreneur similar? Write a three paragraph commentary here.
Ryan Santos wrote: Adam Smith, Herb Chambers, and Steve Jobs are all geniuses in the world of business. The three of them are similar because of their unique competitive personality. Adam Smith was not necessarily a business owner, he was a philosopher, but he believed the market economy should not be regulated by the government because there needed to be competition among businesses. He thought his theory would provide for the best government because it allowed for most consumers to have jobs. He also promoted competition because there would not be one company dominating the economy and raising prices. Even though Adam Smith lived a long time ago, his theories proved to be completely true to this day. Herb Chambers was a Massachusetts born native who grew up working for business after business trying to be the best that he could be. For instance, when he worked repairing copy machines, he aspired to be the best he could be at his job. When he was promoted to a salesman, he even took a class to interact with people better because he was very shy. Herb believed that everything needed to be “perfect” for success. This attention to detail allowed him to accomplish his goals in being the best at what he does. Steve Jobs is not only a genius, but a huge risk taker. He believed that to be successful at what he does, he needed to take big risks to get big rewards. Steve Jobs needed to take risks because Apple was nearly bankrupt after repeated unsuccessful products. Steve’s aggressive nature towards his employees pushed them to really design the best products starting with the iPod. His nature to create the best product in today’s technological world allowed for the iphone, iTunes store, and ipad to all become top selling items. Apple surpassed Microsoft in value of the company based on Steve Jobs’ big risks. A fierce competitive nature is crucial to success in today’s business world.
The three qualities shared by Steve Jobs, Herb Chambers, and Adam Smith are a perfectionist personality, self made mentality, and the ability to persuade groups of people and employees to work at their highest level. None of them were born with all three of these qualities, but they developed them over time as essential facets of their successful careers. The perfectionist mentality is shown in Herb Chambers need for his showrooms, garages, and all other aspects of his business to be perfect. He goes as far as to concern himself with the color of apples given out in his garages. Steve Jobs adopted a fruitarian diet as a young man believing if he ate perfect foods, he himself would be perfect, this mentality continued as he created product and services that were not released until he was satisfied with them. It's argued this is what set's Apples products apart from others, while some companies release goods that could still use a few more weeks of testing, Apple takes the short term financial hit to ensure perfection. Adam Smith also pursued perfection in the sense that an economy was perfect if people had the ability to unrestrictedly create businesses and compete with others. All three of these men rose from middle class or impoverished backgrounds and true obscurity to became famous, wealthy, and well respected. Job's had to convince a college dean to let him stay when he could not pay his tuition, Herb Chambers was fired by his own mother at an early job in the family bar, and was later violently kicked out of an office while trying to sell copy machines, he took both instances in stride and set out to remake himself better. Adam Smith had the pedigree of notable universities behind him, but he rose form obscurity by writing a book that won him acclaim across Europe and allowed him to tutor and accompany a young Duke around the continent. Finally these men all have the leadership and foresight to inspire their employees, and fellow citizens, to produce and work at their highest level. Chambers was able to turn his uninspired and lazy crew in the navy into an energetic, hard working group as he created an incentive based competition for them. Job's takes the approach of a narcissistic leader as he had no problem abusively chewing out an employee for what he perceived to be poor work or to test their resolve. By playing this good cop bad cop routine Jobs was able to demand and inspire groundbreaking and intensely loyal work form his employees. Meanwhile Smith believed that competition between businesses would produce the most efficient and best product for the consumer. Today we look at this principle as consumers voting with their check book as they choose to buy products that they like best. At its essence this is a Smith's theory at work, consumers motivating companies to be their best.
Adam Smith, the father of economics, Herb Chambers, a cars salesman and a self-made rags to riches story, and Steve Jobs, the visionary of the Mac, Ipod, Iphone and Ipad all have remarkable stories of how they got into business and fame. These three figureheads have revolutionized how businesses and the economy have functioned. But how can a philosopher of the 1700’s, a technological innovator, and a car salesman possibly be similar? The answer is this: Adam Smith, Herb Chambers, and Steve Jobs all represent men who were/are resilient, tenacious, steadfast in their beliefs, self-made, and who look ahead to the future to revolutionize businesses. These traits reflect both similar individual and personal traits as well as similar effects to business as a whole.
These three businessmen have many personality traits in common, namely their tenacity, steadfastness, resiliency, and risk taking. However, above all, these three men each call for customer satisfaction. For example, Adam Smith wrote in the 1770’s that the “buyers benefit from exchange no less than sellers”. The significance of this remark is great. It is obvious that the seller benefits from an exchange because that’s where income is made whereas buying is a want. To make the buyer benefit just as much as the seller, there needs to be great customer service and a high quality product. These other two men both believe in this policy of customer satisfaction as well. Chambers is a perfectionist, ensuring that his stores are clean and his products look nice. Also, Jobs wants a happy consumer because his products are recycled. Every few years, a new version or an ‘updated’ version is necessary and if the consumer isn’t satisfied, there isn’t any additional money to be made. Therefore, all three men believe customer satisfaction. Next, these three men all have made remarkable contributions to business as a whole.
Smith, Chambers, and Jobs have all made exceptional contributions to business as a whole. It all started with Smith. Smith’s basic principles entail, “the importance of free trade, putting consumers before producers...individual choice, and open markets”. These principles also apply to both Chambers and Jobs. Both of these pioneers have done exactly this, using innovation and intuition to make themselves. Chambers holds the belief that if others can do it, so can he. It’s that certain egotistic view that got Jobs and him to where they are today. They strongly believed in themselves and in their goals and as a result have influenced business. Their desire to succeed and be the best made them extremely wealthy. But besides the money, they have done well to become the epitome of how a business can function. They have taken risks in order to grow their businesses and as a result have thrived. By taking calculated risks, businesses can grow and everyone benefits. If people follow the model of these three, they can become very wealthy indeed. Hence, Adam Smith, Herb Chambers, and Steve Jobs are similar in that if we follow their models of both beliefs and practice, we can too can benefit.
Adam Smith, a man whose principles have succeeded for more than two hundred years, offers ineffable insight to market economies that modern economists view as the holy text of our economy. Following the flawed communist regime of Eastern Europe, European nations began to modernize their economies using Smith’s Wealth of Nations as a boy scout’s guidebook. Through free trade consumers are at the helm of the market economy, they are the source of the competition that producers fight for amongst each other. The consumers power of choice is often misrepresented since one person’s expenses are another person’s income. It is with such knowledge of the individual consumer from which Steve Jobs and Herb Chambers have reaped the benefits. In 2000 Apple shares dropped significantly, from fifty-six dollars to merely fourteen, but today Apple shares are approximately three hundred eighty dollars. How was Steve Jobs able to turn his company around into one which possesses more money than the U.S. Government? Simple, Jobs reorganized his company’s output to match the demand generated by his annual keynote presentations. Jobs demanded from his staff a driving eagerness to create the most innovative products, which resulted in the iPhone and iPad. Jobs also maintained a constant air of confidence as he cannibalized his most profitable child, the iPod, with the new iPhone. While all these products underwent developing, Jobs promoted his creations through his annual keynote presentations which fostered a senseless urge to purchase the latest gizmo. This understanding of consumer’s choice has resulted with, as some may contest, Steve Jobs surpassing Bill Gates as the most astute businessman. Herb Chambers is a man who truly embodies the American Dream bromide. Starting his career as a cart fetcher for Stop & Shop, Chambers has grown to be the second richest man in New England with an estimated net worth of 1.8 billion dollars. Chambers, like Jobs, possesses a strong desire for perfection and to perform the best he possibly can. Chambers demanding nature has resulted in the creation and expansion of his dealership empire. Similar to Jobs, Chambers may to sell one of his dealerships in order to generate more profit without financially harming his empire in the long run. When constructing the early stages of his dealership empire, Chambers always attributes his success to his rigorous work ethic, which Jobs and Smith both agree is a necessity in a free trade, market economy.
Steve Jobs, Herb Chambers and Adam Smith are all perfect examples of of how the "invisible hand" of capitalism runs economies The former two are both men that are driven, not necessarily by of greed, but instead by an impulse for self improvement, perfection and success. The latter, Adam Smith is the father of modern economics who introduced the revolutionary idea of how greed leads to a better world. Jobs, for example, would be described, at first, by many as a crazed maniac but then as a genius. He is cruel, tenacious and almost overconfident. Colleagues of his described him as the "hero-shithead roller coaster" due to his demanding, manipulative, and perfectionist nature. Ultimately Jobs was innovative and drove and is driving the World economy and made Apple the number two company in America by never saying "It's good enough", eg cannibalizing the iPod when he made the iPhone (total lack of sentimentality) and constant iterations of already existing products. Herb Chambers, although running a regional operation, is very similar to Jobs in terms of of his tenacity, perfectionism and sheer ability to achieve success. Chambers began with a copy business which he then sold and turned into a prolific and successful chain of car dealerships. Even in old age, when asked to slow down, Chambers just replies that he can't. Again you have an individual, like Jobs, who makes the world better by his business and desires. What would Adam Smith have to say about the two? He would probably applaud them for being such an integral part of the economy and point out their desires as the reason they act Although not a business men like Jobs and Chambers, Smith was nonetheless THE free marketeer who put capitalism on paper. The principle of Capitalism, bluntly put, is "greed is good" and Individuals' decisions drive the economy. Individuals like Steve Jobs and Herb Chambers. They both live by Smith's principles. Capitalism practically oozes from their pores. They are capitalism.
Smith, Jobs, and Chambers have developed different methods on how to handle the economy, each a unique adaptation to the current economy. Although Smith was not alive during our current economy, he developed theories that still remain relevant today. The modern day businessmen jobs and chambers have adapted a style that works in their niche in their economy, while still maintaining the loose principles of Smith. The success of these businessmen is due to their constant work to improve themselves and their company, and the individual decision that each makes. These two similarities are also encouraged by the principles that Smith sets up for a successful economy, which can be used to create a successful business. Smith’s theory on the driving force of self-improvement, to sustain the economy can be seen in the practices of both Jobs and Chambers. Chambers built himself from the ground up and always worked to improve his condition at any opportunity he could. Jobs does the same, in his education by avoiding bills through persuasion, and his diet as a fruitarian, he is constantly trying to achieve perfection. Smith also encourages individual decision and privatization over business control of sectors, that don’t have any need to improve. Job’s is constantly looking for a new may to improve and maximize profit; he is willing to canabolize products to provide a better quality. Chamber’s also demonstrates this individual decision by switching companies completely even though he is making okay money and has room to improve; he takes a risk that benefits him in the end. Job’s and chamber’s success is due to the fact that they’re strengths are in two of the things that smith encourages to create a stable economy. Their privatization and drive to improve their conditions pushes their businesses to new heights as well as the economy. These two business guru’s are prime examples of Smith’s principles of an improving and growing economy due to entrepreneurs such as Chambers and Jobs.
Adam Smith, Herb Chambers, and Steve Jobs are all experts in their respected fields. These three brilliant men created great success by working hard and never giving up. Smith, Chambers, and Jobs are similar because they share two unique traits: tireless dedication to their work, and the ability to communicate and persuade. Without the combination of these two skills, none of the three men would be able to achieve their goals. Smith, Chambers, and Jobs each had their own vision of how they wanted to form the world around them, and each one of them undoubtedly achieved great success in establishing their dreams as realities. Smith was very dedicated to his work as a philosopher and mathematician. He was very dedicated to his work, and this shows because he proposed revolutionary ideas to a society that was not ready for change. His ideas outlive him, and have became a reality today. Clearly his dedication allowed his ideas of capitalism and the free market system to survive and thrive today. Chambers was a dedicated hard worker. His dedication can be seen through his success in all the fields he worked in. Chambers began working for Stop & Shop and quickly rose up to success. He moved up into the printer business, and excelled because he was diligent and hard working. He made more sales than anyone else, and rose to high positions. Chambers realized he could create even more success if he opened his own business, and took his business know-how into a new printer company he created on his own. Later, Chambers sold his business and began to buy and create dealerships across New England, never skipping over an opportunity to achieve. Jobs is a very dedicated hard worker. He created his business, and continued to work through failures. After leaving Apple, he came back as CEO and revitalized the company through hard work and amazing visions of success. Jobs is a perfectionist, he demands success and never fails to achieve greatness. The abilities to communicate and persuade are the most important skills any person can have who wishes to achieve success. It is absolutely necessary to be able to make connections with others, and be able to put forth exactly what one person wants to do with his or her self, if he or she wants success. Smith was clearly a great communicator because his writings are greatly influential today. He harbored great skills of communication and was able to articulate his ideas on paper so that all could read them. Chambers is a master at communication and persuasion as well. He used his personality to gain other's trust, land jobs, and make sales. Chambers struggled with confidence, and took some classes on communication. He realized later in life exactly how to get through to others, tell them what they want to hear. Chambers said "I am going to become somebody I’m really not. I have to be confident and carefree and just happy-go-lucky, and that’s what I’m gonna be, an actor. And I’ve done it for so long that I’ve become that person.” Jobs is equally a master in communication and persuasion. He was not respect as a business man when he created his company, but when he came back as CEO, he made a new name for himself, revamping Apple. Jobs style of communication with the people who work for him is unique. Jobs continuously tests his employees, and realized intellectuals respond well to cruel criticism. Jobs is a maser at communicating with not just his employees and investors, but with an entire community who love his products, creating huge events centered around brilliant products, creating hype around his inventions. Smith's ideas of capitalism and the free market are embraced by Chambers and Jobs, and they share the skills to make success possible.
Adam Smith, Herb Chambers, and Steve Jobs are all exemplary business minds that serve as trail blazers for all those seeking a role model in the business field. Adam Smith, a mathematician and philosopher, originated the concept of the market economy and the positive side effects of its use. Two of Smith's greatest principles were a tireless work-ethic and an endless pursuit of self-improvement or perfection, regardless of the surrounding circumstances. By employing these principles, Smith believed that a person and those around them could achieve immense economic success. Chambers and Jobs, both prolific businessmen, achieved economic success, for themselves and those around them, by following the principles of Adam Smith. Their prosperity created empires with strong foundations that have the potential to keep growing and growing.
Herb Chambers acquired a strong work ethic from a young age coming from a blue-collar family, having to work to pay rent to live in his own home as a teenager. Even at his first job working at Stop & Shop, Chambers demonstrated hard work and a pursuit of perfection, making a game out of how few shopping carts could be in the parking lot at one time. Chambers hated taking breaks, which led to him selling more insurance policies than anyone else in his company, even though he was just a repairman. Chambers' success can also be attributed to his perfectionism, shown through his ire in spotting tiny grease marks in enormous car dealerships and small sections of unstained wood on giant yachts. Chambers employed Smith's cherished principles to create a business empire in not one, but two separate markets.
Steve Jobs, like Chambers, inherited a strong work ethic coming from a working-class family. He parlayed his genius and hard work ethic into a meteoric rise and fall as a computer wizard. It was Jobs' pursuit of perfection, however, that led to a soaring comeback and his prolific image as one of the most prominent businessman of our generation. Jobs surrounded himself with ambitious, yet grounded, colleagues that were able to be both praised and scolded, and return the favor, so that Jobs and those around him could reach their full potential. Jobs took risks, creating products that "cannibalized" his own previous products just so he could reach his seemingly endless potential. Both Chambers and Jobs subconsciously followed the teachings of Adam Smith, leading to prosperous business empires that led to better lives for them and millions of employees and consumers, just as Smith had envisioned.
Steve Jobs, Adam Smith, Herb Chambers; these names command respect and recognition by today’s society. This respect, however, is seemingly derived from different areas. Jobs is a technological guru, Chambers, one of the US largest car dealers, Adam Smith the FATHER of modern economics. Yet to attain such fame, they did mimic each other in a couple major ways. First, they all built up their own legacies. Secondly, they strove for perfection in some manner. Herb Chambers is the quintessential example of the cliché. “self-made man.” After struggling to build a life for himself, a struggle that included being fired by his own mother, Chambers was able to establish himself in the copy machine industry. This first move into the business world catapulted him to the economic position he finds himself in now. Jobs similarly came from a humble a background. Like Chambers, he was the son of working class parents; he, however, was able to pursue higher education, unlike Chambers. Yet he too, built a company from the ground up, facing many of the same hurdles as Chambers, primarily doubts voiced by others. Through it all, however Jobs was able to establish Apple as the world’s leading technological company. Despite his high level of education, Smith had to rely on himself, and luck (like Jobs and Chambers) to attain his grandeur. Smith’s legacy began as a result of his work The Theory of Moral Sentiments for which he gained wide spread fame in Europe, and which lead to him being given the position of tutor to the Duke of Buccleuch. It was as a result of this position, the Smith was able to gain the worldly knowledge necessary to write one of the greatest economic books in history, The Wealth of Nations. Mentioned numerous times in the articles on both Chambers and Jobs was there demand for perfection and excellence. Chambers often stopped throughout the interview, to pick up trash or criticize the smallest of imperfections. For him, even the smallest of problems represented a lack of care for those who bought from him. Similarly, Jobs demanded perfection from his workers. He, however, tended to be harsher, as he found that this method yielded the most results. Although, it was never explicitly mentioned in the article on Smith, it can be inferred that he was a perfectionist as well. Economics is driven by a desire to seek perfection in the market, and Smith, the man credited as the father of economics no doubt sought to find a perfect economic system. There are numerous characteristics that tie these men together, however it was their ability to establish their own place in this world and their desire for perfection that ties them together the most.
The biggest similarity that ties all three of these people together is their connection to the idea of a free market economy. Adam Smith was writing about the idea of the “invisible hand” and how the individual greed and self-interest of every human will lead to the betterment of the economy as a whole. One of his biggest arguments was for privatization. He believed that through privatization, formerly public services such as post offices, and public transportation (or equivalent services during his time) would become more effective and efficient. Steven Jobbs and Herb Chambers are both great pieces of evidence that support this theory. Through private industry, both of these men have made millions, and have created thousands of jobs for workers, and thus helped feed the economy. However, in the Jobbs article, there is a piece of information that is note noteworthy. It says that most of apples capital is stored in a place where government taxes do not apply. On the one hand, this could be seen as supporting Adam Smith’s idea of small government not interfering with business, but on the other hand, it can be seen as an example where human self-interest and greed becomes detrimental, as now the government is losing out on vast source of taxable money, while on a mysterious third hand, Smith might say that the government should not have that tax in the first place. Herb Chambers is a go getter. He is described as being someone who sees what he wants, and grabs it without hesitation. He is bold in his actions, and smart about what he does. He makes great use of the market. The article describes how he is never quite sure how much money or how many businesses he owns at any given time because he is always buying and selling. He is someone who would certainly benefit from living in a Smithian laissez faire world. The fact that he is doing so well is indicative of the fact that he is doing something better than his competitors. In a world where government was more regulative, his growth might be stifled, but now, the invisible hand is in action, people buy from him because he can make his cars more appealing, weather through cheaper prices, or better warranty plans, and acting in their best interests, these consumers will buy from him instead of someone else, and so he benefits. He is also very similar to Steven Jobbs in his capacity to make bold moves. Like Steven Jobbs, he is not afraid of taking chances, he is always buying and selling, and each of these transactions carries the risk of failure and loss with it, just like the many risky and controversial actions of Steven Jobbs. Steven Jobbs was a visionary. Like Adam Smith, he was an innovator, who came out with ideas ahead of his time that turned out to be wildly successful. He was also a risk taker like Chambers, and as seen by his exile from apple for a brief period of time, these were not always risks that proved profitable, but he always bounced back with a new bold idea. One clear way we can see how he followed the ideas of Adam smith was in how he pushed his workers. Had they been part of a powerful union, he would probably not have been able to get away with his sometimes overly intense “encouragements”, but because he was able to act without answering to some overarching regulatory department, he was able to truly coax out the best of his workers through competition, and thus he was able to prosper, and overcome Microsoft, who for a long time had had a near monopoly on the industry
Adam Smith, Steve Jobs, and Herb Chambers form a rather unlikely three musketeers in the world of economics. Separated by time and fields, just what do a Scottish philosopher, a New England car dealer, and a Californian tech wizard have in common? Each of them are a self-made men with remarkable drive and dedication to their work and live by their ideals with enough fervor to shame even the most tenacious of zealots. They are pioneers in their fields and are not afraid to take risks and demand perfection in themselves and others.
Adam Smith took the initiative of creating an economic theory that was ahead of its time and notably implemented in Britain in 1979. Jobs, likewise, saw the future of consumer electronics in portable devices capable of turning then-highly valued PCs into mere hubs of data for iPods. He then took an even greater gamble in choosing to produce the iPhone and cannibalize the iPod. Chambers sacrificed his potential future in the copier business in order to pursue a completely different field: car dealerships.
Chambers' demand for perfection is perhaps most vividly shown in the his meticulous inspection of his dealership in Sharon, stooping and sighing whenever he came across a sole scrap of paper on the floor. Jobs' one-man good cop, bad cop act on his employees caused them to give 110% of themselves to their work and push their own limits. Smith challenged traditional thinking by stating that the buyer benefits as much as the seller in a relationship and set out to prove it by writing a rather significant text that supported his statement.
Ryan Santos wrote: Adam Smith, Herb Chambers, and Steve Jobs are all geniuses in the world of business. The three of them are similar because of their unique competitive personality. Adam Smith was not necessarily a business owner, he was a philosopher, but he believed the market economy should not be regulated by the government because there needed to be competition among businesses. He thought his theory would provide for the best government because it allowed for most consumers to have jobs. He also promoted competition because there would not be one company dominating the economy and raising prices. Even though Adam Smith lived a long time ago, his theories proved to be completely true to this day.
ReplyDeleteHerb Chambers was a Massachusetts born native who grew up working for business after business trying to be the best that he could be. For instance, when he worked repairing copy machines, he aspired to be the best he could be at his job. When he was promoted to a salesman, he even took a class to interact with people better because he was very shy. Herb believed that everything needed to be “perfect” for success. This attention to detail allowed him to accomplish his goals in being the best at what he does.
Steve Jobs is not only a genius, but a huge risk taker. He believed that to be successful at what he does, he needed to take big risks to get big rewards. Steve Jobs needed to take risks because Apple was nearly bankrupt after repeated unsuccessful products. Steve’s aggressive nature towards his employees pushed them to really design the best products starting with the iPod. His nature to create the best product in today’s technological world allowed for the iphone, iTunes store, and ipad to all become top selling items. Apple surpassed Microsoft in value of the company based on Steve Jobs’ big risks. A fierce competitive nature is crucial to success in today’s business world.
The three qualities shared by Steve Jobs, Herb Chambers, and Adam Smith are a perfectionist personality, self made mentality, and the ability to persuade groups of people and employees to work at their highest level. None of them were born with all three of these qualities, but they developed them over time as essential facets of their successful careers.
ReplyDeleteThe perfectionist mentality is shown in Herb Chambers need for his showrooms, garages, and all other aspects of his business to be perfect. He goes as far as to concern himself with the color of apples given out in his garages. Steve Jobs adopted a fruitarian diet as a young man believing if he ate perfect foods, he himself would be perfect, this mentality continued as he created product and services that were not released until he was satisfied with them. It's argued this is what set's Apples products apart from others, while some companies release goods that could still use a few more weeks of testing, Apple takes the short term financial hit to ensure perfection. Adam Smith also pursued perfection in the sense that an economy was perfect if people had the ability to unrestrictedly create businesses and compete with others.
All three of these men rose from middle class or impoverished backgrounds and true obscurity to became famous, wealthy, and well respected. Job's had to convince a college dean to let him stay when he could not pay his tuition, Herb Chambers was fired by his own mother at an early job in the family bar, and was later violently kicked out of an office while trying to sell copy machines, he took both instances in stride and set out to remake himself better. Adam Smith had the pedigree of notable universities behind him, but he rose form obscurity by writing a book that won him acclaim across Europe and allowed him to tutor and accompany a young Duke around the continent.
Finally these men all have the leadership and foresight to inspire their employees, and fellow citizens, to produce and work at their highest level. Chambers was able to turn his uninspired and lazy crew in the navy into an energetic, hard working group as he created an incentive based competition for them. Job's takes the approach of a narcissistic leader as he had no problem abusively chewing out an employee for what he perceived to be poor work or to test their resolve. By playing this good cop bad cop routine Jobs was able to demand and inspire groundbreaking and intensely loyal work form his employees. Meanwhile Smith believed that competition between businesses would produce the most efficient and best product for the consumer. Today we look at this principle as consumers voting with their check book as they choose to buy products that they like best. At its essence this is a Smith's theory at work, consumers motivating companies to be their best.
Adam Smith, the father of economics, Herb Chambers, a cars salesman and a self-made rags to riches story, and Steve Jobs, the visionary of the Mac, Ipod, Iphone and Ipad all have remarkable stories of how they got into business and fame. These three figureheads have revolutionized how businesses and the economy have functioned. But how can a philosopher of the 1700’s, a technological innovator, and a car salesman possibly be similar? The answer is this: Adam Smith, Herb Chambers, and Steve Jobs all represent men who were/are resilient, tenacious, steadfast in their beliefs, self-made, and who look ahead to the future to revolutionize businesses. These traits reflect both similar individual and personal traits as well as similar effects to business as a whole.
ReplyDeleteThese three businessmen have many personality traits in common, namely their tenacity, steadfastness, resiliency, and risk taking. However, above all, these three men each call for customer satisfaction. For example, Adam Smith wrote in the 1770’s that the “buyers benefit from exchange no less than sellers”. The significance of this remark is great. It is obvious that the seller benefits from an exchange because that’s where income is made whereas buying is a want. To make the buyer benefit just as much as the seller, there needs to be great customer service and a high quality product. These other two men both believe in this policy of customer satisfaction as well. Chambers is a perfectionist, ensuring that his stores are clean and his products look nice. Also, Jobs wants a happy consumer because his products are recycled. Every few years, a new version or an ‘updated’ version is necessary and if the consumer isn’t satisfied, there isn’t any additional money to be made. Therefore, all three men believe customer satisfaction. Next, these three men all have made remarkable contributions to business as a whole.
Smith, Chambers, and Jobs have all made exceptional contributions to business as a whole. It all started with Smith. Smith’s basic principles entail, “the importance of free trade, putting consumers before producers...individual choice, and open markets”. These principles also apply to both Chambers and Jobs. Both of these pioneers have done exactly this, using innovation and intuition to make themselves. Chambers holds the belief that if others can do it, so can he. It’s that certain egotistic view that got Jobs and him to where they are today. They strongly believed in themselves and in their goals and as a result have influenced business. Their desire to succeed and be the best made them extremely wealthy. But besides the money, they have done well to become the epitome of how a business can function. They have taken risks in order to grow their businesses and as a result have thrived. By taking calculated risks, businesses can grow and everyone benefits. If people follow the model of these three, they can become very wealthy indeed. Hence, Adam Smith, Herb Chambers, and Steve Jobs are similar in that if we follow their models of both beliefs and practice, we can too can benefit.
Adam Smith, a man whose principles have succeeded for more than two hundred years, offers ineffable insight to market economies that modern economists view as the holy text of our economy. Following the flawed communist regime of Eastern Europe, European nations began to modernize their economies using Smith’s Wealth of Nations as a boy scout’s guidebook. Through free trade consumers are at the helm of the market economy, they are the source of the competition that producers fight for amongst each other. The consumers power of choice is often misrepresented since one person’s expenses are another person’s income. It is with such knowledge of the individual consumer from which Steve Jobs and Herb Chambers have reaped the benefits.
ReplyDeleteIn 2000 Apple shares dropped significantly, from fifty-six dollars to merely fourteen, but today Apple shares are approximately three hundred eighty dollars. How was Steve Jobs able to turn his company around into one which possesses more money than the U.S. Government? Simple, Jobs reorganized his company’s output to match the demand generated by his annual keynote presentations. Jobs demanded from his staff a driving eagerness to create the most innovative products, which resulted in the iPhone and iPad. Jobs also maintained a constant air of confidence as he cannibalized his most profitable child, the iPod, with the new iPhone. While all these products underwent developing, Jobs promoted his creations through his annual keynote presentations which fostered a senseless urge to purchase the latest gizmo. This understanding of consumer’s choice has resulted with, as some may contest, Steve Jobs surpassing Bill Gates as the most astute businessman.
Herb Chambers is a man who truly embodies the American Dream bromide. Starting his career as a cart fetcher for Stop & Shop, Chambers has grown to be the second richest man in New England with an estimated net worth of 1.8 billion dollars. Chambers, like Jobs, possesses a strong desire for perfection and to perform the best he possibly can. Chambers demanding nature has resulted in the creation and expansion of his dealership empire. Similar to Jobs, Chambers may to sell one of his dealerships in order to generate more profit without financially harming his empire in the long run. When constructing the early stages of his dealership empire, Chambers always attributes his success to his rigorous work ethic, which Jobs and Smith both agree is a necessity in a free trade, market economy.
Steve Jobs, Herb Chambers and Adam Smith are all perfect examples of of how the "invisible hand" of capitalism runs economies The former two are both men that are driven, not necessarily by of greed, but instead by an impulse for self improvement, perfection and success. The latter, Adam Smith is the father of modern economics who introduced the revolutionary idea of how greed leads to a better world.
ReplyDeleteJobs, for example, would be described, at first, by many as a crazed maniac but then as a genius. He is cruel, tenacious and almost overconfident. Colleagues of his described him as the "hero-shithead roller coaster" due to his demanding, manipulative, and perfectionist nature. Ultimately Jobs was innovative and drove and is driving the World economy and made Apple the number two company in America by never saying "It's good enough", eg cannibalizing the iPod when he made the iPhone (total lack of sentimentality) and constant iterations of already existing products.
Herb Chambers, although running a regional operation, is very similar to Jobs in terms of of his tenacity, perfectionism and sheer ability to achieve success. Chambers began with a copy business which he then sold and turned into a prolific and successful chain of car dealerships. Even in old age, when asked to slow down, Chambers just replies that he can't. Again you have an individual, like Jobs, who makes the world better by his business and desires.
What would Adam Smith have to say about the two? He would probably applaud them for being such an integral part of the economy and point out their desires as the reason they act Although not a business men like Jobs and Chambers, Smith was nonetheless THE free marketeer who put capitalism on paper. The principle of Capitalism, bluntly put, is "greed is good" and Individuals' decisions drive the economy. Individuals like Steve Jobs and Herb Chambers. They both live by Smith's principles. Capitalism practically oozes from their pores. They are capitalism.
Smith, Jobs, and Chambers have developed different methods on how to handle the economy, each a unique adaptation to the current economy. Although Smith was not alive during our current economy, he developed theories that still remain relevant today. The modern day businessmen jobs and chambers have adapted a style that works in their niche in their economy, while still maintaining the loose principles of Smith. The success of these businessmen is due to their constant work to improve themselves and their company, and the individual decision that each makes. These two similarities are also encouraged by the principles that Smith sets up for a successful economy, which can be used to create a successful business.
ReplyDeleteSmith’s theory on the driving force of self-improvement, to sustain the economy can be seen in the practices of both Jobs and Chambers. Chambers built himself from the ground up and always worked to improve his condition at any opportunity he could. Jobs does the same, in his education by avoiding bills through persuasion, and his diet as a fruitarian, he is constantly trying to achieve perfection. Smith also encourages individual decision and privatization over business control of sectors, that don’t have any need to improve. Job’s is constantly looking for a new may to improve and maximize profit; he is willing to canabolize products to provide a better quality. Chamber’s also demonstrates this individual decision by switching companies completely even though he is making okay money and has room to improve; he takes a risk that benefits him in the end.
Job’s and chamber’s success is due to the fact that they’re strengths are in two of the things that smith encourages to create a stable economy. Their privatization and drive to improve their conditions pushes their businesses to new heights as well as the economy. These two business guru’s are prime examples of Smith’s principles of an improving and growing economy due to entrepreneurs such as Chambers and Jobs.
Adam Smith, Herb Chambers, and Steve Jobs are all experts in their respected fields. These three brilliant men created great success by working hard and never giving up. Smith, Chambers, and Jobs are similar because they share two unique traits: tireless dedication to their work, and the ability to communicate and persuade. Without the combination of these two skills, none of the three men would be able to achieve their goals. Smith, Chambers, and Jobs each had their own vision of how they wanted to form the world around them, and each one of them undoubtedly achieved great success in establishing their dreams as realities.
ReplyDeleteSmith was very dedicated to his work as a philosopher and mathematician. He was very dedicated to his work, and this shows because he proposed revolutionary ideas to a society that was not ready for change. His ideas outlive him, and have became a reality today. Clearly his dedication allowed his ideas of capitalism and the free market system to survive and thrive today. Chambers was a dedicated hard worker. His dedication can be seen through his success in all the fields he worked in. Chambers began working for Stop & Shop and quickly rose up to success. He moved up into the printer business, and excelled because he was diligent and hard working. He made more sales than anyone else, and rose to high positions. Chambers realized he could create even more success if he opened his own business, and took his business know-how into a new printer company he created on his own. Later, Chambers sold his business and began to buy and create dealerships across New England, never skipping over an opportunity to achieve. Jobs is a very dedicated hard worker. He created his business, and continued to work through failures. After leaving Apple, he came back as CEO and revitalized the company through hard work and amazing visions of success. Jobs is a perfectionist, he demands success and never fails to achieve greatness.
The abilities to communicate and persuade are the most important skills any person can have who wishes to achieve success. It is absolutely necessary to be able to make connections with others, and be able to put forth exactly what one person wants to do with his or her self, if he or she wants success. Smith was clearly a great communicator because his writings are greatly influential today. He harbored great skills of communication and was able to articulate his ideas on paper so that all could read them. Chambers is a master at communication and persuasion as well. He used his personality to gain other's trust, land jobs, and make sales. Chambers struggled with confidence, and took some classes on communication. He realized later in life exactly how to get through to others, tell them what they want to hear. Chambers said "I am going to become somebody I’m really not. I have to be confident and carefree and just happy-go-lucky, and that’s what I’m gonna be, an actor. And I’ve done it for so long that I’ve become that person.” Jobs is equally a master in communication and persuasion. He was not respect as a business man when he created his company, but when he came back as CEO, he made a new name for himself, revamping Apple. Jobs style of communication with the people who work for him is unique. Jobs continuously tests his employees, and realized intellectuals respond well to cruel criticism. Jobs is a maser at communicating with not just his employees and investors, but with an entire community who love his products, creating huge events centered around brilliant products, creating hype around his inventions. Smith's ideas of capitalism and the free market are embraced by Chambers and Jobs, and they share the skills to make success possible.
Adam Smith, Herb Chambers, and Steve Jobs are all exemplary business minds that serve as trail blazers for all those seeking a role model in the business field. Adam Smith, a mathematician and philosopher, originated the concept of the market economy and the positive side effects of its use. Two of Smith's greatest principles were a tireless work-ethic and an endless pursuit of self-improvement or perfection, regardless of the surrounding circumstances. By employing these principles, Smith believed that a person and those around them could achieve immense economic success. Chambers and Jobs, both prolific businessmen, achieved economic success, for themselves and those around them, by following the principles of Adam Smith. Their prosperity created empires with strong foundations that have the potential to keep growing and growing.
ReplyDeleteHerb Chambers acquired a strong work ethic from a young age coming from a blue-collar family, having to work to pay rent to live in his own home as a teenager. Even at his first job working at Stop & Shop, Chambers demonstrated hard work and a pursuit of perfection, making a game out of how few shopping carts could be in the parking lot at one time. Chambers hated taking breaks, which led to him selling more insurance policies than anyone else in his company, even though he was just a repairman. Chambers' success can also be attributed to his perfectionism, shown through his ire in spotting tiny grease marks in enormous car dealerships and small sections of unstained wood on giant yachts. Chambers employed Smith's cherished principles to create a business empire in not one, but two separate markets.
Steve Jobs, like Chambers, inherited a strong work ethic coming from a working-class family. He parlayed his genius and hard work ethic into a meteoric rise and fall as a computer wizard. It was Jobs' pursuit of perfection, however, that led to a soaring comeback and his prolific image as one of the most prominent businessman of our generation. Jobs surrounded himself with ambitious, yet grounded, colleagues that were able to be both praised and scolded, and return the favor, so that Jobs and those around him could reach their full potential. Jobs took risks, creating products that "cannibalized" his own previous products just so he could reach his seemingly endless potential. Both Chambers and Jobs subconsciously followed the teachings of Adam Smith, leading to prosperous business empires that led to better lives for them and millions of employees and consumers, just as Smith had envisioned.
Steve Jobs, Adam Smith, Herb Chambers; these names command respect and recognition by today’s society. This respect, however, is seemingly derived from different areas. Jobs is a technological guru, Chambers, one of the US largest car dealers, Adam Smith the FATHER of modern economics. Yet to attain such fame, they did mimic each other in a couple major ways. First, they all built up their own legacies. Secondly, they strove for perfection in some manner.
ReplyDeleteHerb Chambers is the quintessential example of the cliché. “self-made man.” After struggling to build a life for himself, a struggle that included being fired by his own mother, Chambers was able to establish himself in the copy machine industry. This first move into the business world catapulted him to the economic position he finds himself in now. Jobs similarly came from a humble a background. Like Chambers, he was the son of working class parents; he, however, was able to pursue higher education, unlike Chambers. Yet he too, built a company from the ground up, facing many of the same hurdles as Chambers, primarily doubts voiced by others. Through it all, however Jobs was able to establish Apple as the world’s leading technological company. Despite his high level of education, Smith had to rely on himself, and luck (like Jobs and Chambers) to attain his grandeur. Smith’s legacy began as a result of his work The Theory of Moral Sentiments for which he gained wide spread fame in Europe, and which lead to him being given the position of tutor to the Duke of Buccleuch. It was as a result of this position, the Smith was able to gain the worldly knowledge necessary to write one of the greatest economic books in history, The Wealth of Nations.
Mentioned numerous times in the articles on both Chambers and Jobs was there demand for perfection and excellence. Chambers often stopped throughout the interview, to pick up trash or criticize the smallest of imperfections. For him, even the smallest of problems represented a lack of care for those who bought from him. Similarly, Jobs demanded perfection from his workers. He, however, tended to be harsher, as he found that this method yielded the most results. Although, it was never explicitly mentioned in the article on Smith, it can be inferred that he was a perfectionist as well. Economics is driven by a desire to seek perfection in the market, and Smith, the man credited as the father of economics no doubt sought to find a perfect economic system. There are numerous characteristics that tie these men together, however it was their ability to establish their own place in this world and their desire for perfection that ties them together the most.
Emory Ackman
ReplyDeleteThe biggest similarity that ties all three of these people together is their connection to the idea of a free market economy. Adam Smith was writing about the idea of the “invisible hand” and how the individual greed and self-interest of every human will lead to the betterment of the economy as a whole. One of his biggest arguments was for privatization. He believed that through privatization, formerly public services such as post offices, and public transportation (or equivalent services during his time) would become more effective and efficient. Steven Jobbs and Herb Chambers are both great pieces of evidence that support this theory. Through private industry, both of these men have made millions, and have created thousands of jobs for workers, and thus helped feed the economy. However, in the Jobbs article, there is a piece of information that is note noteworthy. It says that most of apples capital is stored in a place where government taxes do not apply. On the one hand, this could be seen as supporting Adam Smith’s idea of small government not interfering with business, but on the other hand, it can be seen as an example where human self-interest and greed becomes detrimental, as now the government is losing out on vast source of taxable money, while on a mysterious third hand, Smith might say that the government should not have that tax in the first place.
Herb Chambers is a go getter. He is described as being someone who sees what he wants, and grabs it without hesitation. He is bold in his actions, and smart about what he does. He makes great use of the market. The article describes how he is never quite sure how much money or how many businesses he owns at any given time because he is always buying and selling. He is someone who would certainly benefit from living in a Smithian laissez faire world. The fact that he is doing so well is indicative of the fact that he is doing something better than his competitors. In a world where government was more regulative, his growth might be stifled, but now, the invisible hand is in action, people buy from him because he can make his cars more appealing, weather through cheaper prices, or better warranty plans, and acting in their best interests, these consumers will buy from him instead of someone else, and so he benefits. He is also very similar to Steven Jobbs in his capacity to make bold moves. Like Steven Jobbs, he is not afraid of taking chances, he is always buying and selling, and each of these transactions carries the risk of failure and loss with it, just like the many risky and controversial actions of Steven Jobbs.
Steven Jobbs was a visionary. Like Adam Smith, he was an innovator, who came out with ideas ahead of his time that turned out to be wildly successful. He was also a risk taker like Chambers, and as seen by his exile from apple for a brief period of time, these were not always risks that proved profitable, but he always bounced back with a new bold idea. One clear way we can see how he followed the ideas of Adam smith was in how he pushed his workers. Had they been part of a powerful union, he would probably not have been able to get away with his sometimes overly intense “encouragements”, but because he was able to act without answering to some overarching regulatory department, he was able to truly coax out the best of his workers through competition, and thus he was able to prosper, and overcome Microsoft, who for a long time had had a near monopoly on the industry
Adam Smith, Steve Jobs, and Herb Chambers form a rather unlikely three musketeers in the world of economics. Separated by time and fields, just what do a Scottish philosopher, a New England car dealer, and a Californian tech wizard have in common? Each of them are a self-made men with remarkable drive and dedication to their work and live by their ideals with enough fervor to shame even the most tenacious of zealots. They are pioneers in their fields and are not afraid to take risks and demand perfection in themselves and others.
ReplyDeleteAdam Smith took the initiative of creating an economic theory that was ahead of its time and notably implemented in Britain in 1979. Jobs, likewise, saw the future of consumer electronics in portable devices capable of turning then-highly valued PCs into mere hubs of data for iPods. He then took an even greater gamble in choosing to produce the iPhone and cannibalize the iPod. Chambers sacrificed his potential future in the copier business in order to pursue a completely different field: car dealerships.
Chambers' demand for perfection is perhaps most vividly shown in the his meticulous inspection of his dealership in Sharon, stooping and sighing whenever he came across a sole scrap of paper on the floor. Jobs' one-man good cop, bad cop act on his employees caused them to give 110% of themselves to their work and push their own limits. Smith challenged traditional thinking by stating that the buyer benefits as much as the seller in a relationship and set out to prove it by writing a rather significant text that supported his statement.