BIOGRAPHY OF STEVE JOBS

Steven Paul Jobs was an American inventor, designer and entrepreneur who was the co-founder,
chief executive and chairman of Apple Computer. Apple's revolutionary products, which include the iPod,
iPhone and iPad, are now seen as dictating the evolution of modern technology.
Born in 1955 to two University of Wisconsin graduate students who gave him up for adoption, Jobs was
smart but directionless, dropping out of college and experimenting with different pursuits before co-
founding Apple with Steve Wozniak in 1976. Jobs left the company in 1985, launching Pixar Animation
Studios, then returned to Apple more than a decade later. Jobs died in 2011 following a long battle with
pancreatic cancer.

Early Life
Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California. The biological child of Abdulfattah
Jandali and Joanne Schieble, he was later adopted by Paul Jobs and Clara Hagopian. During his high school
years, Jobs worked summers at Hewlett-Packard. It was there that he first met and became partners with
Steve Wozniak.
As an undergraduate, he studied physics, literature, and poetry at Reed College in Portland,
Oregon. Formally, he only attended one semester there. However, he remained at Reed and crashed on
friends' sofas and audited courses that included a calligraphy class, which he attributes as being the reason
Apple computers had such elegant typefaces.

Atari
After leaving Oregon in 1974 to return to California, Jobs started working for Atari, an early pioneer
in the manufacturing of personal computers. Jobs' close friend Wozniak was also working for Atari. The
future founders of Apple teamed up to design games for Atari computers.

Hacking
Jobs and Wozniak proved their skills as hackers by designing a telephone blue box. A blue box was
an electronic device that simulated a telephone operator's dialing console and provided the user with free
phone calls. Jobs spent plenty of time at Wozniak's Homebrew Computer Club, a haven for computer geeks
and a source of invaluable information about the field of personal computers.

Out of Mom and Pop's Garage

By the late 1970s, Jobs and Wozniak had learned enough to try their hand at building personal
computers. Using Jobs' family garage as a base of operation, the team produced 50 fully assembled
computers that were sold to a local Mountain View electronics store called the Byte Shop. The sale
encouraged the pair to start Apple Computer, Inc. on April 1, 1979.

Apple Corporation
The Apple Corporation was named after Jobs' favorite fruit. The Apple logo was a representation of
the fruit with a bite taken out of it. The bite represented a play on words: bite and byte.
Jobs co-invented the Apple I and Apple II computers together with Wozniak, who was the main designer,
and others. The Apple II is considered to be one of the first commercially successful lines of personal
computers. In 1984, Wozniak, Jobs, and others co-invented the Apple Macintosh computer, the
first successful home computer with a mouse-driven graphical user interface. It was, however, based on
(or, according to some sources, stolen from) the Xerox Alto, a concept machine built at the Xerox PARC
research facility. According to the Computer History Museum, the Alto included:
A mouse. Removable data storage. Networking. A visual user interface. Easy-to-use graphics software.
“What You See Is What You Get” (WYSIWYG) printing, with printed documents matching what users saw on
screen. E-mail. Alto for the first time combined these and other now-familiar elements in one small
computer. During the early 1980s, Jobs controlled the business side of the Apple Corporation. Steve
Wozniak was in charge of the design side. However, a power struggle with the board of directors led to Jobs
leaving Apple in 1985.
NeXT
After leaving Apple, Jobs founded NeXT, a high-end computer company. Ironically, Apple bought
NeXT in 1996 and Jobs returned to his old company to serve once more as its CEO from 1997 until his
retirement in 2011.
The NeXT was an impressive workstation computer that sold poorly. The world's first web browser was
created on a NeXT, and the technology in NeXT software was transferred to the Macintosh and the iPhone.

Disney Pixar
In 1986, Jobs bought "The Graphics Group" from Lucasfilm's computer graphics division for $10
million. The company was later renamed Pixar. At first, Jobs intended for Pixar to become a high-end
graphics hardware developer, but that goal was never met. Pixar moved on to do what it now does best,
which is make animated films. Jobs negotiated a deal to allow Pixar and Disney to collaborate on a number
of animated projects that included the film "Toy Story." In 2006, Disney bought Pixar from Jobs.

Expanding Apple
After Jobs returned to Apple as its CEO in 1997, Apple Computers had a renaissance in product
development with the iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, and more.
Before his death, Jobs was listed as the inventor and/or co-inventor on 342 United States patents, with
technologies ranging from computer and portable devices to user interfaces, speakers, keyboards, power
adapters, staircases, clasps, sleeves, lanyards, and packages. His last patent was issued for the Mac OS X
Dock user interface and was granted the day before his death.

Death
Steve Jobs died at his home in Palo Alto, California, on October 5, 2011. He had been ill for a long
time with pancreatic cancer, which he had treated using alternative techniques. His family reported that his
final words were, "Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow."

ENTREPRENEURIAL QUALITIES AND COMPETENCIES

The first trait that I think is most important and unique is his unbelievable imagination. It's one thing to
envision your company growing and taking market share from another competitor, but it's another thing to
envision that your company's products and services will change the way people communicate, work and
live their lives. He built his company under the assumption that Apple's products and services would
change the world.
His uncanny ability to develop and design technology products (now everyday products) that people love
was like no other entrepreneur's before, during or after his time. He's truly a legend in the concept of
innovative and interactive design. He focused on design and was insistent that it be absolutely perfect. It
was his belief that design is a critical component to developing next-generation products that people love. I
think there is a lot to be learned here. He made one aspect of building his business (that is, design) very
important as opposed to other areas. This evolved into Apple's competitive advantage and the company's
brand.
He was also extremely passionate and fearless when it came to growing Apple. Many actions in his career
were controversial and at certain points risked the future of the company. He had an extraordinary ability
to push his company and employees to the limits without going over the edge. In addition, if you were a
potential customer or an existing one, he made you understand why you had to have Apple's products or
services. He was the ultimate salesperson.
 BIOGRAPHY OF HENRY SY
From rags to riches—the stories we are so often inspired by. Where the poor and hard-pressed
become the rich and the powerful, either by hard work and perseverance, meeting the right
people at the right time, or just by a twist of fate and a stroke of dumb luck. We can’t help but be
in awe when we find out that those in power came from the humblest of beginnings. For success
and achievement are not handed down on a silver platter but earned through the trials of life and
through the will and determination to see things through to the end.

Early Life and History

Henry T. Sy was born on October 15, 1924, to a poor family in Jinjiang, Quanzhou, China.
His parents were Henry H. Sy and Tan O. Sia. He was twelve when he first arrived in the
Philippines, working at his father’s small sari-sari store for more than twelve hours a day, every
day. The store was located in what is known today as Carlos Palanca Sr. Street in Quiapo, Manila. It
was at this store that he devised a strategy that would give him bigger gains to his income—
essentially he developed smaller portions of products for sale, a strategy similar to what we see
these days when we go shopping in supermarketsNeedless to say, his strategy worked, and he was
able to make multiple sales. Henry was so engrossed in work that he never had time to be a kid, or
to play with the other kids. Henry later realized the limitations of a sari-sari store. At one point
after the store burned down, Henry continued to sell on the streets to support himself, with his
father no longer by his side. One day when he was out selling, he was shot by a shrapnel and
nearly bled to death if it wasn’t for his friend who rushed him to the hospital. He repaid his friend
by making him his business partner throughout the rest of their careers.

The Moldings of an Empire

After the end of World War II in 1945, Henry Sy went into the shoe retail business.
His business grew quickly, opening more stores with his friends as business partners. After his
success with the branches, Henry decided to open the first air-conditioned branded shoe store
and called it Shoe Mart (SM). That store was also very successful and he decided to open up
even more branches. Then another trial—the suppliers did not listen to Henry. They did not follow
his instructions and gave him only a limited stock supply. But it was thanks to this limitation that
he decided to diversify his merchandise. He went on to sell apparel and—later on, with the help of
his mother—he sold other goods. He was constantly learning from the people around him. They
had given him enough confidence to eventually expand to a department store chain. It was at this
point the biggest adversities in his life came into play.
When they opened their first department store in 1972, it was during the Martial Law era. Despite
this time of civil unrest, they continued to open up more stores. Eventually things got harder with
the economy going down, especially with the Philippine’s debt coming into play as well as the
assassination of Ninoy Acquino. Added to this the fact that his father came back out of
nowhere, and many experts had come to believe that they would fail.
Henry Sy, however, was unaffected by all criticism. He was ready to face all the naysayers with
confidence and optimism at his side. It wasn’t just these two weapons that kept him going,
though—his employees, friends, family, and even his customers fueled him to use and hone those
weapons. While they were building their megamalls they encountered delays in construction, and
then there was the 1997 Asian crisis. They had no choice but to delay, and opened up other malls.
They were growing in terms of numbers if not store size, as well as expanding their business
beyond retail. On November 8, 1985, he established the first of many SM Supermalls, SM City
North EDSA.
He then went on to try his luck in banking. He had helped reorganize and strengthen bank
organizations, especially their main bank, Banco De Oro, which was mid-sized back in the
day. The Sy group is currently the operator of Banco de Oro and is the owner of Chinabank. In
2006, Henry bought out PCI Bank, and in 2007 merged it with Banco De Oro, which was at the
time the Philippines' third largest lender. He also dabbled in the food and beverage business by
acquiring 11% of San Miguel’s stock, but he sold it in 2005 for $680 million USD.

Influence and Legacy

Henry Sy has shown to Filipinos that, despite all adversity, perseverance will pay off greatly
in the end. He has emphasized how friends and family can be a great support when heading into
the business world. He has stated that “opportunity is where you find it, not where it finds
you.” These are words that we all can live by—where when one finds a crisis, they can also find an
opportunity. To transform that problem into opportunity can create some of the biggest payoffs.
For a business to succeed they must systematically exploit their potentials and systematically
optimize their performance.

Sy’s mall business is a long-term business. It’s a business where paying everything back in full can
take at least eight years. But he has made it a lasting one since he is aware of how the Filipinos
and even the foreigners who visit their country love shopping. His company also strives to
innovate, to give the people new products every now and then when they check their usual stores.
They look to be ahead of the demand and be ready at all times, whether during a crisis or when
everyone is at ease. They are looking to continue their expansion and create an even better mall
where they can connect with their customers more.

Sy is a great man whom we can all learn from. How he connects with customers and suppliers, and
makes everything work in the ways of business, is amazing. He is a man full of great ideas who
sees opportunities everywhere he looks.
He takes up the challenges that are brought before him and faces them head on with years of
experience at his belt. Through his friends and family, he has created the biggest business empire
in the country of the Philippines—and it all started with a small shoe store. Henry Sy definitely
lives up to his title of being the richest man in the Philippines.