Mark Zuckerberg is a very well-known leader across the world. Mark created Facebook in the year 2004, which has experienced wonderful growth since then. When Mark started to invent this Social Network, it was meant for him to communicate with his college friends. It did not stay that way though. By the year 2006, over 7 million users had a Facebook account. Today there are over 750 million users on Facebook. Mark is compared to visionaries such at Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. The article by Wall Street Journal states that Facebook has doubled its revenue to $1.6 billion from about $800 million a year earlier. This change in net income is good for Facebook and demonstrates that Facebook has been a great social network.
Mark is successful in a few areas. First, out of his personal traits I believe that he has a large amount of determination. According to Tony Martins, Mark “Thinks Big.” An example is when Yahoo asked Facebook a second time to purchase it for $1 billion; Mark would not allow that to happen. He had the willingness to put effort into making Facebook what it is today. Second, Mark has both technical and conceptual skills. The 3-Skills Administrative Approach demonstrates that Top Management does not require as much technical skills. In Marks case, he is very smart when it comes to software and knowing how to program. His conceptual skills are great because he has had many ideas for Facebook and has made those ideas known. I then compared Mark to the Skills Model Approach. Mark is able to use his general and crystallized cognitive ability in order to demonstrate his problem-solving and knowledge skills to show effective leadership. His general cognitive ability came from his childhood. He had a passion for programming and was able to learn more about it as he grew older, while learning more about leadership. Third, Mark would be considered a task-oriented leader. He uses a directive approach towards his group members by giving direction and establishing goals. In the past, he had 3 main goals that he wanted to accomplish. His main goal was to create Facebook to make it easier for friends to communicate. He then chose to extend Facebook membership to the entire world. Lastly, he wanted to open the site to developers and encourage them to build Facebook application. Mark encouraged his team to work hard at accomplishing these tasks.
Recently, Mark had released video chat available for people to use on Facebook. This specific article from the Wall Street Journal is titled “Is Facebook’s Video Chat Really ‘Something Awesome’?” There were reporters that did not care for this because of Google recent group video chat. However, Mark concluded that Facebook’s users base are over 750 million now compared to the 600 million that they did have. He says that this is “awesome.” I personally believe that it was a good idea for Mark to create video chat on Facebook. There are a lot of people that are on Facebook throughout the day and this allows them to stay on Facebook in order to video chat with their friends without having to sign into a different website. What do you think? Do you think that Mark Zuckerberg’s video chat is awesome?
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ReplyDeleteMichelle - I agree that Mr. Zuckerberg seems to be a very hands on and innovate leader at Facebook. I wanted to compare this blog with the blog I posted regarding Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple)I find it very interesting that when you look at both of these leaders - they dont seem to the be the "typical" leader according to the Basic Skills Model. I feel that both of these leader excel just as much in techincal skills if not more than the conceptual skills. I think its a good point that some of the most successful and innovative leaders know and understand more than just the basic technical skills of their organization - but rather, they are actively involved with product design and new product development. I also think that both of these leaders have created the unique cultures that exist in both of these companies. I feel that Facebook would probably drop slightly at the loss of Zuckerburg, just as Apple has done with Jobs. I think overall they would both be very strong companies, but the inital shock of loosing either CEO would effect both companies. What are your thoughts?
ReplyDeleteCan you please explain how the video chat feature will work?
Kyle Burrows
Skype’s video chatting in Facebook works by:
ReplyDelete1.Clicking the video camera icon in the chat window
2.If this is the first time you are doing this, you will be prompted to do an initial setup. Once you click setup, a file will be downloaded to your computer before you can continue.
3.After this initial setup, one can send a video chat. A popup window will appear when you initiate a call while it rings on the other end.
4.One the recipient answers the call, then both of you will be able to see each other while chatting.
It is a great feature especially for people that do not get to see each other on a daily basis.
-Michelle Fulkerson
I think the the Facebook video chat is going to be huge for Facebook, as Michelle said it will link people face to face that haven't been able to communicate face to face due to long distance or any other reason. Even though there are programs like Skype that do similar things I believe that Facebook's version will excel because most everyone has a Facebook account where as Skype you have to create an account and download a program. The convenience factor is there for Facebook users and I think that Zuckerburg realized that when he decided to implement the new application. I think that it shows Zuckerburg's conceptual skills in a different light then mentioned above. In this particular instance among many he was able to create a vision and then a plan to implement it. He came up with a strategic plan that had a competitive advantage against the rest even though they are similar products.-- Brittany
ReplyDeleteMichelle- I found it interesting that he held technical skills and a young age and had to learn leadership traits as he went along. From this you could argue that Zuckerberg is a good example of process leadership. He gained expert power through his advanced technical skills in the area of programming and networking. I find it interesting that others compare Zuckerberg to Steve Jobs when referring to their vast technical and conceptual skills. Do you think this is the new type of CEO for the future? Or do you think these two are unique cases?
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ReplyDelete-Clay Gruenwald
You bring up a good point Clay about both of these leaders having strong technical skills. I personally do not think that it is going to be a trend among all companies but definitely among the high-tech industries. I think that it makes a difference when the CEO has a good understanding of how the product works and is made. Think about all the demonstrations Job's did for the Apple products that were launched while he was CEO. If he did not have the understanding and knowledge that he had his presentations would not have been nearly as strong as they were. This is also where Job's Knowledge plays such a key role it gives him expert power that everyone admires. I think that by having their CEO's really understand the technology their firms are using is a competitive advantage for both Apple and Facebook. --Brittany.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the new video chat will help to enhance Facebooks competitve advantage. I think this is a great example of the level of technical skills that Zuckerberg has and how "hands on" he is as a leader. It also shows his level of innovation that he uses to drive the future success of Facebook
ReplyDeleteKyle Burrows
Clay- In the future, I do believe that people in high positions should have some sort of technical experience in order to utilize information. Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg are good examples of leaders that have great knowledge in the area of technology and conceptual skills. To answer your question, I do believe that in the future more and more leaders will be knowledgeable in the area of technology because they grew up around it. -Michelle Fulkerson
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