Identify a strategic leader - Essay Example

Assignment Make the answer as a discussion format, please make sure the answer is right to the point and the answer is small Identify a strategicleader with whom you are familiar. Explain and justify your choice. Answer: Strategic leaders are imperative for a successful organization these days. To me Steve Jobs, Apple Inc’s CEO and co-founder, is one such leader. His leadership has dramatically changed the outcome of Apple and has made the company a paradigm of innovation. Jobs has been able to manage Apple Inc entirely and with his passion and strategic planning he has become one of the world’s best leaders.

Jobs does not just go into a product category and make what everyone else is making. Rather, he gets into the minds and hearts of customers by figuring out what he wants and eventually everyone ends up loving his products because of their uniqueness. He thinks ahead and builds future. Some assume that Apple Inc. will not be able to survive without Steve Jobs, however, Jobs says otherwise. He believes in the people working at Apple Inc. and claims that there are really capable people at Apple Inc.

Thus he appreciates those working with him and does not take the entire credit himself. Hence by the way he deals with his employees and his products, he really is a strategic leader and has proven that by making Apple Inc. a dream come true. Assignment #2 Please respond to these 3 people comment please make it short and as a discussion format thank you Person#1 Meg Whitman is a former CEO of EBay. She joined EBay in 1998 when the company had only 30 employees and revenues of $4 million. Originally, when Whitman had joined eBay, she found the website as a simple black and white webpage.

She believed the site to be confusing and began by building a new executive team. Whitman organized the company by splitting it into twenty-three business categories. During her time as CEO, the company grew to approximately 15,000 employees and $8 billion in annual revenue by 2008.  Whitman also served on the board of directors of the eBay Foundation, Procter & Gamble and DreamWorks SKG. Harvard Business Review has named her the eighth-best-performing CEO of the past decade. Answer: From the way Meg Whitman transformed e-bay from a black and white page to a highly attractive online selling store is genius.

She had looked ahead of time when she built a new executive team in order to sort out the website. She allocated the organization’s resources in such a way that it multiplied the revenue generated. Not only that, she also used human capital to its best in order to improve the standing of e-bay. Her style of leadership has been the key to the success of e-bay. Person#2 The Founder, Chairman, CEO and President of Starbucks Corporation is one of the most strategic leaders that I can identify.  Howard Schultz is a self-made billionaire, ambitious, inspiring and humble individual.

  He was raised by blue-collar parents and grew up in Brooklyn housing projects.  This is a true story of from rags to riches.  Coming from such a background did not discourage Howard Schultz it helped him to build a very successful coffee chain and implement strategies that have never been done before such as opening five shops a day and providing a hefty benefit package to part-time employees. After handing over the position he returned eight years later to CEO in January 2008 to save the company from further damage that occurred during his leave.

  Schultz made strategic decisions to shutdown 900 stores, cut cost and on one occasion shut down stores hours early just to train employees on new procedures.  With all his decisions it helped Starbucks get right back on track and increase shares preserving the company’s position in the industry. Answer: Howard Shultz is a leader who not only looks at the present, but also looks at the future. He shutdown 900 stores because there were streets where more than two or three Starbucks outlets were present.

This was just a waste of resources. He cut down the cot at such areas and incurred more in employee motivation and job satisfaction and in training the employees to give the best customer service as service nowadays is extremely important for an organization’s success. Person#3 Jeff Bezos started Amazon.com from the basement of the house he and his wife rented in 1994. He realized the potential and the rapid growth of the internet, people were using and buying more online each day and he realized that this could be the opportunity of a lifetime.

 After considering his options, he realized that books would be the ideal way to start his business. "He discovered that the industry’s major players already possessed electronic lists of their products. All he needed to do was compile those lists in a central location where they could be searched and ordered by the public (Forbes)." In 1997 he added CD's and movies to the categories you could find on Amazon and a year later 5 more were added (video games, software, toys, electronics and home-improvement).

Now you can find and buy almost anything on Amazon.com, it is the largest online retailers in the world and it is Jeff Bezos innovation and customer focused strategy that makes this possible. "By May 2011, Kindlewas outselling hardcover and paperback combined. For Amazon, the milestone was proof that it has successfully leapt from a print business to a digital one, a transition that has challenged most companies that sell media (NYTimes)." Answer: Jeff Bezos is a leader who believes in innovation and in providing customers what is not there in the market.

His approach of selling things online made him successful because he thought about future prospects that this particular website could hold. Moreover, he sold things that were readily used, like CDs, movies etc. This not only made it easier for the customers to purchase the required item but also gave them a whole variety to select from. Innovation, technology and great leadership qualitites of his made Bezos a successful entrepreneur. “Steve Jobs Speaks Out.” Fortune Magazine. n.p. 7 March. 2008. Web. 8 June. 2011.