Topic 6 Contemporary Business Leader complete PDF

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Running head: CONTEMPORARY BUSINESS LEADER

Contemporary Business Leader Joelle Gandara Grand Canyon University: MGT-420 9/27/20 Instructor Marnie Davis

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Contemporary Business Leader

Elon Musk can be considered one of the most interesting people currently living. His aspirations and ability to reach his goals are unparalleled by any other person. Founding and running many successful and innovative businesses which surpass all other in their industry. Through his dedication to his businesses he leads his businesses to success after success. At the conclusion of this essay there will be an understanding of Musk’s history, leadership approach, the greatest achievement, ability to handle challenges, power base, a comparison with a competitor, and attributes that should be emulated by other leaders. Contemporary Business Leader Musk is a South African native who immigrated to the Americas for collegiate level education. He started college in Canada and earning his citizenship, but only as a means to immigrate to the United States where he would earn his undergraduate degrees and citizenship. Musk then decided rather than pursue his doctorate, he would start his first company, Zip2 Corp, in 1995 (Musk, 2018). Musk has been associated with a number of large businesses ranging from the 1990s to today. Large names such as Paypal (Musk, 2018), are linked to his success as a leader. Other businesses he co-founded and is CFO of include Tesla Automotive in 2003, Space X in 2002, and Solar City in 2014 (Musk, 2018), which make him an industry leader in automotive, solar energy, aerospace, and the AI industries. Leadership Approach From what it has been said about Musk, it is clear he falls into the transformational theory of leadership, or a leader who creates excitement in the project through their own passion and enthusiasm (Schermerhorn, 2014). Musk praised and expressed his appreciation for the Tesla

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Contemporary Business Leader

employees even though they did not meet the production expectations for the 2018 fourth-quarter (“How”, 2018), letting his teams know that failure meant that they were innovating and not something to fear. This leadership theory also holds the leader to the same standard of excellence as the team members (Schermerhorn, 2014), which is shown through his hands on approach in every business. Musk encourages team members to provide him with feedback (“The Impact”, 2018) so he is able to improve the same way his teams are expected to. Musk is such a hand on leader, he doesn’t maintain office space in his facilities, he would rather position himself near the biggest challenge. Greatest Achievement It can be seen that Musk’s primary goal in every business venture is to utilize and promote sustainable energy. This can be seen best in his greatest achievement of his career, up to this point, the creation of the gigafactory. There are now four gigafactories three for Tesla and one for Solar City (Philip, 2020) which are not only large factories, but are designed as green factories, mitigating greenhouse gasses and promoting the clean energy of wind and solar (Philip, 2020). These four factories, some of the largest in the world, are generating all the energy they need for production, putting no drain on the fossil fuel dependent system. In addition to being green factories, Musk used existing buildings rather than building new, specialty buildings, further reducing the demand on Earth’s resources. Tesla chose to use a building in Buffalo, New York which was shut down in 1983 and was the fourth largest of its time (Philip, 2020). These accomplishments took dedication and enthusiasm from not only himself but from his teams, demonstrating his transformational leadership. Handling a Challenge

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Contemporary Business Leader The true test for any leader is how they handle failure. While Musk was extremely successful overall in his businesses, there were times when the organization’s best only resulted in failure. In 2016 SpaceX had their Falcon 9 explode during fueling in preparation for a same

day launch (Hull, 2019). This explosion caused the loss of the Falcon 9 and the satellite, Amos-6, it intended to carry into space (Hull, 2019). This and similar failures are taken in stride by Musk though.

In 2018, Musk was able to launch a new rocket with a new satellite, Amos-17, which was completely paid for by SpaceX as compensation (Hull, 2019). Musk maintained a strong position of support for his teams and businesses, positioning him in a leadership role rather than a management role, which would have tried to control the group rather than encourage the team (Schermerhorn & Uhl-Bien, 2014). Reinforcing his stance that failure was an option as long as the team continues to innovate and stays persistent in reaching their goal.

Power Base After the disappointing explosion of the Falcon 9, SpaceX had to rely heavily on experts to investigate, repair damages, and build a new rocket. Musk had to use connection power to ensure SpaceX would be able to continue. This power comes from the ability of Musk to call on connections he has both inside and outside the organization (Schermerhorn & Uhl-Bien, 2014). Musk was able to call upon the companies who have contracts with SpaceX to temporarily relocate their launches to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (“SpaceX”, 2016). He was subject to the reciprocal alliances with the company who build the satellite, meaning that he owed this company for the destruction of their satellite, despite it being an accident (Schermerhorn & UhlBien, 2014)

Contemporary Business Leader

5 Leadership Comparison

One of Musk’s competitors, in the many industries he competes in, is Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, an aerospace company. Bezos certainly practices different style of leadership from Musk. Amazon has set about fourteen leadership principles which the whole company follow and are judged on in evaluations, including “invent and simplify”, “bias for action”, “customer obsession”, and “have backbone; disagree and commit” (Johanna, 2019). These principals directly reflect Bezos’ beliefs and leadership style through his customer first dedication, which escalated to apoplectic behaviors during the Great Lube Scandal, which emailed customers with a prompt to purchase lube (Johanna, 2019). Situations like this often result in a leader who regularly yells at his teams, creating a dynamic which alienates talented employees (Johanna, 2019). Based on these traits, Bezos shows he falls within the power wielder theory, advancing the leaders interests with the use of power, usually egocentrically, without considering the needs of the team (Schermerhorn & Uhl-Bien, 2014), setting him as the antithesis to Musk’s transformational style. Both leaders create relationships with their employees, but do it for different reasons, one to motivate the other to regulate. Attributes There are many attributes which can be admired by Musk’s supporters and competitors. Among these are the ability to thrive in the face of failure and being able to inspire others. With Musk’s history of spectacular failures, it has become clear that he does not see a failure as a reason to stop trying. He and his teams’ works through every setback and failure, embodying the philosophy that failure is an option, that failing means there is innovation (“The Impact”, 2018). Even in failure, Musk is able to achieve the goals he sets. Creating a level of passion in everyone

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Contemporary Business Leader who hears about a project is difficult, but Musk manages to do just that. He is not only able to inspire shareholders and the public, he is able to create a higher level of passion in his own employees (“The Impact”, 2018). As a transformational leader, he is able to motivate and influence those around him to do their absolute best without fear, creating an environment where anything is possible, allowing his companies to reach astronomical heights. Conclusion

Musk has proven to be an amazing business man, but this essay shows that he is also an admirable leader. From his first business, Zip2, to his current businesses Musk shows his transformational leadership style leading his teams to building self-sustaining gigafactories. He had to preserver through the devastating loss of one of his rockets and a satellite, relying on connection power to remedy and make amends for the losses. One of his competitors, Jeff Bezos, demonstrates how a leader shouldn’t alienate talent and create tension in their workplaces. Finally, the key attributes every leader should learn to emulate from Musk are his willingness to thrive during failure and to inspire others.

Contemporary Business Leader

7 References

How to be an “effective” leader like Elon Musk, Tim Cook in the Digital Age; Google billionaire Eric Schmidt’s winning leadership technique is along similar lines. (2019). The Financial Express (New Delhi, India). The Impact Investor; Elon Musk’s futures. (2018). The Economist, 9078, 19. Hull, D. (2019). SpaceX Pulls Off Do-Over Flight Years After Launch Explosion. Bloomberg.Com, N.PAG. Johanna Burfeind. (2019). Leading Cultural Change in the Newspaper Industry: How Jeff Bezos saved The Washington Post. Manager, 29(1), 125–138. Musk, Elon. (2018). Gale Biographies: Popular People. Philip Cooke. (2020). Gigafactory Logistics in Space and Time: Tesla’s Fourth Gigafactory and Its Rivals. Sustainability, 12(5), 2044. Schermerhorn, J. (2014). Exploring management (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. ISBN-13: 97811118620199 (Available as a custom eBook - includes only Chapters 1, 2, 5, 6, 10, 16, and 17) Schermerhorn, J., & Uhl-Bien, M. (2014). Organizational behavior (13th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. SpaceX To March On After Explosion. (2016). International Business Times - US Ed....