Communication in Leadership by Notable Figures in Business (Essay Sample)

Communication in Leadership
Student’s Name
Institution
Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs is one of the most successful leaders that the modern world of business has ever seen. Arguably, he is the father of the modern competition in the technology scene, thanks to his creativity and boldness. Being unique and daring are two significant characteristics that define successful leaders, but creativity is the real flaming punch to break through. Steve Jobs was the rare embodiment of the three. He was a risk taker and firm believer of his moves in his entire career. He was able to observe the abilities of his friend Steve Wozniak and translate them into entirely new business ideas. Surprisingly, Jobs knew very little about technology, his creativity and boldness were compensatory features that Wozniak lacked to put a running business. They scaled down the computer into a small device that could be used by individuals, a machine traditionally regarded as a high-end organization accessory only used by the most elite. To top it up, jobs named the device Apple, a brand that resonated quite well with the ordinary people they targeted hence picking up many users much faster. Throughout his stay at Apple as the CEO, he played more like a marketer than the everyday role we expect from a leader in his position. He put up an elite team to develop the legendary products in the computer technology – Apple II and Apple III and Apple Macintosh. However, his “My way or the Highway” policy towards the employees could not be tolerated anymore as the performance withered. He was fired from a company he co-founded, but it never took him down, he found another Company – NeXT, and applied the very principles and styles he used at Apple to make it successful, and notably, a threat to Apple. When Apples woos could not stop ten years after his exit, they had to hire him back regardless of his strict requirements, they bought his company (NeXT) to that effect. Jobs return saw him inspire workers with his selfless and passionate approach to the matter. He took only $1 as salary to demonstrate to his employees and follower a desire to succeed rather than make money, a move that made their productivity and creativity shoot high with revolutionary products to show for it. These include the iPhone, iPad, iPod and Mac laptops. By the time Jobs left Apple, he had stretched its stock value from a mere $3.16 to $365 (Howard, 2013). Today Apple prides itself among the most valuable brands in the world because of Steve Jobs.
Jack Ma
If Jack Ma’s story is not a mystery to uncover, then it is the most inspiring phenomenon ever. From a humble beginning, struggling to make ends meet, to the wealthiest man in Asia. He has lived both sides of life and knew what it means to be on either side. Probably, this is what has been instrumental in shaping his opinion and decisions regarding success. Ma has proved to be the most persistent person. He entirely believes that by not giving up, there still exists a chance for one to succeed. In his youthful age, he stayed very optimistic about success. He unsuccessfully made applications to join the American universities to study English and applied over thirty jobs to no avail. These events never deterred his ambition or his efforts. He finally joined a teaching college to learn English.it was the door opener for more success because he would then become an English teacher in a local university as he dreamt. He always believes in communication to reach large masses. His trip to America, with the aim of meeting and learning from people who spoke English as their first language paid off more than he thought. He first came face-to-face with the internet, and his ingenuity kicked in. He thought first of the power it had to change the way people carry out business. After trials and failures, Ma gathered a team of 17 friends that he so much believed in and started an e-commerce website – Alibaba.com. The platform is Asia largest online market. Alibaba operates on a business-to-business model. However, due to Ma’s desire to a cover other models in online space, the company has invested in other startups like Tmall (a business-to-customer platform) and Taobao (a customer-to-customer platform).
To a large extent, Alibaba’s success can be attributed to the form of leadership experienced from its leaders, particularly, from Jack Ma. So, what exactly is so unique about Ma’s style of leadership that made his team of seventeen transforms Alibaba into a multi-billion company? To begin, Jack is very visionary. To succeed as a business leader, one needs to have both a mission and vision regarding where they want to get their business. Jack did not fall short of these traits. When he learned about the powers of the internet, he was able to conceptualize the visionary and revolutionary elements it could avail in the business environment and dive straight into it. At the time (1999), the internet was relatively new, and it was seen as a corporate facility (Liu, 2016). In fact, very few people thought it could explode into the current situation. His persistence and stubborn nature could not lead him into giving up, he learned from every mistake and improved instead.
Second, he has an impeccable commitment to his goals. He knows too well that convincing people and getting them to trust you, especially the business investors and partners is not a walk in the park. Jack tried to use an inclusive approach that borrowed the most acceptable and common goals from all the stakeholders rather than including all interest of one person in one vision. He believes that a vision among the employees is more instrumental in achieving greatness than the leadership itself.
He is also very choosy when it comes to hiring people. Right from the start, he only went for seventeen people that he knew and believed in and who could compliment his inadequacies in person. He believes that the employees must be better than their employers. Otherwise, they are wrong for the job in question. Such tact in recruiting people ensures that the employees can outperform our expectation and well within or beyond the vision, this is a cornerstone for Alibaba’s excellence.
His creativity has been very resourceful for his success. He understands that innovation is entirely different from invention. He was able to redefine C2C e-commerce by instigating live chat platform between the buyer and seller. That way the newly launched Taobao was able to grow much faster into the market traditionally dominated by the all-time-rival eBay. Much of this was due to his emphasis on customer feedback as the sources of insights on areas to improve He also knows that China – his primary market, might not be the same in the coming years as more companies continue to rise (Huynh et al., (2012). In response, he is expanding Alibaba to other countries like India, vietnam and The US, with the ultimate goal of making it a global platform.
Most importantly, Jack Ma has very desirable values in person that not only inspire his employees and the people around him but also believe in him. Ma participates in philanthropic activities across the globe. For instance, his charitable engagement has seen some Chinese patient recover from states that were previously thought irredeemable due to poverty. This and much more continue to warm the hearts of many clients into using Alibaba because they can easily link humanitarian activities to