As Facebook readies itself for floatation, the debate centres around what leadership is required to take it forward and whether Mark Zuckerburg is the right person for the job. At the heart of the issues are concerns about how much power and influence he will have to veto shareholders post IPA. But are they valid and does history suggest that they are right to be concerned?
Why does the Founder CEO make us so nervous?
We have in this blog looked at other founder CEO’s and the impact that they can have on an organisation. The love/hate relationship that emerges because of founders controlling and some might say over-bearing influence often causes frictions with shareholders, who are not used to playing second fiddle to a CEO.
The front-runners in the category are obvious: Steve Jobs, Michael Dell and Bill Gates. It’s also interesting to note that a recent study by Wharton Business School, concluded that founder CEOs outperformed professional CEOs. Their decisions tended to be longer-term, linked to a deeper understanding of core products and strategy; and less influenced by the whims and demands of shareholders.
But there is the other equally tricky aspects of the founder CEO. As can be seen in the biographies of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and others; the archetype founder CEO often takes on a maverick role in how they run their organisation, and this is what makes investors and analysts most nervous about the Facebook floatation.
An unswerving focus on the future
But what Founder CEO’s particularly in the technology field have proven again and again, is that there vision is beyond our grasp until it comes to fruition. Apple were about to go down the ‘me too’ PC strategy until Steve Jobs returned in 1997 and took the radically different step of complete vertical integration. A model that was seen as totally outdated at that time (Amstrad anyone?).
Zuckerburg has also shown such courage, fighting off many law suits and rejecting many lucrative offers in Facebook’s history. But he has also show an awareness of the need to bring in operators, who will spend time thinking about strategy and core operations, such as the appointment of Sheryl Sandberg.
As Facebook moves closer to becoming a founder-led public company many will feel ambivilant about whether the leader that brought Facebook to here, is the one that will lead it on to profitability in the future. A profitability that is still relatively untested and in its infancy.
Certainly some of the pitfalls of the Founder CEO, are the tendency toward the Maverick. A tendency to view one’s own opinion as superior and an intolerance to dissent. But we have seen how even these poorly viewed leadership practices have brought out the best in some organisation’s performance, so we wait to see how well Facebook lives up to its early promise under Zuckerburg’s control.
Zuckerburg is a brilliant person who can manage this perfectly. I really like to support him, Like to suggest another people to choose him. Very well note about Zuckerburg. Thanks!
Posted by: Lucy Alfred | February 22, 2012 at 05:17 AM
Lucy, many thanks for your enthusiastic response to the post. I am pleased you enjoyed it.
Posted by: Mary | February 22, 2012 at 04:06 PM