CH/PS
I think you made a really good point that Howard lacks political aspects-especially for presidency. I have no heard his speeches quite yet (since I tend to stray away from politics altogether because people are so aggressive), do you think he is a great leader-type and is he charismatic at all? Great leaders, especially for presidency, should be honest, charismatic, and not only cater to the audience's needs but to the entire country's needs without sugar coating things.
Also, I am not sure what you mean by "In order to improve his leadership style, Jeff should change his model of carrying out business activities. This is because it can be copied and imitated by other companies (Mauri, 2016)".- how can it be imitted by other companies? In what way?
Do you think Jeff Bezos is a bad leader? and why?
CH/AR
I found your comparison of Howard Schultz and Jeff Bezos interesting and compelling. When I was looking at the list of leaders to select from, it was staggering to me how many of the corporate leaders have run or are planning to run for political office. I'm not sure, given our current political environment, that running a large corporation is the right background and experience for the leader of the United States. We'll see what happens in the next year and a half!
Amazon is an amazing, transformative company to watch. I work in the financial services industry and one of our leaders recently described our competition not as other financial services firms but as Amazon. Financial services firms pretty much all offer the same products and services and at a very reasonable price point. Amazon, however, has excelled in service delivery. I would imagine that at sometime in the future, Amazon will partner with a financial service firm to deliver products and services. I'll admit that I was and still am skeptical about Amazon's purchase of Whole Foods, but Bezos seems to be up for trying just about anything.
In your analysis of the two leaders, you didn't mention directly the challenges faced by either the leaders or the organization. Last year, Starbucks was all over the news regarding the incident involving two African American gentlemen and how they were treated by a manger at Starbucks. I'm curious how you or others in the class through about how Schultz led the organization through that crisis. Bezos, as well, has not been immune to controversy with his recent affair and divorce becoming public. How do the personal lives and behaviors of leader impact the organizations they lead? Should it matter?
SO
The first leader I chose to research is Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google. Sundar began to show in interest in technology at an early age, and eventually earned a degree in Metallurgy, and an M.B.A from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He then began working at Google in 2004 as the head of product management and development (Shepherd). From there, he assisted in the development of many different departments of Google, including the creation of Google Chrome. Throughout his experience at Google, both Twitter and Microsoft both sparked an interest in him, however he was given financial incentives to stay a part of Googles team. Eventually, in 2015, he was named the newest CEO of Google.
The second leader I chose to research is Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. Bezos started off with an early interest in computers, and studied electrical engineering at Princeton University (biography.com). He then went on to work on Wall Street after graduation, until he decided to quit his job to open Amazon.com. Bezos began his business by developing software out of his garage. From there, Bezos and his team expanded operation into a two-bedroom house, until they eventually developed a test site. After testing the site with 300 friends, Amazon.com was opened in 1995, and started out with meteoric success.