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Former-Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook is believed to be one of the most successful business persons of the modern era. Facebook was founded by Zuckerberg in 2004. At the time of introduction of Facebook, Zuckerberg’s idea was to make a socializing platform for college students. Today, Facebook has millions of users and it is the largest social networking site in the world. Apart from college students, people of all ages are users of Facebook at present. Even though Facebook was developed for socializing, its business potential has been identified by Zuckerberg quickly. Today is Facebook is utilized exclusively for business as well as advertising purposes. Zuckerberg’s business ideas, strategies and leadership skills helped Facebook to become an extremely popular online medium in the world. This paper analyzes how good of a businessman Zuckerberg is.
How good of a businessman is Zuckerberg?
Innovative business ideas by Zuckerberg helped Facebook a lot in becoming world’s largest social networking site. For example, Microsoft is one of the biggest IT companies in the world. Most of the other IT companies consider Microsoft as their competitor and stay away from establishing any relationships with them. For example, Apple Inc. never tried to establish any relations with Microsoft. On the other hand, Zuckerberg thought differently. He believes that the association with a competitor company can be mutually helpful. Today, Microsoft is Facebook’s biggest business partner (Robinson, 2009). The association with Microsoft like global business tycoons will definitely provide more opportunities and momentum for Facebook’s future expansion programs.
The second strategy developed by Zuckerberg was to make Facebook one of the leading platforms for advertising. Today, Coke, Procter & Gamble like global business giants advertise on a regular basis on Facebook (Robinson, 2009). Zuckerberg was able to convince the companies that social networks can offer cheaper as well as effective advertising channels. He has argued that mouth publicity is the most effective advertising activity and Facebook can help companies to streamline the word of mouth in favor of them.
As a businessman, Zuckerberg never believed in spending too much time in the office for business success. Zuckerberg never spent more than 50 to 60 hours a week in the office (CNBC.com staff, 2016). At the same time, he spent a lot of time for thinking about the ways to serve the community better. In his opinion, working long hours in the office may become counterproductive. Instead of spending long hours in the office, he found enough time for relaxation. At the same time, even while relaxing, his thoughts were about how to build the business. He never stayed away from focusing on his primary mission- the mission to become a successful businessperson in the world.
Zuckerberg is not a person who is interested in making small decisions (CNBC.com staff, 2016). He always tried to make big decisions. For example, people usually witness business leaders in formal dressing. However, it is difficult to see Zuckerberg in a formal dress code even while attending business meetings and negotiations. The world often sees Zuckerberg wearing the same type of gray shirt (CNBC.com staff, 2016). In his opinion, the decision to wear formal dress is only a small decision. It may not help a business leader to bring big success. Many of the contemporary leaders have the illusion that formal dress codes are necessary to convince the opposite party while attending a negotiation. As per the views of Zuckerberg what you think is more important than what you wear. Unlike other business leaders, Zuckerberg is never interested in making too many decisions. He believes in taking only a few decisions; however, he is particular about the success of the decisions being taken.
Some business leaders act less and react more. On the other hand, Zuckerberg believes in the opposite direction. He acts more and reacts less (CNBC.com staff, 2016). As per Newton’s third law of motion, every action has an equal but opposite reaction. But in the case of Zuckerberg, the above law seems to be inapplicable. Zuckerberg is not a person who is interested in reacting proactively to the criticisms and comments directed against him. He always replies such comments and criticisms in a polite manner. It should be noted that Zuckerberg has heard many criticisms regarding the stealing of the idea from another person while establishing Facebook. However, he never tried to discuss this matter openly.
In most of the other business organizations, leaders try to correct the employees. In other words, leaders usually instruct employees about how to behave in a particular situation. On the other hand, Zuckerberg wants his employees to correct him. He knows his limitations very well and ready to hear the suggestions of employees in improving the performances of his company. Employees of Facebook have the freedom to correct Zuckerberg if he says something wrong (CNBC.com staff, 2016). In many other organizations, employees who question the leaders may get punishment. First, obey and then question is the policy adopted in military organizations all over the world. In the case of Facebook, the above policy is reversed. It is possible for the employees to question the leaders if they feel that the instructions received by them are wrong or unfair. Zuckerberg does not want to dwell on mistakes (CNBC.com staff, 2016). If he is convinced that a mistake is being made from his part, he is ready to correct it rather than justifying it. In his opinion, there are many things to learn from the mistakes. Zuckerberg wants to transform Facebook from a traditional established organization to a learning organization. He believes that only a learning organization might survive in the present most heavily competitive business world.
Zuckerberg is not a person who is staying away from taking a risk in business. He is ready to take calculated risks in business (CNBC.com staff, 2016). In fact, the ability to take risk is instrumental in business success. There are many leaders who play their game safely by staying away from taking the risk. For example, Nokia was the leader in the mobile phone market before the arrival of iPhones. Nokia was not ready to take the risk of developing a touchscreen phone even though they were the leaders in the market. On the other hand, Apple enters the mobile phone market by taking a risk- the risk of introducing touchscreen phone in the market. The rest is history now. Apple is the leader whereas Nokia is a struggler in the mobile phone market at present. Zuckerberg knows that risk taking attitude is necessary for a businessperson. Such an attitude will help him to stay positive all the time and react to the needs of the market proactively. Bold move is not unfamiliar to Facebook. For example, to the utter surprise of many business leaders, Zuckerberg took the company public in 2012 (CNBC.com staff, 2016). It should be noted that a company needs to share its profit while going public. However, the above knowledge never prevented Zuckerberg from making Facebook a public company.
Merger and acquisition are some of the most common business strategies used by modern companies for expanding their business as well as to silence the competition. Zuckerberg used such strategies effectively to make Facebook an unquestionable leader in the IT industry. Zuckerberg bought Instagram for $1 billion and WhatsApp for $19 billion recently as part of the expansion of business (CNBC.com staff, 2016). It should be noted that these two social networks (Instagram and WhatsApp) were causing some headaches to Facebook in the past. With the acquisition of these companies, the authority of Facebook in the social networking industry became established strongly. Even Google is struggling to question the supremacy of Facebook in the social networking industry now.
Zuckerberg knows very well that the main reason for people to be on Facebook is to handle social relations and not be a target for selling (Kall, 2013). Therefore, he was keen on developing Facebook as a business without hurting the sentiments of its users. In other words, Zuckerberg made sure that the advertisements and marketing strategies used on Facebook may not cause any problems to the users. It is possible for Facebook users to give permission for displaying ads in front of them. If they are not interested in such things, they can disable such ads.
Another business strategy used by Zuckerberg is the promotion of Facebook pages by the users themselves. It should be noted that if a user sets up a Facebook page, he/she will try to improve the traffic to their webpage by giving ample publicity to their friends and relatives. While doing so, they are helping Facebook in many ways. Every increase in the number of Facebook users will help the company to earn more advertising revenue from its customers.
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Conclusion
Mark Zuckerberg is one among the highly successful businesspersons of the modern era. He is different from many other modern business leaders in terms of appearance, personal values, and business strategies. He never likes to wear formal dresses while attending a business meeting. He wants to hear the instructions of his workers before taking any critical decisions. Workers can correct him if they feel something wrong about his decisions. Learning from the mistake is a slogan used by Zuckerberg for the establishment of Facebook as a leader in the social networking industry. Zuckerberg was ready to take risky decisions. At the same time, he took only big decisions and stayed away from taking too many small decisions. In order to silence the competition, Zuckerberg has acquired WhatsApp and Instagram. In short, Zuckerberg is a democratic leader who believes in teamwork for the betterment of his company Facebook.
- CNBC.com staff (2016), 7 brilliant management strategies Mark Zuckerberg used to build Facebook.
- Kall, M. (2013) Business Strategies on Facebook.
- Robinson, R. (2009), Strategic Management, Facebook Faces Up, BusinessWeek, August 6, 2007, The McGraw−Hill Companies, 2009.