Instructions: For the Stand Alone Project, you will use the concepts you have learned to analyze a CEO’s leadership abilities. Select a current or former CEO of your choosing. The CEO you choose does not necessarily have to be a successful or popular CEO. The person you choose may be, or have been, very unsuccessful or unpopular. However, you should find him or her to be interesting and a good example of many of the concepts you have studied in this course. You will want to choose someone fairly well known or, more specifically, someone well documented in order to have ample material for your analysis. You are required to review a minimum of (6) sources of information about the CEO in order to form your own conclusions and to obtain significant data relating to all the required concepts.

Part A Introduction: Provide a 1-2 paragraph synopsis of your entire paper, similar to the abstract of a journal article. In the introduction, you should summarize the topic and your conclusions.

Part B Career Overview: This portion of your paper should provide a comprehensive overview of the CEO’s career, highlights, achievements, and significant events. You must have a minimum of six (6) sources. These sources may be newspaper or magazine articles, books, or corporate press releases. The Ashworth College Proquest library also may provide articles for your review.

In your search, do not focus simply on articles about the CEO. You should also attempt to find articles and/or books about the organization during the time the CEO was in charge. In addition, you should search for any written works by the CEO, which may provide excellent insight into him or her. Review as many sources as necessary to develop an in-depth understanding of the leader and his or her style of leadership.

Part C Conclusions and Examples: In this section, draw conclusions regarding the CEO’s leadership, focusing on the topics covered in the text. In addition to drawing conclusions, you must support your evaluation with specific behavioral examples drawn from your research. For example, if you were to state that Mr. Smith was clearly a highly extroverted individual; you would need to provide some evidence for that conclusion. You might state, “It is clear that Mr. Smith was highly extroverted based on numerous examples of his desire to be in the limelight. At an early age,

Mr. Smith joined drama and debate teams and ran for class offices. Once he joined the corporate arena, Mr. Smith’s colleagues consistently described him as ‘the life of the party.’” You must address the following concepts, or topics, in your Conclusions section.

1. Personality and Leadership Style

2. Courage and Moral Leadership

3. Culture and Values

4. Communication

5. Motivation and Empowerment

6. Power and Influence

7. Vision and Strategic Direction

Stand-Alone Project: CEO Analysis: Bill Gates

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Stand-Alone Project: CEO Analysis: Bill Gates

Introduction

Bill Gates is a business and investor magnate, software developer, and philanthropist based in the USA. Research shows that Bill Gates is the second wealthiest man on earth with a net worth of $102.4B. He is the former CEO and co-founder of Microsoft Corporation, and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which he uses to further his vision of families owning computers and solving world problems that are sourced from broken systems and bugged institutions. This project aimed to conduct a CEO analysis understanding Gates’ personality, leadership, values, culture, vision, motivation, empowerment, power, and influence. Based on extensive and comprehensive literature review and thematic analysis conducted, Bill Gates is more of goal achievement-oriented rather than people influencing or cordial relationship building type of CEO. Results show that Gates is both a transformative and autocratic leader portraying minimal self-confidence, has poor communication skills, lacks affiliation motivation, and exhibits subjective or situation oriented moral leadership. On the other hand, Gates represents achievement and power motivated traits that establish his charisma, operates in achievement and success-oriented family culture and environment, and yields his empowerment from achievement and power motives. He commands much power and influence globally, achieved through strategic decisions and plans accompanied the clarity of his vision.

Career Overview

William Henry Gates popularly known as Bill Gates is a business and investor magnate, software developer, and philanthropist born in1955 in the USA. As a CEO, Gates is famously known for two successes and investments, namely being a principal founder and co-owner of Microsoft Corporation and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Eckard, 2019). Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation company focusing on technological development, manufacturing, and licensing of computer software and electronic appliances in Washington. In his career life, Gates served as the CEO of Microsoft for 36 years, the president and chief architect in the software development, and one of the largest shareholders. As a philanthropist, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is one of the largest, private and American charitable organization based in Washington (Ilian, 2016). It oversees global health enhancement, poverty alleviations, expansion of educational facilities, and increased access to information technology. Bill Gates is the second wealthiest man on earth with a net worth of $102.4B acquired from Cascade Investments and annual revenue reports of Microsoft being $125.8B (Forbes, 2020). Overly, Gates is one of the most influential, wealthiest, and philanthropist personnel facilitating developmental and essential change globally. Gates authors three main books, namely The Road Ahead (1995), Business @ the Speed of Thought (1999), and How to Avoid a Climate Disaster (2020) (Lesinski, 2009).

Early Life

Bill Gates lived with his parents in Seattle, Washington, William Gates Sr., a senior lawyer and Mary Maxwell Gates an Executive in a national bank. Gates background was wealthy, as the parents worked in prominent job titles and had financial stability. At the age of 13, Gates attended Lakeside School, which acted as a preparation for his technological and computerized career and achievements. At the school he was introduced to computers, he self-taught on programming resulting in his first and most remarkable software development (Lesinski, 2009). His first computer program allowed people and users to play games with and against the computers, known as “Tic-Tac-Toe Game.” Gate worked at the Computer Center Corporation (CCC) Company, where he among other four students arranged computers and foraged bugs in the company’s computers in exchange for extra free time with computers to explore them (Eckard, 2019). Throughout this free time and access to computers, Gate was able to learn and train on source codes such as FORTRAN, Lisp, and Machine Code. In 1973, Gate joined Harvard, to study computer science, which was short-lived by an arising opportunity for Gate to explore his dreams and desires of coding and founding his company, today known as Microsoft Corporation (Lesinski, 2009).

Highlights, Significant Events, and Achievements

Bill Gates career journey is mostly influenced by his brilliant coding skills and development of the Microsoft Corporation, which makes him a pioneer of PC evolution, an achievement he holds. In 1976, Gates founded and established the most successful and largest technology as well as Computer Software Company in the world. While contracted by MITS, he helped develop BASICS operating system, a programming language widely used for their microcomputers known as Altair, which forms parts of his most celebrated achievements (Ilian, 2016). Microsoft Company finally had an immense breakthrough in 1980 when IBM approached Gates with similar propositions as those of MITS, to develop BASICS OS for their PC, as one of the leading manufacturers of computers, which formed a significant achievement in his career life. Microsoft designed Windows 95 a graphical OS, commonly used among personal computers, as it provided advanced graphical interfaces replacing the widely used OS with text interfaces. Over the years, Microsoft has designed updated and newer versions of graphical operating systems, including Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7, 8, and 10 (Gregersen, 2020). This development and sustainable improvements form a significant achievement in Gates career. Other accomplishments of Gates include being ranked as the richest man globally at 39, (Net worth $79.3B) and named as one of the youngest self-made billionaires at 31 (Eckard, 2019). Gates’ philanthropy works is another source of his achievements, which has impacted the world profoundly through the Foundation. Gates earned a Medal of Freedom in 2016, a notable, highest civilian held award, and distinguished for technological innovations (Eckard, 2019).

Leadership Style

As a CEO until 2008, Bill Gates had a primary responsibility in the development of Microsoft; where he stepped down to focus on philanthropy, in his private foundation (BBC, 2020).  As a CEO, Gates exhibit both leadership and managerial traits that result in praises and criticism. Research shows that Gates presents numerous leadership styles situationally dependent. Dominant forms explained makes Gates an autocratic, delegate, and transformational leader with achievement-oriented managerial traits (Mulla, 2014). Colleagues and executives describe Gates as a competitor who stubbornly pursues objectives and achievements. As a transformational leader, he is continuously evolving, been described as a leadership legend for always helping others pursue career development and personal growth (Rampton, 2016). In Microsoft, he is described as mostly an autocratic and delegate leader who made decisions that resulted in litigations, was unreachable, competitive, and made decisions without the consent of subordinates. As a delegate leader, Gates, in some situations, turned over the decision-making responsibility to subordinates.

Conclusion and Examples

Personality and Leadership

Bill Gates is a legendary and magnate in the world with activities, businesses, and decisions that form the basis for his fame, success, and criticism. Research shows that Gates is calculative, narcissist, a leader of people, lacks empathy, pragmatic, temperamental, has a firm conviction, and charismatic. As identified, Gates integrates leadership styles depending on situations at hand, which provides a diverse perception of his personality and leadership skills (Mulla, 2014). Gates is a leader of people, whose transformational leadership style is enhanced. For instance, through his philanthropic work and foundation, he is committed to promoting equality, poverty alleviation, disease elimination, and increased development globally, to mention a few. However, though many people follow Gates, they are emotionally detached in extension to a lack of product emotional attachment. This brings about traits such as narcissism, lack of empathy or impulsiveness, calculative, and power-motivated traits that establish charisma. In an instance with Job, while Microsoft developed an OS for IBM, Gates was accused by Jobs of stealing the opportunity and being unfair (Isaacson, 2011). However, Gates remained calm, watched Jobs as he outburst with anger, and replied in a relaxed and undisturbed voice. Gates said, “I’m good at when people are emotional; I’m kind of less emotional.” (Isaacson, 2011). This concludes that Gates’ primary aim is more of goal achievement-oriented rather than people influencing or cordial relationship building.

Courage and Moral Leadership

Bill Gates is recognized globally for his achievements, success, and philanthropic works. Gates is described as both confident and a socially inept leader lacking confidence. However, many scholars and communication theorists point out his inability to maintain eye contact with people, poor public speaking skills, with a timid head posture (Morgan, 2012). In addition, he exhibited a lack of confidence in his childhood, which he covered by striving to win and acquire power that would create a perfect image of self-believe and confidence. Moral leadership in Gates is subjective and situation-oriented, similarly to the difference in his leadership styles. Gates has a firm conviction and philosophy seen through the philanthropist works that profoundly strengthen his moral righteousness (Mulla, 2014). Gates stepped down as CEO from his dream and envisioned life’s work to oversee global health enhancement, poverty alleviations, expansion of educational facilities, and increased access to information technology. This shows he leads to serve, which people should idolize him for setting to change the world for the best by helping people achieve and realize their full potential. Secondly, Gates dropped from Harvard to realize his visualized dream of all families having computers, which is morally subjective. Still, according to utilitarianism ethical theory, if the results benefit the larger group, it is ethically correct (Stanberry, 2018). Moreover, Gates is said to make ruthless business decisions and practices as well as bending regulation policies shaped by his competitive spirit that has resulted in being for the good of many people. This instance further extends the utilitarianism argument, showing how Gates moral leadership is subjective and situation-oriented.

Culture, Values, and Communication

Gates’ values and culture include hard work, maximized success, empowered vision, and giving back to the community. He believes in not only brilliance or talent but also a combination of smart working and effective conscious, and for this reason, Gates hires and elects talented and brilliant employees in the company (Mulla, 2014). Gates’ wealthy and stable background shapes his competitive spirit, as work alcoholic parents and grandparents characterize the family culture. Gates’ parents are success and achievement-oriented with high profile job ranks, whose culture shaped and fostered the successful Bill Gates we have today. For instance, when his family hosted business meetings and dinners during his childhood, his father allowed him to attend and listen (Isaacson, 2011). That environment and success family-culture was developed in Gates since then until today. Gates’ Foundation, personal donations, and philanthropic activities cultivate a culture of servant and moral leadership principles as well as humanitarian, generous, and altruistic values.

Scholars and the public, mainly due to his non-empathetic and narcissistic personality, have criticized Bill Gates’s communication skills. A communication coach describes Gates as lacking effective public speaking skills. His speeches are laden with statistical jargon that is not appealing to the public and has a timid head posture during public appearances and videos (Morgan, 2012). In a report from Gate’s employees, they described him to be impatient and a poor listener. However, his speeches and articulation are clear, logical, and of integrity.

Motivation and Empowerment

Motivation and empowerment support and define why individuals behave in a particular manner. Bill Gates’s source of motivation includes the family-cultivated achievement-oriented culture, his vision, winning, and competitive spirit and nature. These motivations can be categorized into power, achievement, and affiliation motives (Mulla, 2014). Gates’ primary aim is more of goal achievement-oriented rather than people influencing or cordial relationship building. Besides, Gate envisioned every family owning and using computers and Microsoft’s software, as well as solving people’s problems. In the Times magazine, Gate is described as a man who views the world as a broken system with ineffective and irrational applications that require debugging (TED, 2009). This description describes an achievement-motivated person. Gates’ success and achievement-oriented family-culture and parents with high profile job ranks shaped and fostered the successful Bill Gates we have today. Power motivation is seen in Gates’ competitive and winning spirits. Gates is described as an example of power dominance in the corporate world. His calculative and winning personality strives to provide dominance and maximize the company’s competitive advantage. Microsoft is the channel Gates uses to extend his winning streaks, as the company offers families with computers and solve world problems by debugging the broken and infected systems (Mulla, 2014). Still, it also dominates the market (92%), leads in market shares in the technological industry, and enjoys a technological and innovation leadership award. Gates is also one of the top three richest men on earth today having been awarded a Freedom Medal in technological and innovation leadership. These instances portray power motivation; however, his affiliation motives are insignificant, as Gates’ primary aim is more of goal achievement-oriented rather than people influencing or cordial relationship building (Mulla, 2014). When ranking his motivation and empowerment using the three motives, Gates’ achievement motivations rank first followed by power motives, and finally, affiliation motives.

Power and Influence

Gates is a leader of people through his philanthropic life, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, net worth, Microsoft Corporation, and his published books. Gates is committed to promoting equality, poverty alleviation, disease elimination, and increased development globally, through which he has acquired many followers. However, though many people follow Gates, his limited affiliation motivation, and minimal cordial relationship building, his influence is emotionally detached. Gates commands much power globally as described by his power motivation, as well as, competitive and winning spirit (Mulla, 2014). Gates is defined as an example of power dominance in the corporate world. Microsoft is the channel Gates uses to extend his winning streaks, as the company provides families with computers and solve world problems by debugging the broken and infected systems (Mulla, 2014). Still, it also dominates the market, leads in market shares in the technological industry, and enjoys a technological and innovation leadership award. Being one of the top three richest men on earth named one of the youngest self-made billionaires, and an author of three books extends Gates’ influence in the world. Many individuals, including me, are motivated to read his books to acquire insights and entrepreneurial advice, besides; he is a role model to many and is idolized globally.

Vision and Strategic Direction

Bill Gates, since his childhood, envisioned every family owning and using computers and Microsoft’s software, as well as solving people’s problems. Today, that dream and vision are attained and achieved, as seen through his successful company, leadership, and power dominance in the industry, as well as, his Foundation and philanthropist works. Gates solves people’s daily problems, especially in the documenting and connecting, in a digitalized and globalized world. Strategic decisions and plans accompanied the clarity of his vision. Computers are affordable; they are widely used in families; Microsoft commands market dominance, and maximum efficiency among the users is attained (Mulla, 2014). Gate’s motivations are also part of the strategic plan, which seems to be achieved as he is a magnate, one of the top richest man on earth, and has power dominance. More importantly, Gates developed strategic decisions such as leaving Harvard and starting his company to achieve his vision, among other choices he made while the CEO to ensure the survival and sustainability of his vision.

References

BBC. (2020, March 13). Bill Gates steps down from Microsoft board to focus on philanthropy. Retrieved from BBC News: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51883377

Eckard, S. (2019). Bill Gates: Biography of a Business Legend and Philanthropist. Independently Published.

Forbes. (2020). Today’s Winners and Losers. Retrieved from THE REAL-TIME BILLIONAIRES LIST: https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#4f0554833d78

Gregersen, E. (2020). Windows OS. Retrieved from Encyclopaedia Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/technology/Windows-OS

Ilian, G. (2016). Bill Gates: The Life and Business Lessons of Bill Gates. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

Isaacson, W. (2011). Steve Jobs. London: Little Brown.

Lesinski, J. M. (2009). Bill Gates: Entrepreneur and Philanthropist. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books.

Morgan, N. (2012). Bill Gates and the head posture—can you get away with it? Retrieved from Public Words: http://publicwords.typepad.com/nickmorgan/2012/02/bill-gates-and-the-head-posture-can-you-get-away-with-it.html

Mulla, T. S. (2014). Leader Motives, Impression Management, and Charisma: A Comparison of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. SAGE Journals of Management and Labor Studies.

Rampton, J. (2016, September 9). How Bill Gates Became a Leadership Legend. Retrieved from The Entrepeneur: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/250607

Stanberry, S. M. (2018). Business Ethics. OpenStax.

TED. (2009). Bill Gates: Philanthropist. Retrieved from Technology, Engineering and Design: http://www.ted.com/speakers/bill_gates.html