When business leadership is the problem
Lack of vision, overconfidence, haste or ignorance are behind a few stories of failure where the main ingredient is a precarious business leadership. While it's true that many of the leaders listed below are more notable for the sound decisions made throughout their careers, it's also true that their mistakes made the headlines.
Take note of the failures of business leadership that should never be made in your company:
- VolksWagen: Martin Winterkorn, the company's CEO, didn't like to lose. A demanding boss who abhorred failure fostered a culture of fear. His style business leadership authoritarian climate, fuelled by the setting of ambitious targets. Thus, when developing the diesel engine that became so famous during 2015, its technology did not meet the required emissions standards, Software was installed to pass tests, covering up the problem instead of solving it.. 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide quantify the magnitude of a mistake that could have been avoided.
- Microsoft: Bill Gates is a visionary and no one can doubt that. However, Ignoring some business areas and their competition weakened the effectiveness of their business leadership model., in the late nineties. It was in that decade that Google replaced MSN Search as the preferred search engine for most internet users. Thus, Although Microsoft introduced Bing in 2009, it has never managed to catch up with what was once not even a competitor..
- Apple: haste is not a good counsellor and, when it comes to business leadership, caution is the best ally. Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, made the mistake of launching Apple Maps in 2012 without ensuring the product was finished. Accuracy issues, a lack of basic points of interest, and poor image quality were just some of the problems users encountered.. The app's launch in that state caused confusion and anger among consumers, casting doubt on the brand's professionalism. Although, in this case, loyal customers continued to trust Apple despite the mistake, it should be noted that, in the case of other businesses, the ending would not have been so happy.
- Netflix: business leadership has to be aware that the customer has been placed at the centre of the business.. Reed Hastings learned this lesson in 2011 when he made a failed attempt to separate the DVD section of the company's streaming service, creating a separate site that he named Qwikster. Just one month was enough to announce the departure of 800,000 members who felt that the new policy reduced their flexibility and increased the complexity of Netflix's offering. This confirmed to them that, although the new website was launched as a way to make it more convenient for users to access DVDs, they had forgotten to consult the customer when making this decision.
Surely mistakes like these have no place in your business leadership style if you learn from them without going through the experiences these CEOs lived through firsthand.
