Business is fraught with a wide range of challenges. These include poor performance to low employee morale. In the face of these challenges, businesses look to their leaders for direction. There are a number of business leaders who have demonstrated an exceptional ability to tackle challenges. Among these is Jack Dorsey. As the head of Twitter, he has implemented a number of strategies aimed at tackling the intense competition that the company faces from other social media platform. Arianna Huffington and Tim Cook are other leaders whose capacities to address challenges are remarkable.
In recent years, Twitter has suffered slow growth that has left its investors worried. While such other social media platforms have recorded impressive growth in user base, Twitter has struggled to attract new users (Bolton, 2015). Improving the fortunes of the company is the main challenge that Jack Dorsey has faced. He has been tasked with the unenviable mandate of turning the social media platform into one that appeals to users and competes effectively against such other tools as Facebook. To tackle this challenge, Dorsey proposed overhauling the social media platform. For example, he suggested that the company should expand the 140-character limit that imposes (Bolton, 2015). This suggestion has since been implemented. Twitter is also becoming more accessible to third-party developers to enhance its functionality. These efforts are intended to make Twitter easier to use and more responsive to the needs of users.
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Arianna Huffington has also encountered numerous challenges as the head of Huffington Post. A failed political bid is among these challenges (Vinnedge, 2010). She launched a gubernatorial campaign but failed to gain enough support. However, instead of being discouraged, she derived inspiration from this failure. She went on to set up Huffington Post which has managed to create a wide audience (Vinnedge, 2010). This failure has allowed her to become more resilient and dedicated. Huffington underscores the role that failure plays in fuelling future success. Tim Cook is another leader who has grappled with challenges. Sustaining the impressive growth that Apple has achieved is among Cook’s greatest challenges. There have been concerns that the company will be unable to continue to record the remarkable sales and revenue figures that it is accustomed to (Colvin, 2016). Cook has proven those who doubted his capacity to steer the company towards continued growth wrong. To achieve this, he has expanded Apple’s product line and led the company into new territories (Colvin, 2016). That Apple remains the world’s most valuable company indicates that these strategies are effective. Cook has demonstrated a remarkable ability to make tough decisions to move the company forward. He has rallied his employees to pursue ambitious growth objectives. In addition to addressing the practical challenges that their firms faced, the three leaders also solved ethical challenges. Tim Cook is known as a leader who honors the promises and stays accountable to stakeholders (Weinstein, 2017). Thanks to his approach, Apple has managed to navigate such complex and ethical issues as child labor at some of the plants in China which manufacture parts of the company’s products. On the other hand, Dorsey appears to focus on innovation to address the complex and ethical issues that Twitter faces. For example, to address the dwindling user numbers, he has spearheaded the creation of new functionalities such as Moments (Pastore, 2017). Remaining resilient in the face of hardship appears to be Huffington’s main strategy for addressing complex ethical issues. After suffering a defeat, she rose again and went on to establish a successful company.
Apart from complex situations, Cook, Huffington and Dorsey have also encountered ethical problems. Media independence is among the ethical issues that Huffington has grappled with. Recently, she joined the board of Uber. This raised concerns that her media company, Huffington Post would no longer offer a fair and unbiased coverage of Uber (Brueck, 2016). To allay these concerns, Huffington assured that Huffington Post and its writers would retain their independence and continue to offer balanced coverage. Huffington is clearly a leader who promotes the truth even when it goes against her personal interest. Ensuring that employees are motivated is perhaps the greatest ethical challenge that Dorsey has faced. To address this challenge, Dorsey has developed a culture that focuses on the welfare of his employees at Foursquare, another technology company that he heads (Levy, 2012). Dorsey clearly recognizes that employee welfare is at the center of business ethics and success can only be achieved when employees feel fulfilled and valued. As the head of the world’s largest company, Cook has definitely faced numerous ethical problems. The greatest of these challenges is the need to stand up for customers. Recently, the FBI instructed Apple to create a program that would allow it (FBI) to gain access. Cook refused to comply with this instruction arguing that it would be a violation of the rights of its customers (“Apple’s CEO takes”, 2016). Cook essentially made it clear that companies need to advocate for the rights of their clients even when they are threatened with legal action.
While there are differences in the strategies that the three leaders discussed above have implemented, some similarities are clear. The main common threat concerns the importance of audacity and courage. All the three leaders faced astronomical challenges and failures. Dorsey needed to revive Twitter’s dwindling fortunes while Arianna needed to recover from a personal tragedy. On the other hand, Cook faced the challenge of making Apple’s fire burn even brighter. These challenges are indeed daunting and frightening. However, the three leaders managed to address them and move their respective companies in new directions. The other common thread is that the three leaders appear to have ignored critics. They turned their back on those who felt that they could not tackle the challenges that they faced. Cook, Huffington and Dorsey represent the finest of American business leaders. Any leader who wishes to steer their organization towards growth should embrace the spirit that the three leaders have displayed. It is particularly important for business leaders to be resolute and committed in their decisions. They should disregard the gravity of the challenges that they face. Instead, they must join forces with other stakeholders to develop creative solutions.
References
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Bolton, D. (2015). Jack Dorsey: What are the Problems Facing Twitter’s New CEO?
Retrieved 28 th September 2017 from http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/jack-dorsey-twitter-ceo-losing-money-problems-a6680801.html
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