CEO Characteristics and Corporate Performance

This assignment delves into the impact of CEO traits and leadership styles on corporate performance. It examines various factors influencing CEOs, including compensation structures, gender representation, and the influence of economic conditions. The analysis investigates how these characteristics shape management decisions, organizational effectiveness, and ultimately, business success.

Running head: CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP VALUE 1
SUBJECT:
MGT536 – Leadership – A Critical Perspective
LECTURE
Suzanna Mahinder
ASSESSMENT No:
A3
WORD COUNT:
3262
ASSESSMENT QUESTION:
Identify three ‘interviews’ or biographical accounts of Australian CEOs, business or third sector
leaders from the Australian news media, a professional management journal or management-
related magazine. Justify your selection.
Analyze these cases, and from a critical perspective, compare and contrast:
a) The ways in which each leader is constructed as a leader by the accounts;
b) How the leaders describe their conceptualization of leadership;
c) How each leader conceptualizes success through their leadership.
Critically evaluate how each leader’s practice of leadership impacts the success of their
organization, using relevant theoretical perspectives you have covered during your study of
MGT536.
Identify organizational issues one of these three leaders is facing. Drawing on current leadership
research (from the last five years) what advice would you offer this leader to assist them in
addressing these issues?
Finally, draw conclusions from your entire critical analysis, and make recommendations about
how relevant theories and research can assist leaders to fulfill their role.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP VALUE 2
LEADERSHIP, TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE, AND ORGANIZATIONAL
SUCCESS:
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The businesses in the Australia have been facing various changes especially because of the stiff
market competition. In order to succeed in the business world, one should be creative and
innovative. This requires that the business leaders should be on the front line in initiating the
strategies to meet the various challenges. Different leadership theories produce different results,
and therefore there is no specific theory which guarantees success. This report analyzes the
leadership styles of three Australian Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) to assess how their
theories impact on the performance of the organizations. This is through analyzing the leadership
theory of Richard Goyder - Wesfarmers, Ken Mackenzie - Amcor Limited, and Andrew
Mackenzie - Billiton Group. The analysis reviewed that although they differed in their modes of
leadership, their conceptualization of leadership and profit maximization equaled. The CEO has
an obligation to set the conditions necessary for success and initiate them. The leaders should
assess the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities of the business and also understand the
followers. This means that a leader will have sufficient education background and work
experience.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP VALUE 3
Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Aim..................................................................................................................................................4
SELECTING AND ASSESSING THE CEOs................................................................................5
Ways Each Leader Conceptualizes Success through Their Leadership......................................5
How These Leaders Describe Their Conceptualization of Leadership.......................................7
How Each Leader Conceptualizes Success through Their Leadership.......................................8
Critical Evaluation of How Each Leader’s Practice of Leadership Impacts the Success of Their
Respective Organizations............................................................................................................9
Identification of Organizational Issues faced by Ken Mackenzie.............................................11
Advice to the Leader on How to Address These Issues............................................................11
Conclusion and Recommendations................................................................................................12
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................13

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP VALUE 4
LEADERSHIP, TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE, AND ORGANIZATIONAL SUCCESS:
A CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Introduction
The CEOs are very important in determining the progress of the company. This means that they
ought to have diverse and intense skills of leadership since they deal with employees and clients
of different backgrounds. However, the CEO position is quite challenging, and this necessitates a
series of dismissals which cost a company billions of dollars if a CEO is not effective. It is also
discouraging for the directors who put more efforts in scrutinizing candidates to anoint the
appropriate CEOs in their companies. Therefore, the position requires one to be focused on
achieving a lot of success and maximizing profits. The big companies in Australia for example,
have been able to attain the topmost position in the country and the world at large because of the
good leadership got from their leading CEOs. This paper features the CEOs of Wesfarmers,
Amcor Limited and Billiton Group namely; Richard Goyder, Ken Mackenzie and Andrew
Mackenzie respectively, as some of the largest companies in Australia and their leadership styles
and how they have impacted on the progress of the company.
Aim
This report aims to analyze the leadership of three Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of
Australian companies to assess their leadership theories and how leader performance can be
improved to enhance organizational performance.
1. This report will compare and contrast the leadership approaches of three Australian CEOs
and identify how each leader's approach has influenced the organizational output and
analyze the challenge faced by one of the CEOs. An effective leader should understand
the organization and its structure to identify the opportunities available for exploitation
and initiate proper directions and inspiration. This requires a leader to have a
professional background which includes education and work experience.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP VALUE 5
SELECTING AND ASSESSING THE CEOs
2. The CEOs. The three CEOs selected for this analysis include:
a. Richard Goyder – Wesfarmers – Australia, 1993 having worked in several
commercial roles. He was the General Manager for three years before being elected
as the Managing Director in 1999. He became the firm’s Chief Financial Officer in
2004 and assumed the position of Chief Executive Officer in June 2005. He was a
leader who believed that the future of the company should be far much better than the
current state and directed his efforts in making things work more easily.
b. Ken Mackenzie - Amcor Limited - 2002 as the Deputy Managing Director. In 2005,
he assumed the CEO’s position whereby he was keen to ensure that every occurrence
would not just happen and disappear but rather he would learn great lessons to help
him advance his ways of handling situations in future.
c. Andrew Mackenzie - Billiton Group - 1983 as vice president. In 2003, he joined Rio
Tinto as the Financial Manager of the industrial minerals division until in 2007 when
he became the CEO succeeding Marius Kloppers. He had expert communication
skills that enabled him to appear mostly in the news media, and this helped him
advertise his company to a great extent making his clients attain more confidence in
the company and the products.
Ways Each Leader Conceptualizes Success through Their Leadership
Wesfarmers is one of the biggest companies whose CEO is Richard Goyder and whose
leadership landed the company many miles ahead than anyone would ever imagine. Under his
leadership, the company was transmuted into a diverse organization from a relatively small
farmers’ co-operative standing in the top 50 companies in Australia in a span of 10 years. The
company had a market share of around $26 million when Richard took over the leadership
mantle in 2003. The company rose up to past one billion dollar market share before he stepped
down making it among the largest private companies employing more than 300,000 people. This
was a significant move in the company under his leadership which made him become a great and
prominent CEO whose legacy would be remembered and felt for generations to come. His
financial goals were far much ahead of his years, and his business mentality was quite excellent.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP VALUE 6
Ken Mackenzie as the CEO of Amcor Limited from 2005 has extensive experience both in the
executive and global leadership due to his deeply strategic approach. This company is a
packaging company has operations in over 40 countries. The 23 years of career in the packaging
company gave him extensive experience regarding all the business segments of the Amcor in all
the emerging and developed markets in Asia, Europe, America, and Australia. He has initiated
packaging sustainability and led the board in informing the entire market about the sustainability
of packaging. This has been done through various means including participation in the industry
forums like the Sustainable Packaging Coalition. Working with the suppliers and customers also
ensures that the packaging sustainability has been considered from design to end-of-life.
Through his leadership skills, he has ensured the safety of the workplace which forms one of the
greatest concerns for the employees. The CEO gears towards achieving a workplace of zero
injuries. Occasionally, some incidents of serious injuries may be experienced in the workplace
which makes the CEO to take the initiative to learn from the incident and initiate proper
measures to ensure that a similar case ceases to occur.
Andrew Mackenzie has been the CEO of the Billiton Group for the last five years which made
him become an expertise in the complex corporate and risk management, advisory work and
solving disputes. He was involved in the trusted advisor with the clients from Australia globally.
He possesses industry knowledge and technical excellence. This has enabled him to work closely
with customers on some complex and significant criminal investigations and civil disputes in
Australia mostly in resources and energy, telecommunications and financial sectors.
Based on the previous pattern of leadership and approaches, Andrew is able to classify situations
and compare them with different ways of approaches so as to determine the best approach to a
business situation. His listening skills are quite excellent, and he gives a chance to his followers
to speak their feelings, complains and submits reports. He expresses attentiveness or expressing
excitement when listening to a follower. Andrew observes how the boards work differently as a
result of the historical context of their implementation and achievement is very high. He said that
as a leader, he always has the answers at hand to the questions he asks the board and the
employees but asking them is a way to ensure that they know and do what is expected of them.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP VALUE 7
How These Leaders Describe Their Conceptualization of Leadership
As the CEO of Wesfarmers, Goyder watched over the agriculturally focused cooperative's
transmutation to retail, excavating multinational which makes the Australia's biggest private
sector workforce to boast. During his leadership, he has made the nation afford a big turnover by
fighting against political self-interest groups and safely navigating the troubled waters of WA
Inc. He also appreciates the role of the talented people in the company as useful ingredients
alongside the suggested systems. One secret he holds is a generational alteration of employees
whereby the younger and more trained employees are recruited to join the older employees or the
retired ones or even the incompetent employees to ensure a continuous and a sure business
success. His leadership skills make him foresee the potential in the farmers' co-operative of
becoming an exceedingly powerful group as well as having numerous diversified streams of
business. The investment potential in the Wesfarmers collection motivated him as a business
person and also identified a means to improve the morale of the staff.
The report delivered on 2013 for Amcor Limited's Annual General Meeting indicated that the
company had achieved a 15% reduction in the emission of GHG and a 10% reduction in water
usage under Ken's leadership. This meant that the CEO was determined to secure an
environment-friendly working place which also promoted the health of the employees and the
public in general. His leadership skills were geared to engaging with the shareholders, and other
individuals in a quest get to know their perspective in a better way and to create long-term value
for them. A report said that his leadership had been worthwhile which contributed extraordinarily
to create a further development opportunity to the company.
Andrew uses the profit-arithmetic approach (PA) whereby he operates on the basis of processing
information and data through a mental process so as to be able to differentiate between the profit
levels and those that are not. This approach which relies mostly on the mind of the individual
makes the CEOs to base their decision-making processes on the possibility of making profits
rather than the image of the company. This means that he relies mostly on his knowledge of the
company's strengths, weaknesses, resources and the company in general to make informed
decisions and would sometimes depend on his sense of business especially when the level of

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP VALUE 8
uncertainty is quite high. Andrew believes that a "sense of business" is quite vital and that it
helps him a great deal since he meets some of the situations which would be new to him such
that he has no previous similar cases to base his decisions on. This necessitates him to call his
minds into a meeting and come up with legit solutions based on the situation at hand.
How Each Leader Conceptualizes Success through their Leadership
Goyder said that he made it easier to do most of the things in future. He has ensured that the
culture of the company is transparent between the board and the senior management such that
information would not be filtered or altered anyhow without prior consent. He led the process of
breaking down the business and putting it into a smaller divisional structure which is now the
current operation making it easier to manage and oversee job performance.
Apart from other qualifications, Goyder is one leader with a good financial management
background which makes him win the trust of many clients both locally and internationally. He
strives a lot to be transparent in all the transactions he made. These include the deals he booked
and lost, the product plans, the amount of capital raised and the financial statements summary is
presented in a clear manner. This ensures that no employee would complain about not knowing
whatever was going on in the company or had no information regarding the financial position of
the company and its progress. Goyder would only not disclose the information about the
personnel re-org details and the payroll because such would be a personal information which
needs privacy. This is a necessary effort to ensure that every employee knows how important
they are in the company and how their efforts matter in positioning the company to higher
heights of performance. He is also a leader who knows how to deal with problems as soon as
they arise. As realized by the researchers, it is not possible to respect or trust a leader who in case
of a crisis just lets the problematic person hang on, Goyder is always keen to address any
operational issue in a fast and efficient manner before it bears numerous disadvantages. He is fair
and consistent in his problem-solving hence building the followers' trust since he is a mindful
and action leader.
In his efforts, Ken Mackenzie showed strong leadership qualities by navigating the firm through
a financial crisis in making some critical decisions to improve the returns of the shareholders.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP VALUE 9
This enabled him to clean up the messes caused by the previous CEOs. In a span of four years in
leadership, he made a significant reduction in costs across the business and a reducing down of
the assortment through the partition of South 32. His financial intelligence is also outstanding
hence earning him the trust of the clients the employees. He was able to understand the financial
position and financial crisis and always worked hard to come up with a way of settling them. He
ensured that the company had zero debts most of the times and in case there were some, the gap
between the debts and the profits earned would be so big to lay down the company. He owned
the budgeting skills that helped him in avoiding unnecessary debts and able to manage the
company needs in an appropriate manner.
Based on the previous pattern of leadership and approaches, Andrew is able to classify situations
and compare them with different ways of approaches so as to determine the best approach to a
business situation. His listening skills are quite excellent, and he gives a chance to his followers
to speak their feelings, complains and submits reports. He expresses attentiveness or expressing
excitement when listening to a follower.
Critical Evaluation of How Each Leader’s Practice of Leadership Impacts
the Success of Their Respective Organizations
Ken Mackenzie, had different approaches to leadership whereby he would be focused to
complete the required tasks, accomplish the company's objectives, maintain the current situation
of the firm and motivate his followers through agreements. This form of leadership is known as
transactional leadership which also allows the followers to fulfill their desired interests, reduce
work anxiety and focus on achieving the goals of the organization. He believed that his
leadership should gratify both individual needs and the goals of the organization. His leadership
was characterized by using his powers to give incentives to his followers so as to motivate them
to deliver the best efforts of the organization. He was focused on ensuring that every day-day
activities flowed smoothly rather than looking into guiding the company to attain a proper
market position. He loved team-building activities as he believed they are good ways of
understanding the individual talents of his followers. Having to engage in these teams also
enabled him to gather more information from them as they would feel free when working
together as teams. This also encouraged collaboration with the employees at different levels of

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP VALUE 10
work which enabled initiating change which helped a lot to improve performance and provide
opportunities for professional and individual enhancement. This plays a great role in encouraging
the employees and improving their job morale as they are meant to perceive work as a means of
advancing themselves rather than just a means of getting pay. Richard Goyder was good at
developing cohesion with his employees by calling regular meetings which would enable him to
ask the employees questions of concern and enable him to get a relevant feedback. This would
help him identify the gaps that need to be filled and the weaknesses that needed to be dealt with
so as to keep the firm in profit-generating position and also maximize the outputs. He was able to
handle all the details and points of concern in a quest to develop a strong, detailed output in the
fastest means possible and earn a market reputation hence improving the image of the firm. In
conjunction to this, he would not hesitate to keep his employee's needs on the front line so as to
motivate them to maintain high standards of productivity. His team-building skills enabled him
to achieve more ambitious goals and achieve a rapid success due to his strong visions. He
possessed the ability to design and communicate relevant decisions and change needed to
implement strategic policies. He had excellent communication skills, and this helped him a lot in
maintaining his good relationship with the other employees. One of the skills he possessed is the
communication skills. He was able to communicate more in a visible and active manner when
crises arose in the company. He was able to put himself in a direct contact with the people of the
press and was able to contact news conferences.
Andrew Mackenzie was able to communicate in public and having his views and decisions aired
out to the public by the news people was a good catalyst to make the clients more confident of
their products, and also the employees developed more trust and felt good being associated with
him. When delivering a presentation, he was keen to ensure that he does it perfectly so as to
avoid boring the audience. His presentation was one that no one would ever like to miss since he
used to create jovial moods mixed up with humor to capture the attention of the audience. This
skill also made him get the followers understand his message, analyze it well and also get to act
on whatever he said. His ability to understand body language would also help him get to recruit
the right candidates for the right positions since during interviews, he would be able to read the
body language of the interviewees and understand it making him assess the honesty of the
candidate. He would also tell whether whatever he is saying is making the audience comfortable
or he is hurting them and whether the followers were confident with what they are saying. This

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP VALUE 11
would be advantageous especially during negotiations, conducting meetings and delivering
speeches. However, he lacked the listening skills which are very vital in any form of
communication.
Identification of Organizational Issues faced by Ken Mackenzie
Despite the great leadership qualities that these three leaders possessed, Ken had a weakness
which afforded him some drawbacks. The leader is less in realistic optimism which means that
he would daydream about innovative ideas which sounds great in theory or have his heads in the
clouds while in reality, they lack world application. This makes him be curious about the future,
and this blurs him from concentrating much on the current performance and the current issues.
This makes him to lack confident in whatever he was doing for the company and unable to face
many of the challenges that came his way and confront the difficulties faced by the company.
Advice to the Leader on How to Address These Issues
I would recommend that Ken combines an honest evaluation of the potential challenges of the
companies with a positive attitude. This is to say that as he imagines of taking the company to
greater achievements, he should also think of the possible challenges on the way and have a good
mechanism for overcoming or handling them. For example, in cases of crisis, the CEO should
embrace the situation with no fear knowing that every obstruction has got a way out regardless of
the magnitude of the difficulty. He should maintain the events in proportion and should make
intensive efforts to be able to celebrate his successes and those of others to expand his minds and
get tips on how to achieve more from them.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP VALUE 12
Conclusion and Recommendations
Generally, the work of a CEO entails having the ability to lead tactfully and embracing different
leadership skills to become effective as the success of any organization lies in the leadership
skills of the CEO. The application of leadership theories by the three CEOs helpful in enhancing
the success of the companies they manage. The trait theory of leadership argument that different
leaders share similar traits which instinctively help them achieve organizational success. The
ability to possess innate skills will help the leaders lead more effectively with the proper
understanding of all the employees under their management. The behavioral theories of
leadership focus on how these three leaders behave. The three leaders exemplary show
commitment and expect cooperation from the subordinates and this enhances their democratic
nature of leadership under which every employees idea is appreciated. This paper has discussed
three CEOs of the prominent Australian companies and their approaches to leadership which
have enabled them to place the firms in a recognizable position internationally. The three leaders
were all geared towards success and continuous development of their companies. However, their
approaches in leadership were significantly different. Richard Goyder has been the CEO of
Wesfarmers whereby he has made it grow from a small company to become among the top most
companies in Australia based on his leadership skills. Further, the existing situations in these
companies force the leaders to apply contingency theories of leadership. The fact that no best
skill or style of leadership helps solve a problem, the use of path-goal theory and transactional
leadership is required. Among them is the ability to remain transparent in his undertakings which
helped him identify any possible path for further success. Ken Mackenzie also led packaging
company called Amcor Limited Company as the CEO for ten years where he left a mark of
having achieved a zero-injury working environment. His financial intelligence made him also
achieve a zero debt state of the company. Andrew Mackenzie of Billiton Group made use of his
company knowledge to make decisions which would maximize profit margins. However, his
efforts to make the company shine the more, he would make unrealistic decisions at times which
would affect the current performance of the company. Allowing himself to have a way of dealing
with possible challenges would help him a lot to achieve more success both now and in future.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP VALUE 13
Therefore, the three leaders must employ the use of trait, contingency, and behavioral theories of
leadership in order to reap the fruits of success. The leaders must lead democratically by valuing
the ideas of all subordinates staff since this motivates and improves their morale. Further, the
leaders must learn how to understand different skills, knowledge, and expertise of their
employees in order to facilitate the division of labor in accordance with each employee’s area of
specialization. Further, the three leaders must learn how to make quick, accurate, and proper
decisions that affect workplace operations guided by the contingency theories of leadership.
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