Mark Zuckerberg's Leadership and Stakeholder Management

Strategic Leadership and stakeholder management
MARK ZUCKERBERG
STUDENT NAME

P a g e | 1
Introduction
In this project, development, capability and achievement of Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of
Facebook, will be analysed who is also one of the youngest billionaires in the world. Most of
the people at this age struggles and try to make decisions regarding their career whereas Mark
Zuckerberg made his dream come true at an age of twenty-four. With innovative and
visionary quality, he has become one of the leading entrepreneurs in the world possessing a
self-made net worth of approximately US $ 71.5 billion (Biography.com , 2018). The success
of Facebook has made Zuckerberg gain immense popularity throughout the globe. However,
there were many struggles as well as pitfalls that came in the way to success for Zuckerberg,
but with efficient leadership trait and strong entrepreneurial quality, he was able to surpass all
of them (Astrum People website, 2018). The leader was even criticised many times by
stakeholders due to issues found in Facebook management which will be discussed further in
this report after analysing biography and leadership style adopted by Zuckerberg. Along with
it, this report will also make series of actionable recommendations for this leader so that he
remains successful in upcoming years without entailing stakeholder’s criticism.
Early Life
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg was born in 14th May, 1984 in White Plains of New York. He
belongs to a well-educated comfortable family and got raised in nearby village of Dobbs
Ferry. Edward Zuckerberg, Mark’s father ran a dental clinic that was attached to his home
while his mother Karen, who is also a psychiatrist used to work before giving birth to four
children: Mark, Randi, Donna, and Arielle (Biography.com , 2018). From a very tender age,
Zuckerberg developed keen interest in computers and technology and used Atari BASIC for
creating programs based on messages which he named as ‘Zucknet’. This program was used

P a g e | 2
by his father in dental clinic where the receptionist could inform about new patients to the
doctor without shouting across the room. Even, the rest of his family members along with his
friends used ‘Zucknet’ to communicate with each other.
Rise of Facebook
The concept about Facebook came into the mind of Zuckerberg in those days when he used to
study in Phillips Exeter Academy. The idea about publishing annual student directory where
headshot pictures of every student along with faculty members and staff was liked by
everyone. He named his concept as ‘Facebook’. However, at that time he had planned to
service students only within Ivy League as they were having issues in networking with each
other. Later, his idea was developed with other roommates to share this technology with
universities and schools. This approach of Zuckerberg shows his entrepreneurial quality as he
identified methods to transform initial idea into an opportunity. His passion to get connected
with other people with technological advancement tools assisted him throughout his early
struggles. And thus, an inception of a popular social media networking site was developed
with advanced marketing and business-related features (Vargas, 2010).
Mark Zuckerberg entrepreneurial orientation
The strong determination and visionary approach of Zuckerberg helped him to develop a
networking site that facilitates networking among people situated at different corners of the
globe and that too with minimum cost and availability of internet. His website not only
connects masses, but also assists small businesses and entrepreneurs who looks to elaborate
their contacts as well as promote their business in social sites (Walter, 2014). It can be noted
that Zuckerberg not only initiated an idea of creating personal website, but also adopted

P a g e | 3
business related features those are required by entrepreneurs before establishing an
organisation. He even adopted all-inclusive model related to entrepreneurial process
influenced by sociological, personal and environmental factors.
Personal Traits
Personality and personal traits are major components that assists and develops individuals to
achieve success. Personality is theoretically a sort of personal characteristics that influences
person’s behaviour through attitude and perpetual experience (Brusseau, 2012). In
Zuckerberg’s case, strong leadership, adjustment and agreeableness along with openness to
envisage dimensions can be seen. Zuckerberg showed his firm leadership quality since he
wanted to be a person in charge of his company among others. In one of the events mentioned
in Zuckerberg’s biography it was identified that he did not commit or accept twin Tyler and
Cameron Winklevoss’s business idea in which they tried to appoint Zuckerberg for building
social dating site which they named as ‘Harvard Connection’ (Biography.com , 2018). This
personality of Zuckerberg shows that he does not like to be dominated by others and
therefore he created his own site Facebook rather than working with Winklevoss brothers.
Agreeableness dimension involves those traits that determines whether the person is more
agreeable to social factors or not which can be seen in Zuckerberg as he loved spending time
with his friends. Adjustment dimension includes those traits that are related to emotional
stability in person (Tan, 2013). Zuckerberg showed that he does not have adjustment
personality as seen in one of the events when he created Facemash software. He felt upset for
a girl and hence created a software where students were compared to farm animals that
seemed unethical to others. Nevertheless, the idea generated through the software somehow
paved way for the initial idea about Facebook.com. High openness attitude of Zuckerberg led