Three Australian Business Leaders Assignment

Running head: THREE AUSTRALIAN BUSINESS LEADERS
Three Australian Business Leaders
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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THREE AUSTRALIAN BUSINESS LEADERS
Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
Three interviews of three Australian CEOs from business sector:............................................2
Laura McBain:...........................................................................................................................3
David Ingle Thodey:..................................................................................................................4
Joseph Joyce:..............................................................................................................................6
a) The ways in which each leader is constructed as a leader by the accounts:..........................8
b) The description conceptualisation of leadership by the three leaders:..................................9
c) Conceptualisation of success through the leadership of the three leaders:............................9
Organisational issues faced by the three leaders:.....................................................................10
Recommendations to address the issues:.................................................................................11
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................11
References:...............................................................................................................................13

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THREE AUSTRALIAN BUSINESS LEADERS
Introduction:
The aim of the paper is to critically analyse the leadership approaches of three
business leaders in work related environment and provide recommendations to improve their
leadership qualities. The aim has been fulfilled by study of three interviews and biographies
of three eminent CEOs in Australia. They three CEOs studied are Laura McBain, former
CEO, Bellamy, David Thodey, former CEO, Telstra and Joseph Joyce, CEO, Qantas. The
paper opens with a brief discussion on the leadership qualities of these three leaders, which
provides ground to the subsequent sections. The second section studies their leadership
accountability to the success of the organisations they lead. The second section studies their
conceptualisation of leadership and their concept of success to them. The next section
revolves around pointing out an issue in one of the three leaders and recommending ways to
rectify this issue.
Three interviews of three Australian CEOs from business sector:
Jones (2015) points out that the leadership styles of the Australian CEOs, their power,
their leadership experience and their ways of dealing with challenges make them subject to
various interviews. The CEOs of the business organisations in Australia especially the
multinational companies play very significant role in leading their organisations in the global
market. While exploring the importance of the leadership functions of the CEOs, House et al.
(2013) state that the leadership qualities of the CEOs during tough market situation form the
base of the market positions companies enjoy. The three very famous and successful CEOs
from Australia are Laura McBain, former CEO, Bellamy’s Organic, David Thodey, former
CEO, Telstra and Joseph Joyce, CEO, Qantas Airlines.

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THREE AUSTRALIAN BUSINESS LEADERS
Laura McBain:
Laura McBain was the former CEO of Bellamy and the present managing director of
Primary Opinion Limited, the owner of Maggie Beer Products Private Limited. Her interview
in one of the Australian daily reveals that she has a rich experience of working as an
accountant and then held a strategic position at Telstra. Her interviews in the leading dailies
in Australia reveal that her transformational leadership style led Bellamy Organic to
expand into new markets like China. As a corporate leader she had several leadership
qualities like power to influence. Her influential power was evident by the fact that the share
prices of Bellamy fell on announcement of her resignation as the CEO. Another Ausralian
daily pointed out her strong influential power as a leader when she announced to join Primary
Opinion, the holding company Maggie’s Beer. The shareholders of the company expected
rise in the share prices by forty eight percent (Clark, 2017). This rise in share price of
Primary Opinion showed her fame and influence as a corporate leader. Laura McBain was
awarded with the Telstra Tasmanian Business Woman of the Year 2013. This award proved
her success in leading the organisation, Bellamy towards business excellence
(bellamysorganic.com.au, 2017). Her decision making power led to Bellamy becoming self
reliant about selling its own products. Her leadership put an end to the years of dependent of
Bellamy on international supermarket chains like Coles and Woolworths.
Interviews and articles show that Laura’s leadership at Bellamy had both positive and
negative impacts on the financial position of the company. Her strategic decisions like
expansion of Bellamy into the booming Asian markets like China gained the support of the
shareholders. This was evident by the rising of share price from $1 to $1.30. The share price
of Bellamy further rose as high as $ 15.48.
Laura McBain played a crucial role in placing Bellamy in a strong international
position but her leadership also saw several failures. However, one can point out that the first