Contemporary Leadership: Analysing Changes with Bill Gates & Hastings

This essay examines the changes in leadership approach between 2000 and 2019, focusing on the evolving role of leaders beyond profit maximization to include social responsibilities, workforce diversity, and fostering innovation. By analyzing the leadership styles of Bill Gates, former Chairperson of Microsoft, and Reed Hastings, Jr., CEO of Netflix, the essay illustrates how leaders now prioritize sustainability, employee retention through inclusive policies like extended parental leave and unconscious bias training, and decentralized decision-making to drive competitive advantage. These changes reflect a broader trend towards creating a positive social impact and ensuring long-term growth by adapting to the demands of a skilled and diverse workforce. Desklib offers a wealth of similar resources for students.

Contemporary
Leadership

Introduction
 The leadership approach has changed
substantially between the period of 2000 and
2019.
 There are new challenges faced by leaders
which are necessary to addressed through
effective leadership approach.
 The changes in the leadership approach within
a period of 2000 and 2019 will be analysed by
evaluating examples of two leaders.

Changes in Leadership
 Traditionally, leaders’ performance was
analysed based on their ability to generate
more profits for the company.
 In the past few decades, the role of leaders
have expanded and it is expected from them
that they will fulfil their social responsibilities
(Jaques, 2017).
 Leaders are focused on fulfilling social
responsibilities of companies rather than solely
focusing on profit maximisation.

Changes in Leadership
 This can be understand by the example of Bill
Gates who was acting as the Chairperson of
Microsoft.
 He was the chairperson of the company
between 2000 and 2014.
 In the beginning he was focused on profit
maximisation; however, he shifted his
leadership focus (Rampton, 2016).
 He started Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in
order to address major issues such as
healthcare, poverty and others.

Changes in Leadership
 Under his leadership, Microsoft also
implemented sustainability policies to fulfil its
social responsibilities.
 The company reduced its environmental impact
by reducing 75 per cent of carbon emissions
(Microsoft, 2019a).
 Another good example is Reed Hastings, Jr.,
CEO of Netflix, who is also focused on fulfilling
social responsibility of the company by reducing
carbon emissions and promoting development
of local communities.

Changes in Leadership
 Another major change in the leadership is
relating to management of workforce as the
demand of skilled and talented employees
increases.
 Leaders are focused on retaining experienced
and talented employees for a longer period of
time to achieve corporate goals (Saxena, 2014).
 Effective management of diversity is also
important for companies to make sure that they
promote innovation in the workplace.

Changes in Leadership
 Innovative business approach assists
companies in ensuring that they improve their
products, services and processes.
 Hastings always focus on promoting innovation
in the workplace by effective management of
diversity in the workplace.
 The success of Netflix relies on its innovative
ability to launch mail delivery and online
streaming service for its customers (Flegerman,
2019).

Changes in Leadership
 Netflix also offers 52 weeks parental leaves to
its customers as compared to 18 weeks given
by other technology companies (Molla, 2018).
 These policies are implemented under the
leadership of Hastings to effectively
management the employees.
 These policies increase retention of employees
while also ensuring that diversity is maintained
between parties.

Changes in Leadership
 While acting as the leader of Microsoft, Gates
has also implemented similar policies to
promote diversity and inclusion.
 70 thousand employees of the company has
completed Unconscious Bias training course
(Microsoft, 2019b).
 Furthermore, the company also provides flexible
working hours to its employees to retain them
in the workplace for a longer period of time.

Changes in Leadership
 Another major change is decentralisation of
decision making to increase involvement of
employees and lower level managers (Tidd,
2014).
 Bill Gates and Hastings have implemented
similar decision-making model to increase
effectiveness of their decisions.
 Effective changes in leadership provides a
competitive advantage to companies which
allow them to sustain their growth in adverse
market conditions.

Conclusion
 To conclude, the leadership role has changes
substantially between the period of 2000 and
2019.
 Successful leaders such as Bill Gates and Reed
Hastings, Jr. focuses on fulfilling social
responsibilities of companies, promoting
diversity and sustaining innovation in the
workplace.
 Compliance with these changes assist
companies in ensuring that they sustain their
profitability by generating a competitive
advantage.

References
 Flegerman, S. (2019) Netflix adds 9 million paying subscribers, but stock falls. [Online]
Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/17/media/netflix-earnings-q4/index.html
[Accessed 29/05/2019].
 Jaques, E. (2017) Requisite organization: A total system for effective managerial
organization and managerial leadership for the 21st century. Abingdon: Routledge.
 Microsoft. (2019a) Environmental sustainability. [Online] Available at:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/environmental-sustainability
[Accessed 29/05/2019].
 Microsoft. (2019b) Diversity and Inclusion. [Online] Available at:
https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/diversityandinclusion [Accessed 29/05/2019].
 Molla, R. (2018) Netflix parents get a paid year off and Amazon pays for spouses’
parental leave. [Online] Available at: https://www.vox.com/2018/1/31/16944976/new-
parents-tech-companies-google-hp-facebook-twitter-netflix [Accessed 29/05/2019].
 Rampton, J. (2016) How Bill Gates Became a Leadership Legend. [Online] Available at:
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/250607 [Accessed 29/05/2019].
 Saxena, A. (2014) Workforce diversity: A key to improve productivity. Procedia
Economics and
 Tidd, J. (2014) Conjoint innovation: Building a bridge between innovation and
entrepreneurship. International Journal of Innovation Management, 18(01), p.145.