Leadership, Innovation, and Strategy: A Management Perspective

This essay examines the pivotal role of leadership in fostering innovation and strategic management within organizations. It highlights how managers, acting as leaders, drive innovation to achieve competitive advantages in rapidly changing markets. The essay discusses various leadership roles, including strategist, representative, support body, and philosopher/guide, emphasizing the importance of these roles in effective decision-making. It also explores the significance of innovation in continuous development, responding to competition, and creating a unique selling proposition. Furthermore, the essay analyzes different leadership theories, such as autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire styles, and provides a real-world example of Elon Musk's leadership at Tesla. The conclusion underscores the necessity of adopting innovation and adapting leadership strategies to achieve organizational objectives and ensure long-term survival.

leadership and strategy
management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
“As organizations have recognized innovation as the critical gateway to gain competitive advantage
and maintain prosperity, managers are counted on to be leaders and champions of innovation”........3
Role of leaders- ...............................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................8
Books & Journal:.............................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Innovation have been always an integral part of business. With rapid changing of market, it
has become essential to focus on innovation so that goals and objectives are achieved in proper
manner. With help of innovation, it is easier to achieve integration and team work within the firm.
It is being considered as critical gateway so that competitive advantage is gained in most efficient
manner (Kharub, 2019). Managers are drivers of innovation who are responsible for handling all
the activities, functions, and operations of an entity. This essay gives a brief knowledge about
managers forming innovation, importance of innovation in enterprise, managers as leaders,
leadership theory and role of leaders. Managers are and leaders both are responsible for
accomplishing of mission and vision of company.
“As organizations have recognized innovation as the critical gateway to gain competitive advantage
and maintain prosperity, managers are counted on to be leaders and champions of innovation”
Competition is rising at rapid scale and which gives importance to the concept of innovation.
Market is wider and broader which reflects that there are many businesses of the same field. It is
difficult for organisation to survive or compete in market without implementing strategy or tactics.
Thus, managers act as a leader in firm and create creativity to deal with competitors or rivals in
appropriate manner. It has become necessary to create something innovative in business for
accomplishing goals. Many firms implement various strategies to compete with their rivals and
managers are to be considered as most integral part of a particular organisation. They help
companies to access to line of competency and get recognized firm in population.
Role of leaders-
Every leaders is heterogeneous in nature and accordingly they perform in enterprise. It is
necessary for them to be aware abut their roles so that they make decisions accordingly. Thus, some
of the roles are discussed below-
Strategist- Leaders in organisation act as strategist and they are responsible for handling
and managing as well as implementing of tactics. Whenever there is need of change at workplace or
in management leaders are always ready with new methods or approaches to enhance the
productivity of firm. Also, they assist in developing of ideas and thoughts to drives creativity at
workplace. With their level of experience & traits they are always ready to deliver a quick made
alternative option to management (Jabbar, 2017).
Representative- The leaders in firm act as representative in which they perform various task
such presenting of seminars, concerts, meetings etc. Furthermore, they also provide reason for

implementing of all these and communicate with clients or business partners. Main role of leader is
to communicate to public regarding the undertaken project, product, research or firm. They are
multi-tasking person who make organisations work in simpler way. They are sometimes also called
as public relation (PR).
Support body- In management there are different regions of employees and people who
work in entity. He act as support body in between the management and establish coordination as
well as corporation (Hayati, 2018). This is done through experience, skills and knowledge. This
results in examining of employees and their readiness to work in a firm. With leadership style, they
make ensures that mutual relationship is developed between both the parties.
Philosopher/ guide- They also are liable to guide and help employees or supervisors in
their work. As a philosopher they guide subordinates to carry out the given task in most effective
way. By using experience and intelligence they are able to assist personnel about plans, policies,
projects etc. He/she also help and play role of counsellor through which hey are able to solve
problems of subordinates in well organised manner (Kosfeld, 2020).
The above stated roles are essential which are needed to be examined in proper manner so
that leaders are able to carry out their work. Therefore, it is necessary to perform them so hat
decision making is done in appropriate way.
Importance of innovation
Creative and continuous development- By focusing on innovation, it will assist companies
in their continuous development as because of entry of many new businesses in market. Moreover,
it will give creative development to business by generation of new ideas & thoughts. Therefore,
with appropriate skills and level of expertise it will be easier to make development (Sparr, 2018).
Responding to competition- When innovation is adopted by enterprise, it is easier for entity
to respond to their rivals with their strategies. This assist in attracting of more subordinates to the
brand. It makes them aware about the changing scenarios & also examine future trends of market
for new change.
USP- It is also important because it give a unique selling price to the business as new and
innovate product are introduced in market. Moreover, this assist in targetting potential customer or
clients. Thus, it is easier to get recognized in frequent changing market which will be beneficial for
enterprise. By differentiating itself from other brands, firm are able to attract more end users & with
customers are ready to pay for even higher prices.
From the given matter, it has seen that it is crucial to focus on innovation as it help in
development of business at higher level. So, the stated factors shows benefits of adopting the

innovative process.
Leadership theory-
Leadership theories are essential so that everything within the firm is being carried out with
correct ways or procedures. According to Kurt Lewin's, there basically there are three major form
of leadership styles which are to be focused & are applied in innovation which are mentioned
below-
Autocratic leaders- In this, leaders take decisions independently without consulting to
anyone, employees or team members. This is style is correct at the time when decisions are to be
taken at emergency or quickly (Bag, 2018). It is beneficial but can also leads to increase of
absenteeism & employee turnover. Through this, problems as well as conflicts can arise at deeper
level. With use of this style, control is created in a team.
Democratic style- In this, leaders are often open and clear which reflects that they allow
pen decision making in which anyone can participate freely. This enhances and establishes a
positive relationship between both leaders as well as subordinates. It is used at the time when there
is sufficient time to consider everyone decisions (Johnsson, 2018).
Laissez Faire- This is most effective form of leadership theory in which freedom of
expression is enjoyed everyone. They are always ready to support subordinates in such way that
they do not face any issue. Through this, friendly environment is created but it also put a negative
impact on team members as they have a perception that they will always get a support from their
leaders.
Therefore, the above analysed paragraph depicts that with deep analysis the leadership styles
are to be used after analysing situations. It depends upon leader to choose the most suitable one. It is
critical task which is to be done in effective way. All styles are beneficial and are to be used on
team traits.
Example- Elon Musk, Tesla
Elon Musk is a great leader who is always ready to innovate something new. He is the
founder of Tesla which is automotive and manufacturer company headquartered in U.S. He has
always been ahead when its come to innovation, challenges, risks. With his emotional intelligence
skills and expertise he always deliver best results of his approaches which used in is works. With
continuous development of firm, his company has become competitive in market and has many
rivals such as Audi, BMW, Lexus, Volvo, Toyota etc. Elon Musk always ready for taking up the
risk and motivates his team mates for more future development (Ford, 2018). He prefer situational
leadership style in which he changes his styles according to the occurrence of various situations.

His main area of focus is to bring a new change in society with new resources or approaches.
(Arena, 2016).

CONCLUSION
After a brief analysis of above essay, it has been concluded that without adopting innovation
it is difficult for entities to achieve their objectives or survive for longer period of time. Discussions
have been made about different types of leadership theories, role of leaders, importance of
innovation. From the essay, it is being seen that it is necessary for managers and leaders to focus on
the concept. The leadership theory states that correct analysis are to be developed so that needed
changes are done at right time. It results in creativity & innovative approach.

REFERENCES
Books & Journal:
Kharub, 2019. The relationship between cost leadership competitive strategy and firm
performance.Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management.
Jabbar, 2017. The role of leadership in strategic management.International Journal of Research-
Granthaalayah,5(5), pp.99-106.
Hayati, 2018. Sales force leadership during strategy implementation: a social network
perspective.Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science,46(4), pp.612-631.
Kosfeld, 2020. The role of leaders in inducing and maintaining cooperation: The CC strategy. The
Leadership Quarterly,31(3), p.101292.
Sparr, 2018. Paradoxes in organizational change: The crucial role of leaders’ sensegiving. Journal
of change Management,18(2), pp.162-180.
Bag, 2018. Importance of innovation and flexibility in configuring supply network
sustainability.Benchmarking: An International Journal.
Johnsson, 2018. The innovation facilitator: characteristics and importance for innovation
teams.Journal of Innovation Management,6(2), pp.12-44.
Ford, 2018. Followers in leadership theory: Fiction, fantasy and illusion. Leadership,14(1), pp.3-24.
Arena, 2016. Complexity leadership theory: Shifting from human capital to social capital. People
and Strategy,39(2), p.22.
Lee, 2019. Entrepreneurial Orientation of Owner Managers and Innovation Performance of Firms:
Focusing on mediation effect of user innovation. Journal of the Korea Convergence
Society,10(5), pp.213-219.