Bezos and Gates

Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates are an ideal reference for leadership styles and skills. Gates is an authoritarian, while Bezos is a transformative leader. An authoritarian like Gates loves control over their subordinates, as illustrated in 2016 when he signed off Steve Ballmer for spending more time on one product (Fiegerman par.1). As a transformative leader, Bezos is keen to motivate other people to commit to the company’s vision. Hartung reports how Bezos identified an opportunity and transformed other people’s view of retail business to become the leading online retail venture (par.15).

Nevertheless, both Bezos and Gates are similar in that they are devoted to philanthropy. They also value hard work, which has enabled them to scale both Amazon Inc. and Microsoft from scratch to billion-dollar fortune ventures. I think Bezos has succeeded in visioning the online retail business and achieved it through Amazon Inc’s salient strategic plans since it has many competitors compared to Microsoft. He has ventured into other industries, unlike Gates.

Response to German Urreacruz

Hi German,

I think Cook is a better CEO than Jobs. While Jobs facilitated the creation of culture while Apple runs on, he was a terrible CEO. His success might have been associated with people like Cook, who have adequate management experience. Besides, Cook has managed to grow Apple since the demise of Jobs amid many people anticipating its fall. That is why Cook did not have to ask himself what Jobs would do.

Response to Miranda Perlagalo

Hi Miranda,

Thank you for pointing out that both approach failure with a constructive attitude. That may be among the reasons both companies have thrived through economic reasons and crisis.