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Date: April 14th – 25th
Subject: Career Exploration
Total Periods: 10
Grade Level(s): 9
Description
The lessons seek to encourage some discussion about the nature of leadership, such as
what the characteristics of a 'good leader' are. Also, consider why there might be different
- and equally appropriate - leadership options for the same situation.
Objectives (Design):
Arizona Content Standards
5.0 Demonstrate Decision Making
 Identify the main types of leadership style
 Identify the main characteristics of different and Critical Thinking Skills Required
for Career Success. 5.1-5.3
theories of leadership - trait, transactional,
etc.

Demonstrate an ability to apply different
leadership styles and characteristics to
different business situations

Demonstrate an understanding of the
problems associated with leading change in
an organization

Show an understanding of the process by
which individuals and groups cope with
change

Demonstrate an understanding of the
advantages and disadvantages of different
leadership approaches to a problem
7.0 Develop Leadership and
Teamwork Skills Required for the
Workplace. 7.3. 7.5
Materials and Resources (Development)
Computers connected to the Internet, Microsoft Office installed. Copy or email the
assignment to students. Projector and wide screen may be helpful.
Procedures (Development & Implementation):
Set the Stage: Ask the students to think of a community service project
during this lesson. Recognize that adapting to change is important in the 21st
century, why many people resist change, and how managers can reduce resistance to
change.
You may want to hand out or email the assignments to help guide the students
thinking and comprehension.
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1. Teacher should go to this site to familiarize yourself about leadership
http://www.bized.co.uk/educators/16-19/business/hrm/lesson/leadertypes.htm
2. Show PowerPoint on the big screen using the projector from the site above, under
resources or included within your lesson plan. Or ask students to open the
presentation on their computers.
3. Read the articles below about Bill Gates, Henry Ford and Phil Knight.
4. Discuss the feedback from this exercise - try to make a list of characteristics that
define (at this stage) what makes a good leader.
5. Have students complete the two assignments at the end of this lesson.
6. Brainstorm some idea and put the planning in place for a community service
project to begin May 10th. From the student papers the teacher needs to find
the top 3 issues they are concerned with.
Evaluation
Completed written assignment = 30 points (10 points per paragraph)
Self Evaluation Form = 30
Total Points = 60
Leadership the Bill Gates Way
Key Words – Lijjat Papad, Women and Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial venture, seven,
Visionary, leadership, Bill Gates, Gates, contribution, Information Technology, IT,
entrepreneurial, managerial skills, contribution, strengthen, product development, human
resources, marketing management, Microsoft Corporation, criticism, leadership style
"Bill Gates is a modern business phenomenon: the greatest of the cyber-tycoons. His is not
simply a story of technical brilliance and enormous wealth; it is one of remarkable business
vision and an obsessive desire to win. It is also about a leadership style that is radically
different to anything the business world has seen before."
-
Des DearLove in his book, Business the Bill Gates Way.
INTRODUCTION
In 1993, William Henry Gates III, popularly known as Bill Gates (Gates), was conferred the
'Price Waterhouse Leadership Award for Lifetime Achievement' by the Computerworld
Smithsonian Honors Program (CSHP). This award was presented to Gates for his remarkable
contribution to the Information Technology (IT) revolution, for the distinctiveness of its
conception, for the wide reach of its vision, and the benefits it brought to the society.
In 1996, Gates was named the 'Technology Leader of the Year' by the editors of Industry
Week for his corporate guidance and for his unique ability to make his company –
Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft) – adapt quickly to changes in the industry.
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With a market capitalization of US$ 260 billion on May 23, 2003, Microsoft had emerged
as the global computer software leader and the world's most valuable company. Gates,
the erstwhile CEO of Microsoft, was also the world's wealthiest individual.
Microsoft dominated the global PC software market. According to analysts, Gates had
played a pivotal role in Microsoft's success.
He had made major contributions to strengthen the product development, human resources
and marketing efforts of the company. Appreciating Gates leadership, James Collins, co-author
of the book – Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, said, "To my mind,
Microsoft has never been a company. It's a single remarkable individual, Gates, with
thousands of the smartest, best-paid people anywhere helping that individual. It's basically
like a big wheel, with Gates at the hub."
Though Gates was highly appreciated for his visionary leadership, he was also criticized by
some analysts. Critics felt that sometimes Gates took things so much to heart that his
emotional feeling overshadowed his rational thinking. They said that Gates' intense rivalry
with some of his competitors made him personalize every battle and obscured his judgment.
Critics claimed that winning was so important to Gates that he would go to any extent to beat
his opponent. James Wallace of Seattle Post-Intelligencer said, "Bill Gates not only wants to
win, but he wants to kill the competition. He wants to bury the wounded."
BACKGROUND NOTE
Gates was born in Seattle, Washington, US, on October 28, 1955. His father, William Henry
Gates (II) Jr., was a lawyer while his mother, Mary Gates, was a school teacher. At a very
young age, Gates exhibited a lot of intelligence and zeal. At the primary school itself, he
excelled in Math and Science. Since his childhood, he was fond of reading business magazines
like Fortune. Noticing his precocity, his parents enrolled him in Lakeside Preparatory School
(LPS) in seventh grade at the age of 12. At LPS, Gates saw a computer for the first time in his
life.
Gates, along with his friend, Paul Allen (Allen), used to spend hours in front of the computer.
Sometimes he spent the whole day in the computer room reading computer books and
magazines and developing computer programs. Gates was so obsessed with the computer that
he often missed his classes and never did his homework on time.
In late 1968, Gates and Allen, along with two other schoolmates, formed a group called the
'Lakeside Programmers Group' (LPG). Gates and Allen always dreamed of solving practical
problems through the use of computers. They got an opportunity in 1971 when Information
Sciences Inc. (ISI) recruited them to develop a program to manage their payroll system.
In return for their work, ISI offered them free unlimited computer time. In addition, it
provided LPG a fixed amount of income by way of royalties on the business made by ISI by
selling LPG's programs. By entering into a business agreement with ISI, LPG gained a legal
status.
Gates and Allen soon got many opportunities to prove their computer skills. In the fall of
1972, they started their own company called 'Traf-O-Data.' They developed a portable
computer that allowed them to gauge traffic flow, do analysis and prepare reports. This
project fetched them a sum of $20,000. Traf-O-Data existed only until Gates' entry into the
college. When Gates was in his junior year, he received a job offer from the college
administration to computerize the college's scheduling system….
3
ICFAI Center for Management Resources –
http://www.icmr.icfai.org/casestudies/catalogue/Leadership%20and%20Entrepreneurship/LDE
N014.htm
Henry Ford – A Great Innovator –
Key Words – Leadership, entrepreneurial, Henry Ford, Ford Motor Company, car,
Model T, assembly line approach, mass-production, Highland Park, generating
employment, US, managing human resources, criticisms, managerial practices.
"I will build a motor car for the multitude. It shall be large enough for the family, but small
enough for the unskilled individual to operate easily and care for, and it shall be light in weight
and it may be economical in maintenance. It will be built of honest materials, by the best
workmen that money can hire, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise.
But it shall be so low in price that the man of moderate means may own one and enjoy with
his family the blessings of happy hours spent in God's great open spaces."
- Vision of Henry Ford (1903).
"Ford's action transformed American industrial society."
- Peter Drucker, economist and management guru.
"There was no way to escape the fact that Henry Ford was the great business impresario of his
era – or any era for that matter."
-
Douglas Brinkley, author, Wheels for the World.
INTRODUCTION
In November 1999, Fortune magazine named Henry Ford (Ford), founder of the Ford Motor
Company (Ford Co.) as the 'Businessman of the 20th Century.' Ford was accorded this honor
for transforming the lives of billions of people and revolutionizing the automobile world by
creating a car which was affordable to the common working middle class. Ford was chosen
ahead of three other finalists – Alfred Sloan Jr. (General Motors), Thomas Watson (IBM), and
Bill Gates (Microsoft) – as the 20th century business leader.
Sheryl James (James), Detroit Free Press, reporter, feature writer, and winner of the 1991
Pulitzer Prize for feature writing (journalism), said, "Ford Motor Co.'s founder was a
charismatic risk-taker who relentlessly pursued his vision." In December 1999, Ford was
named the 'Automotive Entrepreneur of the Century' by the Car of the Century (COTC)
International panel of journalists and historians for his invaluable contributions to the
world and in particular to the field of automobile manufacturing.
Dick Holzhaus, founder, COTC International (Netherlands), commented, "The twentieth
century can, in retrospect, be regarded as the 'century of the car' – a revolution of
technology and lifestyle.
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In this revolution, Ford Motor Company paved the way both as a manufacturer and as an
industry leader. It was Henry Ford's vision to give people unprecedented mobility that changed
the lives of millions throughout the world." These awards and recognitions were in recognition
of Ford's invaluable contributions to the automobile industry. Ford was credited with enhancing
the standards of living of people with his inventions like the quadricycle and the Ford Model T,
and his use of the assembly-line production approach in the early 1900s.
Ford had formulated a philosophy of three Ps – People, Products and Profit – for his company.
Explaining the relationship between the three Ps, he said in 1916, "I don't believe we should
make such an awful profit on our cars. A reasonable profit is right, but not too much. I hold
that it is better to sell a large number of cars at a reasonably small profit…...I hold this
because it enables a larger number of people to buy and enjoy the use of a car and because it
gives a larger number of men employment at good wages. Those are the two aims I have in
life."
BACKGROUND NOTE
Ford was born on July 30, 1863 during the US Civil War in a farmland at Dearborn, near
Detroit, Michigan. His mother passed away in March 1876. Later the same year, Ford got a job
at the Michigan Car Company, but was sacked six days later for indicating a flaw in his
foreman's work (Refer Exhibit I for important events in Ford's life).
As a boy, Ford developed his interest in mechanics by taking watches apart to look at how
they worked. He would take the watch apart and then make it work again by joining the
components together. Describing Ford's nature, Brinkley said, "Like the automobile itself,
Ford's mind was never stationary. He was antsy to the point of near insanity and always
willing to roll the dice, taking calculated risks and dreaming of a better tomorrow."
While still a school boy, Ford developed a steam turbine engine with a high number of
revolutions per minute, which unfortunately burst and destroyed the school walls. Ford had a
tool kit at home, which included a screwdriver, designed from a knitting needle and a pair of
pincers, shaped from a watch spring. He loved to 'tinker' with things and was nicknamed the
'Grand Tinkerer.'
Ford dropped out of school at the age of 15. He had a strong aptitude for mechanics and
engineering. He was keenly interested in learning how different things worked. Elucidating
Ford's unique personality, James said, "Ford was a gregarious, well-liked youth, but not overly
studious. He was a hands-on learner, always tinkering."
In 1879, when Ford was 16, he ran away from home. He went to Detroit where he worked as
a trainee in a machine shop called James Flower & Brothers (JF&B) to learn how machines
were made. Here, Ford acquired new skills such as to read blueprints and also studied the
working of the internal combustion engine. Ford worked six days a week at JF&B and was paid
$2.50 a week for ten hours work per day. He stayed on this job for three years.
In 1881, he began working at Dry Dock Engine Works (DDEW), a steamship company in
Detroit. This gave him a chance to work with motors. Dissatisfied with his work at DDEW, Ford
went back to Dearborn in 1882. He spent a few years in Dearborn in various activities like
managing and repairing steam engines, working temporarily in Westinghouse Engine Company
(Detroit), and repairing his father's farm equipment….
5
ICFAI Center for Management Research
http://www.icmr.icfai.org/casestudies/catalogue/Leadership%20and%20Entrepreneurship
/Henry%20Ford.htm
NIKE – 'The Goddess of Marketing'
Keywords – Nike Inc, Phil Knight, Reebok, Nike's marketing strategy, Michael Jordan,
Personal marketing, EKINs, Marketing pyramid, Pyramid and reference group strategies,
Celebrity endorsements, Tiger Woods, Andre Agassi, Advertisement strategy,
Customization, NIKEiD
"For years, we thought of ourselves as a production-oriented company, meaning we put all our
emphasis on designing and manufacturing the product. But now we understand that the most
important thing we do is market the product. We've come around to saying that Nike is a
marketing oriented company and the product is our most important marketing tool."
-Phil Knight, CEO of Nike in the late 1980s.
"Nike is a manufacturer, but really it's just a marketing company."
-John Shanley, Securities analyst at Wells Fargo's Shanley in 2003.
ADVERTISER OF THE YEAR
In June 2003, Phil Knight (Knight), the founder and CEO of Nike Inc., (Nike), received
the "Advertiser of the Year" award, at the 50th Cannes International Advertising Festival,
one of the major annual advertising events in the world. It was a historical moment
because Knight was the first person to win the award twice (He had received the award in
1994 also).
Speaking on the occasion, Knight said, "It's the most prestigious award in the world
advertising industry and I feel pretty good about it. Especially, winning it for the second
time. It is a huge honor for the company. Analysts said that Nike had come a long way
since it began operations in the 1960s."
In the early years of the business, Knight did not believe in advertising or marketing. He
preferred instead, to rely on word-of-mouth publicity among athletes. This served Nike
well enough for some years. However, in the late-1980s, Nike was overtaken in sales by
competitor Reebok, which introduced training shoes designed specially for women (who
had become more fitness conscious by that time). In a bid to recapture market share, Nike
introduced several new models of shoes designed for different sports.
In addition to introducing new shoes, Knight also realized the importance of marketing
and began to set aside a significant part of corporate revenues for advertising and
marketing.
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By the 1990s, Nike was one of the best advertisers in the world, Nike was well known for
its unique soulful advertisements (ads), which, analysts said, appealed to viewers'
emotions rather than their rationality.
Most of the ads featured celebrities from different sporting areas. The company was also
attuned to the tastes and sensibilities of the public and tried to create ads that would
appeal to the maximum number of people. In 2003, Nike was the market leader in sports
goods and one of the most popular brands in the world.
The company's logo, the 'swoosh' was thought to be one of the best logos ever designed
and had a high degree of recall value. Analysts said that the recognition of the 'swoosh'
rivaled the recognition levels of the Stars and Stripes of the American Flag or the Golden
Arches logo of McDonalds.
The future co-founders of Nike met in 1957, when Knight was an undergraduate student
and middle-distance athlete at the University of Oregon (which was known for having the
best track program in the country) and Bill Bowerman (Bowerman), the athletics coach.
In the early 1960s, when Knight was doing his MBA at Stanford University, he submitted
his marketing research dissertation on the US shoe manufacturing industry. His assertion
was that low cost, high quality running shoes could be imported from labor-rich Asian
countries like Japan and sold in the US to end Germany's domination in the industry.
BACKGROUND
In 1962, while on a world tour, Knight met the management of the Onitsuka Company
(Onitsuka) of Japan, which manufactured high quality athletic shoes under the brand
name 'Tiger'. He arranged for these shoes to be imported to the US for sale under the
name 'Blue Ribbon Shoes' (BRS) (A name he thought up when the management of
Onitsuka asked him about which company he represented. BRS became the forerunner of
Nike). In late 1963, Knight received his first shipment of 200 Tiger shoes. In 1964,
Knight and Bowerman formed a partnership, with each of them contributing $500 and
BRS formally came into being. Knight did not have the money to do any formal
advertising for his products. Instead, he crafted his 'grassroots' philosophy of selling
shoes. He believed in going out to the athletes who constituted his main market, to sell
his shoes. The first shoes were sold from the basement of Knight's house and the backs of
trucks and cars at local track events. The athletes who wore the shoes were asked for
feedback to improve future shoe designs. By the end of 1964, BRS had sold 1300 pairs of
shoes with $8000 in revenues. …....
ICFAI Center for Management Resources
http://www.icmr.icfai.org/casestudies/catalogue/Marketing/MKTG088.htm
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ASSIGNMENT
Lesson 1
http://www.lc21.com/directions/practice5.html
Look for ideas and solutions in unlikely places… The best solutions may require
looking in places that are less than obvious. One manager of an apparel maker a
practice of interviewing teens while they stood in line at rock concerts in San
Francisco. By talking with the kids and getting to know their likes and dislikes in
clothes, the manager was able to help the design department create clothes that
would be more appealing to younger buyers.
Similarly, Nokia, the Finnish telecommunications company, sends its engineers to
Southern California to get an appreciation of life in the trend-setting lane. By
observing the way people use wireless communication devices currently, Nokia’s
engineers may be able to design new products that not only complement consumers’
current lifestyles, but anticipate coming life changes and thereby position their
company to be a next generation provider of leading-edge products.
New ideas abound. They are always in the air. The challenge is to put yourself into a
place where you can breathe that "new air." When it fills your lungs, you may find
yourself with a bold new vision of the future.
The ability to look at the San Carlos as it is and envision something new and
improved is a valued trait of leadership. Students need to write 3 paragraphs (5
sentences per paragraph) on what they envision for San Carlos. Students need to
include the leadership vocabulary covered in this topic within their paper. They
should also be directed to review the materials/power points covered.
What is Effective Leadership?
Group Qualities
Individual Qualities
Shared purpose -- reflects the shared
aims and values of the group's members;
can take time to achieve
Commitment -- the passion, intensity, and
persistence that supplies the energy,
motivates individuals, and drives group
effort
Collaboration -- an approach that
empowers individuals, engenders trust,
and capitalizes on diverse talents
Empathy -- the capacity to put yourself in
another's place; requires the cultivation
and use of listening skills
Division of Labor -- requires each
Competence -- the knowledge, skill, and
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member of the group to make a
significant contribution to the overall
effort
technical expertise required for successful
completion of the transformation effort
Disagreement with respect -- recognizes
that disagreements are inevitable and
should be handled in an atmosphere of
mutual trust
Authenticity -- consistency between one's
actions and one's most deeply felt values
and beliefs
A learning environment -- allows
member to see the group as a place where
they can learn and acquire skills
Self-knowledge -- awareness of the
beliefs, values, and emotions that
motivate one to seek change
Lesson 2
Constructing an Explanation
What are your strengths as a leader?
List the sources used for the evidence that will be used to support your explanation
Evidence to support your explanation
Claim(s) that you think answer the question Evidence that supports your claim(s)
Explanation for your answer to the question = Claim + Evidence +
Reasoning
I think my leadership strengths are:
(Claim)
because
(Evidence +
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Reasoning)
.
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