Yizhou Chen originated from government, therefore he took care of HR, legal, administration and government relations, Ma explained. Its now vogue to call customers users. The idea was a watershed moment for Chinas mobile market, bringing more than eight million users to Tencents WeChat Payment platform in the rst eight days after the New Year. But Mas early focus was on what he knew. Besides, Tencent has earned its premier status and, as long as Ma keeps pushing his principles, perhaps the rest of the world can adopt them as their own. Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg. From mobile payments to taxi hailing, users can live their lives on one app. Google was started in 1998 in Menlo ParkCalifornia, USA. Googles beginnings were less humble than those of earlier Silicon Valley startups at the time, because the two founders were able to initially raise US$1 million US dollars [49]. For a while, Ma went back to his former job as a public servant, but then, in 1999, Ma persuaded his team at the ministry to go to Hangzhou and found the Alibaba Group [91]. Yet few, in the West at least, have heard of it. Open Access is an initiative that aims to make scientific research freely available to all. Only in the case of Larry Page, the achievements and profile of the leader appears to be, arguably, less remarkable than that of his own company. Ultimately, though, the combination of Onhos leadership and revolutionary innovation transformed Toyota from being an average car maker in Japan to becoming the number one global leader. Still, Tencent has surged ahead and left national rivals like Baidu behind. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Tencent, Asia's most valuable company, one of the largest Internet and technology companies, and one of the biggest investment, gaming and entertainment conglomerates in the world. Toward the end of the second world war, Taiichi Ohno worked as a production engineer for Toyota, a Japanese car manufacture founded in Japan by Kiichiro Toyoda in 1937 [83]. Edisons role on the development of these technologies and later commercialization of them clearly qualifies him as visionary, innovator, and pioneer [18]. WeChat CEO Recent News and Activity Number of News Articles 12 News Apr 1, 2021 Forbes Tencent CEO Ma Huateng Is Back On Top As China's Richest Person News Mar 2, 2021 The list includes personal computers, music distribution, tablet computing, mobile phones and digital publishing. This chapter reviews relevant literature in order to identify the leadership framework and profile that may better characterize entrepreneurs and business leaders that eventually founded or developed disruptively successful firmspopularly known as unicorns. Next, the chapter describes a conducted multi-case study that demonstrates a strong correlation between the positive checkmarks in the selected leadership frameworkvisionary leadershipand the profile of the leaders of nine different international corporations that became industry leaders in less than 20years (Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, General Electrics, Toyota, Alibaba, Tencent, and Inditex). After giving a quick review of state-of-the-art of the leadership research and theories [1], this chapter shortlists, briefly explains, and finally analyzes the candidate frameworks and chooses the apparently most suitable one. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Youve got no business in the workplace if you are just there to be there. You need resilience to keep you on the ball. Unlike Western app constellations, Tencent combines as many features into one app as possible. Jobs was raised by adoptive parents in Cupertino, Californiain Silicon Valley. WeChat hit most global markets in 2012. Evolution at Tencent means the capability to improve, self-correct and stay focused. And these products can be manufactured and given to people and they can sense that spirit [45]. Huateng is clearly a pioneer and innovator. How has he created the capacity to pivot in anticipation of and response to changes? For instance, he described Toyota in the following way: The Toyota style is not to create results by working hard. He considered the next generation better positioned to dream up the next big product idea. Effectiveness of leadership style. At that time, Edison moved to New York City, where he initially partnered with Frank L. Pope, an electrical expert, and produced the Edison Universal Stock Printer [62]. In 2006 Ma announced a ve-year business plan: to reach annual revenues of 10 billion renminbi (1.14 billion). Thats why we allow those who understand the needs of younger users to do the job, said Ma. [40], According to the official Tencent website, Ma is a deputy to the 5th Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress and served in the 12th National People's Congress. In regard of the reasons why this type of profile is required in the studied context, one may be the fact that, in the case of disruptive innovation, nobody, even clients, may be able to forecast or imagine items such as the final functions and aspect of the products, the expected demand, and other features. In 2004, the three partners moved to Palo Alto, California, where venture capitalist Peter Thiel invested in the firm. He later managed a clothing store that catered to wealthy clients. With this high score, he would have been able to attend Tsinghua University in Beijing, or Fudan University in Shanghai. By giving the project the green light, Ma, in eect, gave Zhang full licence to cannibalise the existing QQ product. In the case of entrepreneurial leadership, Gupta, MacMillan, and Surie came up with a list of 19 leadership attributes that appeared to be the most relevant [17]. Reclusive, secretive, and reserved are words frequently used to describe him. People dont go to Toyota to work, they go there to think [88]. In 1993, he graduated from Shenzhen University with a Bachelor of Science in computers and applied to engineering. Now is the time for our government, enterprises, academic and research institutions to work together to change the status quo. Ma Huateng is a business magnate, an entrepreneur, an engineer, a philanthropist, and an investor. Youve got to be looking for changes you can make for the benefit of the people who are working there [89]. First, the ubiquitous messaging app WeChat. Please try again later. [5], Speaking of censorship at a tech conference in Singapore, Ma was quoted as saying "In terms of information security management, online companies from any country must abide by a defined set of criteria, and act responsibly. He reportedly owns property in Hong Kong and art pieces worth US$150 million. He wanted, simply, to create excellent products and have the co-founders see a return on their investment: I focused on product and Tony Zhang focused on technology. Associate Editor, Encyclopdia Britannica. Unshackled by rules, Tencent employees have freedom to act to invent, to problem solve, to wow. But where there are losers, there are winners: Ma expects people to bounce back from losses, pick themselves up and start over. He is the founder, chairman. 2. Zara soon became not only an internationally famous chain but also the flagship of the holding company Inditex, which he founded 10years later [76]. The evidences all seem to point to a conclusion that Jack Ma is an effective leader who has a seemingly well-developed emotional intelligence and flexible leadership style. On the other hand, the Eastern Asian disruptively successful companies that ranked high enough in the global top 100 were Toyota Motors, Alibaba and Tencent15, 22, and 32 [29]. The article concludes that leadership style impacts corporate culture and that the evolution of leadership style has an impact on corporate culture change. Under Ma's leadership, Tencent has moved into web portals, social networks, multi-player games and e-commerce, making the company today an Internet powerhouse and China's number one brand. It was a revolution. The success of Inditexand H&M, its main competitoris ultimately based on a revolutionary innovation called fast fashion [77]. (26.8 billion). Owing to its continual innovation, its a fearsome competitor and has long sat at the same table as Western tech giants. Jack Ma, originally Ma Yun, (born September 10, 1964, Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China), Chinese entrepreneur who was head of the Alibaba Group, which comprised several of China's most popular Web sites, including the business-to-business marketplace Alibaba.com and the shopping site Taobao.com. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Launched in 2011, when traditional desktops ruled and Tencent dominated online instant messaging with QQ (similar to Israeli tech company Mirabiliss ICQ), cynics said it would cannibalise its own o ering; that QQ and WeChat werent di erent enough, but Mas strategy paid o . In 2017, Fortune ranked him as among the top businessmen of the year. On being a pioneer: Lots of companies dont succeed over time. Tencent launched its own portal (QQ.com) in 2003 and entered the online games sector. Mandi is an experienced writer on various topics with a passion for telling stories with words. He gives importance to the ideas and strategies given by his employees. In this Special Edition of the AIB Review, leading industry professionals and members of AIB's Marketing and Entrepreneurship faculty deep dive into the need-to-know industry trends and issues that lie ahead. He has an estimated net worth of 38.7 billion. Tencent chairman and cofounder Pony Ma Huatengwho was the No. Ma Huateng. During the 2014 Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations, Tencent built on the ancient custom of giving red envelopes lled with money to boost trac on WeChats mobile payments platform. BAT Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent are Chinas power gang. Reshma Saujani, as shown above, is a champion for girls and women. Tencent lost the dispute, and the domain names had to be relinquished. The company's first product came after Ma participated in a presentation for ICQ, the world's first Internet instant messaging service, founded in 1996 by an Israeli company. A recurring leadership style in this paper is the transformational le adership style which, according to Northouse (2004), is "one of the current approaches to leadership that has been the focus of much research since the early 1980s" (p. 169). As a youth in A Corua, Galicia, in northwestern Spain, Amacio Ortega gained an entry into the garment business by working as a delivery boy for a mens shirt store and assistant in a tailors shop. In 2007, 2014,[6] and 2018, Time magazine named him one of the world's most influential people,[7] while in 2015, Forbes credited him as one of the world's most powerful people. Tencent had grown to become Chinas top instant messaging service by 2004, prompting Ma to list the firm on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. By 1869, he thought that he had made enough progress with a duplex telegrapha device capable of transmitting two messages simultaneously on one single wireand abandoned telegraphy for full-time entrepreneurship. He dropped out of Reed College, in Portland, took a job at Atari Corporation as a videogame designer in early 1974, and saved enough money for a pilgrimage to India [39]. IntechOpen Limited Second, if youre into gaming, chances are youre playing on a platform owned by Tencent. Tencent also create Qzone, which boasted 670 million monthly users by 2015 [94]. Tencent CEO Ma Huateng, also known as Pony Ma, started out making $176 a month and now has a net worth of $45 billion. Charismatic leaders emerge in times of instability, change, or crises, but many critics argue that charismatic leaders tend to forget the groups benefit and try to gain most of the attention for themselves. Analysts estimate that more than two thirds of the almost 1.4 billion population use Tencent. 19. [38], In 2016, Ma transferred US$2.3 billion worth of his personal Tencent shares to his charitable foundation, the Ma Huateng Global Foundation (). 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