Two Entrepreneurial Titans

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Question 1: Three aspects of both Mary Kay Ash and Anita Roddick and my Opinion on who is better

Leadership

Women pose a serious challenge for men in the field of business. Mary Kay Ash and Anita Riddick are two women who are perfect examples of how women can rise in business. Mary Kay Ash was very successful as a salesperson in Dallas. Her leadership skills are evident as we see someone she had trained promoted above her although this made her quit her job. From this, we can see what a mentor she was. On the other hand, Anita Roddick is famous for her establishment of a very successful British 21st century brand. Her business succeeded despite starting as a small shop in Brighton. Her leadership was appreciated by the people for her altruistic approach in business (Anita Roddick, 1994).

Attitude

Entrepreneurs are known to be passionate about solving problems in business. The greatest achievement for Mary Kay Ash is her successful power strategy that helped her to overturn the mentality held by many that the competitive world of business was not meant for women. She was able to show the world that women were equally capable in business as men. Her desire and positive attitude towards succeeding brought many women in key positions in all industries. Anita Roddick remains the most creative and influential British leaders in business. She was a strong advocate for women in leadership and championed for human rights who did not give up on her dreams (Roddick, 2000). The two entrepreneurs strived to solve their problems by adopting the attitude that challenges have to be experienced in the world of business and they have to be dealt with. The two women were instrumental in opening the doors for women in business.

Incentive

Mary Kay Ash and Anita Roddick popularized the lavish incentive with which they retained and recruited more employees into their businesses. Ash’s top representatives were recognized through awards for their exemplary performance (Ash, 2009). Ash allowed her employees to work as much or as little as they wanted; they were never under pressure to work. Great business mattered a lot to Anita Roddick, which was connected to very many things: protecting animal rights, the ozone layer, and the destruction of forests just to mention. Her incentives were crucial and a revolutionist sense in the growth of her business. Mary and Anita were able to establish powerful brands over the Internet; brands that were built on environmentally aware consumerism.

My Pick – Anita Roddick

Anita is a renowned leader in entrepreneurship and is famous even today, many years after her death. She was a true pioneer in trade communism whose company was able to expand in the whole market. Apart from business, Anita was involved in other many activities that were aimed to make the lives of her people better, for example, defending human rights.

Question 2: Significance of achievements by Ash and Anita on women leadership

Mary Kay Ash and Anita Roddick were able to cement the idea that women had an important role to play in the society on matters of leadership. They left their jobs and were haunted by success in their new business ventures where they opened doors for other women thereby establishing gender equality in business leadership (Adler, 1997).

In my opinion, the greatest achievement by Mary Kay Ash was overcoming the notion that women are weaker than men and cannot do well in business than men. She overcame this and led the way for other women. On the other hand, I consider Roddick’s greatest achievement to be her exemplary transformational leadership and her pioneering role in social responsibility as well as community building.

Question 3: Analyzing Mary Kay Ash’s Quote

People are very important to any business because businesses are there for them. Different categories off people should be treated in the right way for the business to do well. To begin with, employees are at the forefront of taking care of customers. They play a crucial role in solving problems. Employees should be empowered to satisfy customers. Communication is an important tool to treat people well.

A company should put in place measures that encourage open communication, an important tool in achieving business objectives and customer satisfaction. People who receeive the right treatment are likely to develop loyalty to the company; therefore, it will be easy to retain employees and customers. Businesses that treat care about their people’s welfare and seek to empower them, for example, by training employees, are open to flexibility. The reason for this is that employees are capable of handling different roles. Companies should, therefore, treat their people right for their own good.

Question 4: Importance of quote and lessons from it

Quote: “For me, campaigning and good business is also about putting forward solutions, not just opposing destructive practices or human rights abuses.”

From this quote, we can deduce that research is a key element in campaigning and good business practices. A business can alter its perception and improve the position of its brand in the market but the right channels should be followed; this involves advancing the right solutions. There is more to campaigning than just opposing destructive practices or abuse of human rights.

This quote has important lessons for managers. First, managers can learn that making the right decisions is crucial for business survival. Moreover, the highly competitive business environment leaves no room for wrong moves. Secondly, managers should know that successful businesses are not all about profit making. The existence of a business should be aimed at making it the best in its field. Companies must also be aware of their responsibility towards the community (Banks, & Zimmerman, 1987).

Question #5: Examining Ash’s and Roddick’s leadership styles.

Anita Roddick’s style of leadership is of the transactional type. With this type of leadership style, she is able to influence team members to obey them and accept their roles at the various job positions. Transactional leadership also involves rewarding team members for their exceptional performance.

Mary Kay Ash is a charismatic leader. She is a leader who was known to use inspiration to motivate her team members. Charismatic leaders use this style to try and retain their employees. Mary Kay is quite successful at this as she is able to add more people to her business over time.

I would choose Anita’s leadership over Mary’s. I would definitely follow this style of leadership because I believe it is far much better than a charismatic style of leadership. Teamwork is very important and if a leader has the ability to influence their team members, then they have a good chance of achieving their objectives. Employees under a charismatic style of leadership are motivated to work more because they are able to associate with their positions at work (Sinha, Chazal, & Cullen, 2015).

References

Adler, N. J. (1997). Global leadership: Women leaders. MIR: Management International Review, 171-196.

Anita Roddick. (1994). Body and soul: profits with principles, the amazing success story of Anita Roddick & the Body Shop. Three Rivers Press.

Ash, M. K. (2009). The Mary Kay Ways: Timeless Principles from America’s Greatest Woman Entrepreneur. John Wiley & Sons.

Banks, J., & Zimmerman, P. R. (1987). The Mary Kay ways: The feminization of a corporate discourse. journal of communication inquiry, 11(1), 85-99.Hattwick, Richard E. “Mary Kay Ash”. Journal of Behavioral Economics 16.4 (1987): 61-70. Web.

Roddick, A. R. (2000). Business as unusual. Thorsons,.

Sinha, S. S., Chazal, R. A., & Cullen, M. W. (2015). Mentorship, Leadership, and Teamwork.