4747
See also: Take the second step 43 ■ The Greiner curve 58–61 ■ Leading well 68–69 ■ Effective leadership 78–79 ■
Develop emotional intelligence 110–11 ■ Mintzberg’s management roles 112–13 ■ The value chain 216–17
START SMALL, THINK BIG
Other studies report entrepreneurs
as mavericks, unafraid of failure and
driven by a passion for success.
While there is some overlap, absent
from these findings are the traits
that define good leaders and
managers: organization, an eye for
detail, communication, emotional
intelligence, and the ability to
delegate. And as Indian executive
Vineet Nayar advised, effective
leadership involves encouraging
others within the company to
realize their potential, and excel.
Making the transition
Canadian business guru Professor
Henry Mintzberg proposed that
management can be broken down
into three categories: managing
by information, through people, and
through action. Many entrepreneurs
have difficulty managing through
information—they often lack the
skills to build the systems and
communication networks on which
large businesses are built.
Cyprus-born Stelios Haji-
Ioannou, entrepreneur and founder
of easyGroup, is known for rarely
staying still. His company launched
in 1998 with a low-cost airline,
easyJet, and now includes more
than 20 “easy” businesses that
operate on a similar low-cost model.
Haji-Ioannou has shown an aptitude
for strategy, and an eye for detail;
but he has also been criticized for
lacking leadership skills, for
micromanaging, and, common
to entrepreneurs, for an inability to
delegate and let managers manage.
US professor Larry Greiner
identified leadership—the ability
of a start-up founder to transition
from entrepreneur to leader—as one
of the major crises that businesses
face as they grow. Greiner suggests
that successful growth often
requires the employment of
professional managers who bring
to the business an understanding
of the requirements of financial
markets, banks, and—most
importantly—have the leadership
skills needed to manage complex
organizations. Entrepreneurs may
possess bountiful ideas, but it takes
management discipline to turn
those ideas into successfulventures, and leadership skills
to move the start-up beyond its
entrepreneurial roots.
Start-ups require the spark
of entrepreneurship; but growth
requires a different set of skills: a
founder must transition from being
sole decision maker to being a
disciplined manager and a
successful leader. Those who are
unable to make this transition
often need to step aside and let the
professionals take over. But this is
often easier said than done. ■Zhang Yin Chinese entrepreneur and paper-
recycling tycoon Zhang Yin was
born in Guangdong in 1957.
Recognizing that the Chinese
export sector faced a shortage of
paper-packaging materials, Zhang
(her Cantonese name is Cheung
Yan) opened a paper-trading
business in Hong Kong in 1985.
Quickly moving from
entrepreneur to established
business leader, Zhang moved
to Los Angeles, US, where she
co-founded the paper-exporting
company America Chung Nam in- The business quickly
became the leading paper
exporter in the USA, and the
largest overall exporter to
China. In 1995, after returning
to Hong Kong, Zhang cofounded
Nine Dragons Paper with her
husband and her brother. The
company went on to become the
world’s largest maker of
packaging paper.
In 2006, at the age of 49,
Zhang became the first woman
to top the list of richest people
in China, according to the
magazine Hurun Report. The
following year, Ernst & Young
awarded her “Entrepreneur of
the Year in China 2007.”The function of leadership
is to produce more leaders,
not more followers.
Ralph Nader
US political activist (1934 –)