David Bridges
Leadership expert and former Medtronic CEO Bill George ripped Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a wide-ranging interview with Yahoo Finance Live (video above).
“Facebook and Mark are not grounded in values, so he is all over the map,” the corporate insider said in a scathing assessment of Zuckerberg’s leadership as CEO.
George, known for his very successful stint as Medtronic’s CEO from 1991 to 2001, is the author of new leadership book “True North: Emerging Leader Edition.” In the book, George and co-author Zach Clayton study top executives such as GM CEO Mary Barra and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to see what has made them successful leaders.
To that end, George says Zuckerberg still has a lot to learn — if he is even be open to evolving as a leader.
“Mark got rid of his team,” George explained. “He has Sheryl Sandberg there. He had some senior mentors on the board. He pushed them all out. He’s got a group of young people that are more like Mark’s followers. It’s too bad that Mark is really derailing right in real time. And I think, frankly, the wealth went to his head. Once you start chasing money being the wealthiest guy around — we have seen the dangers of that.”
The leadership of Zuckerberg is coming under intense scrutiny after a challenging few quarters financially as the social media platform takes on competitive fire from TikTok.
Second-quarter sales fell 1% from the prior year while operating profits dropped 32%.
In the meantime, the company continues to wade through employee concerns on Zuckerberg’s leadership on social issues and a costly push into the metaverse. Long-time deputy Sheryl Sandberg is also stepping away from the company in the fall, but will have a spot on the board of directors.
Meta shares are down 56% in the past year.
Asked what leadership changes Zuckerberg should consider, George said: “An organization needs to clearly say: ‘This is what we stand for. You may disagree, but this is what this company stands for.’ And I think he really has hurt a lot. And frankly, young people are moving away from Facebook.”
Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.
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Clara Hastings
