Sumner Redstone
Sumner Redstone was, until recently, the majority owner and chairman of the board of National Amusements, through which he had majority ownership of CBS Corporation and Viacom. He was also the Chairman of the Board of both CBS and Viacom until just a few weeks ago. Viacom is also the parent company of the BET Network and Paramount Pictures. After a few years running his own successful law firm, Sumner left the law practice to help his father run his small business, which owned a few drive-in theaters. From that simple start, Sumner grew the business into a national chain of theaters and later, according to his discussion at his alma mater, Boston University, confounded Wall Street with his purchase of Viacom . From there, he continued to expand his businesses until he developed two distinct corporations that had a world-wide impact.
Based on his discussion during his talk at Boston University, it would appear that Sumner often used an authoritarian style of leadership, especially after taking over Viacom. The authoritarian style, according to Goleman, takes a “Come with Me” approach and is used effectively when an organization is adrift . He also probably used the Pacesetting style throughout his career considering that he was also a lawyer who tends to seek perfection in all that he does and the pacesetting style allows a leader to set high performance standards and exemplify them through personal actions (Goleman, 2000). There is also some indication that Sumner used the Coercive Style at various times during his reign. An article in the New York Times entitled The Man Who Would Be Redstone, discusses several times Sumner fired an executive who was not doing things the way Sumner wanted .
The fact that Sumner used several different styles of leadership is a testimony to why he lasted so long in the industry and developed one of the most successful media empires in the business.
Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart started with a catering business that slowly morphed into the Martha Stewart Living Omni Media. She was the queen of home entertainment, holiday decorating, holiday meals, and do-it-yourself crafts for the home. Even after a brief stint in prison for insider trading, she has been able to maintain her media empire as the leading lifestyle corporation.
Given that Martha Stewart is a die-hard perfectionist and is driven to succeed in everything that she does it follows that she follows the pacesetting style of leadership . According to Goleman, a leader who uses the pacesetting style sets high performance standards and maintains those standards themselves to create a positive impact on employees (Goleman, 2000). Martha mentions in hew interview at Google headquarters how much her employees love what they do, which makes them good candidates for this style of leadership .
Philip Purcell
Philip Purcell is the former CEO of Dean Witter Discover and of Morgan Stanley, after the merger of the two corporations. He created and developed the Discover card shortly after Sears, where he was a managing director, acquired Dean Witter.
Purcell’s leadership style can be described as the Coercive style based on Goleman’s leadership styles. This “Do as I say” approach is exemplified by comments made by former employees. One former colleague commented that his style was “autocratic and bureaucratic”, which relates to the coercive style . During board meetings about his leadership of Morgan Stanley, several of his senior employees commented that they did not like Purcell and had no contact with him whatsoever . This leadership style, for an organization like Morgan Stanley, is probably not the best approach and might well have been the reason for his downfall as the CEO.
References
Chozick, A. (2012, September 22). The Man Who Would Be Redstone. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/business/media/philippe-dauman-the-man-who-would-be-redstone.html?_r=1
Cramer, J. J. (n.d.). Phil Purcell's People Problem. New York Magazine. Retrieved from http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/bizfinance/columns/bottomline/12072/
Goleman, D. (2000). Leadership That Gets Results. Harvard Business Review.
Mayer, M. (Director). (2011). Martha Stewart in Conversation with Marissa Mayer: Talks at Google [Motion Picture]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfGXXBVvILY
Redstone, S. (Director). (2010). A Conversation with Sumner Redstone [Motion Picture]. Boston University. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11zypIc5QMY
The Economist. (2001, February 1). Man Overboard. The Economist. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/node/494912
WatchMojo.com (Director). (2011). Martha Stewart bio: Life and Career [Motion Picture]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRJMGBpuKS0
