Here’s my new hypothesis. There are three types of business leaders:
- Startup type,
- Managers, and
- The Extraordinaire.
Startup type can start a business from scratch by building something, acquiring customers, and continuously iterating the business model, as you can read more here. This type of business leaders enjoy creating something new and creative, and thrive in a small team environment (1~150 employees) where decisions are made quickly and things get done quickly.
Manager type may have some professional training such as MBA. These are the leaders who can take mid to large businesses to the next level. These are the leaders such as Jack Welch who can see the big picture of the business and industry, come up with a strategy, and know how to strategically maneuver within the web of complexity to execute on the strategy.
The Extraordinaire are those who can start from scratch, build and iterate on the business model, and know how to bring the business to the next level several more times. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Howard Schultz, and Jeff Bezos come to mind.
If this hypothesis is correct, would it be a good idea to know which type you are and evaluating whether you are in the right environment?
A few more questions:
Could Jack Welch have been as successful had he started his own business?
What differentiates the Extraordinaire from the startup types? What are the core sets of unique characteristics of the Extraordinaire that startup type does not have?
Your hack at my hypothesis is welcomed!
Makes sense. You could say that the “Extraordinaire” has both skills: Startup and Manager.
As such, this could be organized this way:
1) Startup
2) Manager
3) Extraordinaire: Has both startup and manager skill