A00510753

Fatima Treviño Guerrero

Example of bad leadership: We Work’s Co-founder Adam Neumann

In October 2019, Adam Neumann stepped down for his position of WeWork CEO,
this was due to diverse facts in which he was involved. The co-founder made illogical
decisions and was responsible of taking care the enterprise to the ground. He had
illusional personal ambitions such as ‘been president of the world’. He’s responsible for
more of 6,000 jobs loss as WeWork collapsed.

The most disastrous thing he did was to sell the project as something technological
since he realized that where people are really making investments in the technological
area and not in real estate. He sold his idea to investors as a disruptive innovation and
consolidated WeWork as a technology company. Having the money from investors, he
started distributing it in the different branches of WeWork, making him believe that he was
investing in a tech startup. By having several investors, the company increased its value
to 47 billion which made it one of the largest and most valuable companies in the United
States.

The problem was discovered when investors didn’t feel sure of what WeWork really
was and, by looking more carefully, they realized the bad management behind the lies of
the CEO. After the scandal, WeWork lowered its value to 10 million, mainly because of
Neumann's ambiguity and leadership. Another factor of lack of leadership that we can
appreciate in the CEO is his lack of interest in the management of operations.

In the end, the CEO was overthrowing the company's mission, losing interest in
operations and having a lack of empathy. With this we can deduct that he was not been
task or people oriented which due place to changing him for another person, for the
company’s good.
 In conclusion, I think that procedural justice was important in WeWork for the
ultimate decision of Adam Neumann to be separated of the company, as well of not having
the necessary contingency approaches.

References

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonwingard/2019/10/03/the-wework-disaster-three-signs-a-leaders-
time-is-up/#2382362575fe

https://bdtechtalks.com/2020/01/17/wework-scandal-tech-startup-culture/