1.

Bill Allen

Trait Approach

 He has unique personality characteristics like intelligence for critical analysis. He saw
that Boeing could compete by changing the industry.
 He forecasted Boeing Aircraft Co to be in commercial industry rather than being in
bombers making company.
 He has more self confidence and determination when one of the directors objected the
commercialisation of Boeing he even ready to utilise the resources of the entire
company.
 He has highly emotional intelligence like he felt both in terms of affective and
cognitive about Boeing by making it as commercially success rather than keeping it
only for bomb making and he applied this emotions for thinking and making Boeing
as one of the successful commercial company.
 His thought process was so bigger and broader.

Skills Approach

 Technical Skills: Technical skill is knowledge about and proficiency in a specific

type of work or activity. Bill Allen has good technical skills so that he thought
Boeing can compete in a commercial industry well apart from bombers making
and he succeeded in that.
 Human Skill: Boeing Co introduced 727,707, 737, and 747 planes which were
more successful. With out having good people skills Allen might not achieved
this.
 Conceptual Skills: conceptual skills are the ability to work with ideas and
concepts. For this a leader should have clear vision of his idea and concepts. Allen
has this skill so that he strongly sticks to making Boeing enter into the commercial
flight industry and got success.

2. James Burke

Trait Approach

 He has good forecasting trait so that he acted before 1982 crisis occurred on J&J.
 His critical thinking made the company to maintain company’s credo and save it from
the crisis.
 His emotional thinking about credo of the company made him motivate his executives
about credo and conducted similar meetings around the world to make credo as a
living document.
 His determination and integrity towards the company made J&J to come out of 1982
crisis.

Skills Approach
  He has good human skills so that when his top 20 key executives are not working
according to the principles of credo, he conducted several meetings with them and
made them to follow according to the credo of the company and also made people
around the world to follow the credo to make it living document.
 His conceptual skills are extremely good so that with his ideas only J&J is able to
come out of 1982 crisis.
 He has good problem solving skills like when key executives of J&J not following
credo he made them to follow the credo.

3. Darwin Smith

Trait Approach

 Smith has some unique personality characters which we see very rarely. He is a bold
decision maker. He wants to make things right rather than to be impressive to others.
 He took bold decision of selling mills which was a courageous decision where no
CEO would take such a bold decision.
 He has good forecasting power in which every one who opposed his decision of
selling mills but after 25 years Kimberly- Clark was the world’s No 1 paper based
consumer Products Company.
 His self confidence and determination made him to take such a bold decision of
selling mills.

Skills Approach

 Smith has good conceptual skills; even though he does not have clear vision statement
he took bold decision of selling mills. But after 25 years his ideas and concepts made
Kimberly-Clark as world’s No 1 paper based consumer Products Company.
 He has good problem solving skills which made him to take decision of selling mills
even though many are opposing for it.
 He has good social judgement skills so that he repeatedly put questions to the people
how to improve the company.
 His decision making skills made company No1 in its category of products.

4. George Merck

Trait Approach

 George Merck showed what is the responsibility of a corporation to the society rather
than struggling for profits.
 He has self confidence in what he was doing and says profits will automatically for
the works we do perfectly.
 His intelligence and critical thinking made buy the idea of Campbell and today 3
million people a year receive drug.
  His integrity created positive image about the company and showed corporate
responsibility of the company towards the society which automatically increased
profitability of a company.
 He put corporate social responsibility first and profits second.

Skills Approach

 Merck has good conceptual and technical skills in which he has clear vision how the
company will get profits in future if he sacrificed profits now for time being.
 His technical skills made him accept the request of Campbell so that it will be useful
to the society and company.
 His personality and social judgement made to get positive brand image even though
he does not care for the profits.
 His planning and communication skills made use the idea of Campbell and utilise it
for people needs and achieve huge profits through distinct brand image.

5. Sam Walton

Trait Approach

 Sam Walton proved a leader need not be a charismatic and need to overcome his
charisma.
 With his strong intelligence and forecasting skills he formulated a vision that his
company should cross $125b by 2000.
 Even tough he is a good business man he tries to capture the opportunities wherever
available.
 But some times he behaves very bad for his earnings.
 He thought his charisma need not be obstacle for the growth of his company. So he
formulated clear vision and empowered his employees.

Skills Approach

 He has good technical skill by which he knew completely about his products and tried
to know opportunities for the products.
 His conceptual skills were excellent so that he has clear idea and concepts.
 He had good social judgemental skills so that he formulated a clear vision by what his
company should be after certain years.
 His communication skills and problem solving skills made his employees to achieve
his goal even though he is not present physically.
 He communicated about his vision to his employees so that they could reach his
dreams.

6. David Packard

David Packard is the Co-founder of Hewlett-Packard. The leadership traits and skills
identified are s follows:
 1. Traits Approach:
 Some of the key personality traits are he is highly self-confident, determined. He has
drive for responsibility and task completion. He is goal oriented individual.
 He has high social concern and a man of integrity. He exhibited dominance over his
sub-ordinates and was courageous.
 How-ever his simplicity and sociability reflects his socialist nature. He was open
minded.

2. Skills Approach:

The skills that can be attributed Mr. Packard are

 He possessed human skills and conceptual skills. Though it is not clear in the passage
t can be said that he is good in all the three skills.
 The individual attributes that are identified in him are that he possessed a good
personality as explained in the traits approach and also has both general and
crystalline cognitive ability.
 He has social judgmental skills, knowledge and efficient problem solving skills.

7. Katherine Graham

1. Traits Approach
Katherine Graham has exhibited a remarkable set of innate qualities which had made her
a true leader.
 First of all, she was a very bold woman. This can be observed from her reaction
after her husband’s suicide. Instead of loosing to the incident, she bravely took up
the responsibility.
 Her courage was also seen when she boldly took the steps of publishing the
pentagon papers. Thus it can bet she said that she is a risk taker.
 She has a drive for responsibility and task completion, self-confidence, and
willingness to accept consequences of decision and action.
 She also showed her wisdom, and her capability with which she attracted the
investment of Warren buffet

2. Skills Approach:
As far as the skills approach is concerned, the skills exhibited by Katherine Graham are as
follows:
 She had a good general cognitive ability; self motivated and possessed a good
inner personality which helped her to stand in turbulent times.
 She was a good decision maker and also possessed good social judgment skills.
 Despite this, she was also a good analyst of future consequences on the decisions
taken.

Overall, she had the personality traits that complemented with her skills in making her one of
the greatest CEO’s of all time.
8. William Mc Knight

William McKnight was the CEO of 3M. The leadership trait and skills identified from him
are as follows:

1. Traits approach:
 One of the most important traits that can be attributed to Mr. McKnight was that
he was a highly intelligent innovator. I call him because, when the industry itself
was categorized into 2 camps, he created his own way of innovations, continuing
them and thus made a separate identity to himself.
 He was a source of trust to others. This says that he had the ability to influence
other people’s behaviour.
 He advocated his ideas but encouraged freedom, disciplined and controlled.

2. Skills Approach:
 He had openness to situations, confidence and the knowledge required to achieve
his goals. So we can say that his personality attributes lead to his superior
performance.
 He can be considered to have good general cognitive ability skills & social
perceptiveness.
 As described in the passage, McKnight also had a well balanced mindset.

9. David Maxwell

1. Traits Approach:
 Maxwell showed a great sense of courage when he took up the task of
transforming a sick company. Thus he can be viewed as a risk taker and possessed
originality in problem solving.
 From his actions, it can be said that he had willingness to accept consequences of
decision and action. He was self-confident.
 As told in the passage, he exhibited dominance in his nature, uniqueness in
problem solving and had the capacity to handle tough situations in unique way
 He was inspirational, intelligent, courageous, diligent and sociable leader.

2. Skills Approach:
 From the three skills approach, it can be said that he possessed good cognitive
ability skills
 He was self-motivated, as it is said that he was more inspired than inspirational.
 He possessed both technical and conceptual skills

10. Charles Coffins

1. Traits Approach:
 If most of the CEO’s were genius in their own self, Charles Coffin created a system of
genius. Thus he was an inventor and an innovator.
 He was intelligent, but very less sociable. This is evident from the fact that most
people never heard of his name also.
 He is a great visionary, thinker and a genius. He is also an innovator and a man of
integrity.

2. Skills Approach:
 From the passage, I feel that he possessed all the three skills viz., technical, human
and conceptual.
 He had a great personality. He was intelligent. He not only built the GE but also built
its future successors by creating a system of genuine that did not depend on him. Thus
he was called an inventor in his own way.
 Assignment
On

Review of the leadership qualities of the 10

greatest leaders of all time

SUBMITTED TO:

Prof Ch S Durga Prasad

Dean Academic Planning and Professor - HR & OB

SUBMITTED BY:

NAME: D. RAJAVALI

ROLL NO: 09135

SECTION -B