AMBO UNIVERSITY

WOLISO CAMPUS
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS &
ECONOMICS
SCHOOL OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
COURSE: SEMINAR IN PROJECCT MANAGEMENT
TERM PAPER

ON

THE CHALLENGES AND SECRET SUCCESSES OF MARK

ZUCKERBERG AS AN ENTREPRENEUR

BY
BIRHANU DIRIBA ADBISU
PMGMT-PGR/004/2014
Sub/To: GETACHEW .M (PhD)

WOLISO, ETHIOPIA
JUNE /2023 GC

TABLE OF CONTENT
Table of Content.........................................................................................................................ii
Chapter One................................................................................................................................1
Introduction.................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Background of Term Paper.................................................................................................1
Chapter Two................................................................................................................................3
Literature Review........................................................................................................................3
2.1 Definitions of Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneur.............................................................3
2.3 Successful Entrepreneurs....................................................................................................4
2.4 Entrepreneurial Success of Mark Zuckerberg....................................................................5
2.5 Key Stakeholders of Facebook...........................................................................................6
2.6 Problems that Mark Zuckerberg faced in early days of Facebook.....................................7
2.7 The Strategic Management style of Facebook..................................................................11
2.7.1 The Business and Corporate Strategies used by Zuckerberg.........................................12
2.7.2 Internal and External Environment Analysis.................................................................13
2.7.3 The Strategic Tools or Models used by The CEO of Facebook....................................14
2.7.5 Different Contemporary Strategic Issues in Strategy....................................................16
2.8 Conclusion........................................................................................................................17
2.9 Recommendations...........................................................................................................19
References.................................................................................................................................21

CHAPTER ONE

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 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of Term Paper
Entrepreneurship is a practice and a process that results in creativity, innovation and
enterprise development and growth, Bantie Workie, M. C. (2019). It refers to an individual’s
ability to turn ideas into action involving and engaging in socially-useful wealth creation
through application of innovative thinking and execution to meet consumer needs, using one’s
own labor, time and ideas. According to the Álvaro Cuervo, (2007, p2) as stated that the
entrepreneurial function implies the discovery, assessment and exploitation of opportunities,
in other words, new products, services or production processes; new strategies and
organizational forms and new markets for products and inputs that did not previously exist
(Shane and Venkataraman, 2000).
Entrepreneur refers to the person and entrepreneurship defines the process. Both men and
women can be successful entrepreneurs; it has nothing to do with gender. All entrepreneurs
are business persons, but not all business persons are entrepreneurs, Bantie Workie, M. C.
(2019). The high importance of the entrepreneur’s role in society has been widely recognized
by most economists as well as by politicians or decision-makers. However, not all
entrepreneurs are successful and many of them fail due to various causes such as lack of
resources or bankruptcy (Van Praag, 1999; Van Praag, 2005). The successful entrepreneur has
become a topic of interest in various domains such as psychology, sociology or business
(Hornaday and Aboud, 1971; Sexton and Bowman, 1985; McClelland 1987). As an agent of
change (Casson, 1982), the entrepreneur is acknowledged as the key element of a company in
achieving business success.
From the most well-known of the businesses that the entrepreneur invented was Facebook.
Facebook is a technology company and social network based in the United States. The firm
was developed in 2004 by Chris Hughes, Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, and Mark
Zuckerberg (Hall, 2021). The initial idea of starting the company came from Mark
Zuckerberg. The platform was launched in college, where users were allowed to post updates
and create profiles to connect with friends ("Facebook," 2022). With Zuckerberg as the CEO,
Facebook has grown to include over one billion active clients, whereby most of them access
the platform through its mobile app ("Facebook," 2022). As of 2021, it was the most

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prominent social site globally, with around 3 billion users, and almost half of them were
utilizing the platform daily (Hall, 2021). Notably, access to the forum is free; thus, the
company primarily earns its cash from advertisements. Accordingly, the astronomical growth
witnessed in the company is not by accident but a result of strategic solid and open marketing
planning. Zuckerberg has played a pivotal role in ensuring the success and growth of
Facebook. In this regard, Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has employed several strategic
tools to enhance the firm's organizational performance. Thus, there is a need to describe and
analyze the strategic management style used by Mark Zuckerberg. Notably, several models
can be applied to understand different business strategies. This term paper examined the
definitions of entrepreneurship and entrepreneur as well as the business strategies, challenges,
and important stakeholders of Facebook's CEO. It also explored the Facebook Company’s
internal and external environments. Finally, it discussed several current strategic concerns
before making recommendations

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 CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Definitions of Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship is the process and entrepreneur is the person undertaking entrepreneurial
activity such as undertaking own business. According to Bantie Workie, M. C. (2019), the
common attributes of the definitions of entrepreneurship and entrepreneur are:-
1. Entrepreneurship is the process of identifying opportunities in the market place,
arranging the resources required to pursue these opportunities and investing the resources
to exploit the opportunities for long term gains. It involves creating incremental wealth
by bringing together resources in new ways to start and operate an enterprise.
2. Entrepreneurship is the processes through which individuals become aware of business
ownership then develop ideas for, and initiate a business.
3. Entrepreneurship can also be defined as the process of creating something different and
better with value by devoting the necessary time and effort by assuming the
accompanying financial, psychic and social risks and receiving the resulting monetary
reward and personal satisfaction.
4. Entrepreneurship is the art of identifying viable business opportunities and mobilizing
resources to convert those opportunities into a successful enterprise through creativity,
innovation, risk taking and progressive imagination.
Entrepreneurship is a practice and a process that results in creativity, innovation and
enterprise development and growth. It refers to an individual’s ability to turn ideas into action
involving and engaging in socially-useful wealth creation through application of innovative
thinking and execution to meet consumer needs, using one’s own labor, time and ideas, Bantie
Workie, M. C. (2019).
According to Bantie Workie, M. C. (2019), an entrepreneur can be defined as follows:
1) An entrepreneur is any person who creates and develops a business idea and takes the risk
of setting up an enterprise to produce a product or service which satisfies customer needs.

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2) An entrepreneur can also be defined as a professional who discovers a business
opportunity to produce improved or new goods and services and identifies a way in which
resources required can be mobilized.
3) An entrepreneur is an individual who: has the ability to identify and pursue a business
opportunity; undertakes a business venture; raises the capital to finance it; gathers the
necessary physical, financial and human resources needed to operate the business venture;
sets goals for him/herself and others; initiates appropriate action to ensure success; and
assumes all or a major portion of the risk.
2.2 Types of Entrepreneurs
According to Bantie Workie M. C. (2019, p.5) there are three different types of
entrepreneurship. They are:
1. The individual entrepreneur: An individual entrepreneur is someone who started;
acquired or franchised his/her own independent organization.
2. Entrepreneur: An Intrapreneur is a person who does entrepreneurial work within large
organization. The process by which an intrapreneur affects change is called
intrapreneurship.
3. The Entrepreneurial Organization: The entrepreneurial function need not be embodied
in a physical person. Every social environment has its own way of filling the
entrepreneurial function, Bantie Workie, M. C. (2019, p.5).
The Man behind Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, is the one from serial entrepreneurs who has
made a real impact on our lives. He’s created a global social network called Facebook and
that too, from the dorm room of his university, Taha Khan, (2022). However, it took him
years to make his invention a success. And when he did, Facebook went on to become one of
the most powerful companies in the world. Today, Facebook is the world’s most used social
network. Zuckerberg then kept on investing in social media platforms, including WhatsApp,
Instagram, Snapchat, and Oculus VR, among many others. On October 28, 2021, Mark
Zuckerberg, CEO, and founder of Facebook, announced that the company name would
change to Meta. The metaverse, “From now on, we’re going to be the metaverse first. Not
Facebook first”(Meta, 2021, 1:15:38). Mark Zuckerberg can also be described as a
transformational leader,because he motivates his employees through goal setting, offering

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incentives, and providing opportunities that allow his employees to grow. Additionally,
inspires and empowers his employees with a clear vision and goal.

2.3 Successful Entrepreneurs

There is a variety of theoretical approaches about the concept of successful entrepreneur that
has led to several definitions. A successful entrepreneur can be considered as:
 One who is able to generate individual and community wealth by developing a business
asset, and can do this repeatedly under a variety of circumstances (Lyons et al, 2007,
p.103)
 Good leader who have clear mission, purpose and values to be shared and sold to others,
(Makhbul, 2011, p.117).
In other words the success of an entrepreneur is measured by the success of its firm (Bosma et
al, 2000) and is synonyms to efficiency and firm growth (Tasnim et al, 2013, p.46). The most
important indicators of success or performance measure of entrepreneurs are the following
(Van Praag, 2005, P.6)
 The more personnel an entrepreneur as under his control, the more successful he is.
 The higher self-employment earnings are the more successful the entrepreneur is.
In essence, successful entrepreneurship captures the interaction between the entrepreneur and
the business, social environmental and community relationship (Nandram and Samsom, 2006,
p.2). It is also requires specific skills such as technical skills, managerial skills,
entrepreneurial skills, and personal maturity skills (Lyons et al, 2007).

2.4 ENTREPRENEURIAL SUCCESS OF MARK

ZUCKERBERG
As one of the youngest self-made billionaire in the American history, Mark Elliot Zuckerberg
is a computer programmer and a successful Internet entrepreneur (Hisrich and Kearney,
2014). He was born on the 14th May 1984 in White Plains, New York. His father is Edward
Zuckerberg, a dentist, and his mother is Karen Zuckerberg (ex-Kempner), a psychiatrist.
Mark grew up with his sisters: Donna, Randi and Arielle. He attended Ardsley High School in
Ardsley, New York, Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, and Harvard
University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in order to study computer science and psychology.

7
Since his enrolment in the middle school, Zuckerberg has begun using computers and
building software programs. When he was 13 years old, he designed “a basic computer
network for his family that he called ZuckNet” (Lusted, 2011, p. 20). In 2004, he launched
Thefacebook.com from his Harvard University dormitory room, an online directory that
allowed the connection of people through a social network at colleges. On its home screen
people could read: You can use The Facebook to: Search for people at your school, Find out
who are in your classes, Look up your friends' friends, and See a visualization of your social
network, (Kirkpatrick, 2011, p. 30)
In a very short period of time Thefacebook became a huge business success. In 2010, after
adding its 500-millionth member Facebook was valued at around $25 billion and Zuckerberg
was named “the most influential people of the Information Age” by the Vanity Fair magazine
(Deutschman et al., 2010). In six years he proved to have “a profound, unprecedented and
unimaginable impact on American culture, especially its youth, and is now spreading
Facebook’s tentacles worldwide and into every aspect of our lives” (Alef, 2010, p. 1-2). One
year later, the value of Facebook “was pegged at $100 billion, which can be linked to vast
financial speculation but also the company’s collection of user data over a seven-year time
span” (Scholz, 2013, p. 2). In 2016, Facebook reached $27.638 billion in revenue and $10.217
billion in profit (Fortune, 2017). In 2017, “one in six people on the planet are on Facebook
each day” (Galloway, 2017, p. 103).
“Facebook’s ultimate success owes a lot to the fact that it began at college” Kirkpatrick,
(2011, p. 39) where people socialize more easily, but, in fact, Zuckerberg’s role has been
decisive. At the heart of this exceptional achievement lays the genius of Zuckerberg, a gifted
American entrepreneur. As an Internet entrepreneur Zuckerberg is characterized by the
following attributes (Alef, 2010; Kirkpatrick, 2011; Ho You Gio and Yazdanifard, 2015;
Mishra and Mishra, 2017): visionary, intelligent, risk-taker, passion, hard-working, creative,
flexible, courageous, energetic, responsible, charming; team-builder, innovative, good listener,
perseverant etc.
Zuckerberg is not only a successful businessman and entrepreneur, a passionate technologist
and a creative leader, but also an active philanthropist and a responsible father, Sorin George
Toma, Paul Marinescu, and Catalin Gradinaru, (2017, p.160). He is the cofounder of

8
Facebook, a global platform that is placed at the core of a technology ecosystem and has
created a huge infrastructure for games, advertising and social interactions.

2.5 Key Stakeholders of Facebook

Users- The users of Facebook social media are the most important stakeholders of the
company since they are the ones who actually use the services and make the company popular
and successful. It can be said that without popularity amongst the user group Facebook could
have never been such a big name in technology hence it is of utmost importance that the
interests of the users are given topmost priority in stakeholder management by the company.
This group has the ultimate strength to initiate change and force the management to take big
steps and important decisions.
The actual behavior of this group is that there is huge popularity of Facebook and this group is
promoting the company and its business. However the recent incidents of data piracy on
Facebook have made the users more careful in posting information on this media. The users
may turn towards other social media platforms in the future and also there may be chance that
the popularity of social media may start coming down due to trends in reducing the excessive
dependency of social media. The cooperative potential of the user group is that this group
supports Facebook and its business currently.
Advertisers- Another important group of stakeholders for the company are the advertisers
who fuel money by giving advertisements in the Facebook media. The major source of
income for Facebook is through advertisements and it becomes essential to manage the
advertisers effectively. The advertisers should be given good services. However the recent
incidents of unfair use of data on Facebook and its negative publicity can have an adverse
impact on this stakeholder group and the management must take required steps in the interests
of its advertisers. There is need for better governance to make things transparent and protect
the interests of this group. This stakeholder group is non-supportive as it can easily choose
other competitors of Facebook for business and this is a big threat to the company. The
advertisers pose high risk for the company as the level of participation of this group is least.
The general behavior of this group is non-supportive and needs to be handled with a cautious
approach (Freeman 1984, pp.11-75).
Shareholders- The current shareholders of the company are another important stakeholder
group as they have invested in the company. This group is generally non-participative and less

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risky for the company (Freeman 1984, pp.11-75). The behavior of this group is less
participative in general. Facebook can adopt an approach of providing regular updates and
monitoring of this group. This approach can help in better management of this type of
stakeholders.
Employees–Employees are an important stakeholder group for Facebook as “satisfied
employees” are the key to success for any company including Facebook. Employees as
stakeholders are supportive and pose least threat for the company. (Savage et al.2011, pp.2 to
6).The management gets support from this group and it is considered the ideal stakeholder
group. Facebook should build a participative environment with its employees this can be very
useful in managing the employees. Involving employees in the management of the company
can be a useful tool to cope with this group.
2.6 Problems that Mark Zuckerberg faced in early days of
Facebook
Looking at the success of Mark Zuckerberg it is nearly impossible to imagine him having
gone through any hardships during his beginning stage of Facebook. But for every
entrepreneur facing multiple challenges is inevitable. This is what makes a strong player.
According to business alligator’s support, (2016) the following lists the major problems faced
by Mark Zuckerberg in the early days of the launch of Facebook.
1. Dealing with Criticism, Being called a “Toddler CEO”
• How to face media after the blame of idea theft.
• What to say about the hidden partners in public.
Talking about CEOs our minds jump to the names of Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. They co-
founded their companies at the age of 20. Both were unusual. It was until late that he got real
respect and recognition from the world. Even in the beginning phase when Mark Zuckerberg
was a college student, he faced a lot of criticism for getting the blame of having stolen the
idea of Harvardconnectins.com and building a competing product. The Twins from Mark’s
senior year claimed that Mark sabotaged their project and betrayed them. Mark Zuckerberg
confronted yet another challenge when Ben Mezrich wrote his far-famed book, ‘The
Accidental Billionaires’ was launched in 2009. Mezrich became intensely infamous for his
book telling Zuckerberg’s story, obviously with some acumen and garnish on the true one.
2. Funding and Investment

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 • How to transform Facebook into a Must-Own stock.
• Finding lead investors for Facebook was a challenge.
One of the biggest problems Mark Zuckerberg faced was how to attract investors and bring
money to the company. The problem of funding is one such issue that Mark Zuckerberg
overcame by running a few advertisements on its website initially. In 2004 when there wasn’t
any outside funding available, Mark put his own money into his business. It was a challenge
for Mark Zuckerberg to find potential lead investors and it was required that Facebook must
reach 1.5 million users by the end of 2004 in order to get the first angel Investment which
they narrowly missed but the loan was still allowed to them. When in 2005 the Accel
Partners agreed to make venture capital investment deal with Facebook, they expanded its
board to five seats out of which two were still empty and it was on Mark Zuckerberg to
nominate anybody for the seats. At the time Microsoft invested in Facebook in 2007, it
bought the ‘preferred stock’ and had the ‘liquidation preferences’ over the common
stockholders; it was a risk to Facebook if any day Facebook gets sold. It was until later that
Zuckerberg filed for an IPO that raised $16 billion making Facebook the third largest in U.S
history, but it also required Facebook to add bold revenue streams to justify such big
valuation.
3. Mark Zuckerberg needed critical mass of users to be successful
• How to create hype among users.
• Mark wanted to overcome people’s tendency to be lazy.
Critical mass means getting a sufficient number of adopters or long term users of any
innovation in the social system in such a manner that the rate of adoption becomes self-
sustaining and it leads to further growth. Before the launch of Facebook on the big platform,
Mark Zuckerberg knew his start-up would have to face this obstacle which can be resolved
only by achieving critical mass. If good ideas would just market themselves then the energy
could be solely devoted to making cool things, said Zuckerberg, but this is something which
needed to be garnered by efficiency and hard work, in order to survive, which Mark did. Due
to critical mass, Facebook will never have to charge people for access to basic tools.
4. Decision Making was the toughest part for Mark Zuckerberg
• What will be the consequences of turning down acquisition offers from every big
company?

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 • Whom to hire for the most important post of the company, i.e. The COO & CFO.
As the business starts to grow it becomes more and more critical to make decisions on every
level. Each decision opens the way for numerous other decisions. It is always necessary to ask
the right question in the face of any problem. A former employee said that initially the
company, Mark Zuckerberg approached every problem by asking “Does it help us grow?”
The genuine value of business planning and basic leadership is to distinguish the difficulties
and pitfalls and plan around them before they happen, instead of getting caught unaware by
them when the business is already set in motion.
5. Choosing what to sell and to whom
 How to protect Facebook from the rumors of its sale.
 Announcing the verdict of Facebook being an independent company.
Developing organizations confront a scope of difficulties. As a business develops, distinctive
issues and opportunities demand diverse solutions because what worked a year back might not
be the best approach now. Like every entrepreneur, Mark Zuckerberg was also having
problem in deciding what to sell and whom to sell during his early days of Facebook. As he
was one only one of his kind. The sales negotiation of Zuckerberg’s company was a major
challenge when MySpace was sold to News Corp in 2005. At first, there were rumors of the
possible sale of Facebook to a larger media company wherein Mark had already stated that he
didn’t want to sell the company. Later in 2006, there were serious talks between Yahoo and
Facebook for the acquisition of Facebook. It was in 2007 that Zuckerberg totally took the
chance and shut the doors in the face of buyers by saying that he wasn’t looking to sell
Facebook and he wants it to remain independent, at the time when the company’s worth was
around 8 billion dollars.
6. Mark had to prevent the Invasion of Privacy
 How to confide in 500 million users.
 What strategy to implement for 100% protection of information.
In 2005 and 2006 Mark was interviewed in detail about the privacy of its users’ information.
With the launch of every new product on its website, Facebook insists the users to share more
and more of their personal information. The claim was that Facebook probably sells the users’
information in order to make money. It was said that the FTC and members of Congress have
been looking into it; moreover, privacy groups lodged complaints against the privacy policy

12
of the website. Zuckerberg said “We do not allow the applications to share personal
information, plus, the advertisers can’t have access to it. But if application runners share it
with the advertisers, we disable their functioning on our website, we shut them down. We
make sure that people have control over their privacy and it will become the most
fundamental thing on the internet”.
Additionally, some others challenges being faced by Facebook are:
Negative publicity- Recently it was found that Facebook demographic data was used in a
Russian campaign in an unfair way (Studart 2018). Negative publicity of Facebook is a cause
of concern for the company as it has caused users to lose trust in the company. There have
been increasing demand to make the company more transparent especially strong governance
is needed on activities of its key management Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg
(Gaus 2018).
Misuses of public data – There have been a number of incidents of misuse of public data on
Facebook. Facebook has been facing issues on falling credibility as people have started losing
trust over the use of this social media platform.
Advertisements on Facebook media- Political advertising on Facebook has been criticized
in the recent times and needs to be more transparent (Mercer and Macaulay 2018). The
advertisements posted on Facebook need to be more transparent in order to make the
company safe from legal issues and also to reduce the number of cases of negative publicity.
Ever-changing Technology- Every day new changes are noted in the field of technology,
more advanced techniques are required by Facebook to keep their data safe and stay ahead
from the competitors. The nature of technology is such that it keeps on changing and hence
social platforms like Facebook need to invest huge amount to keep them updated.
Technology addiction- It has been found that Facebook works upon engaging its users by
means of attracting the users and keeping them addicted however this model is not good for
the users in the long run as it causes social media addiction and should not be promoted.
Some technology giants like Apple have joined hands with US and other developed nations
governments to reduce the dependency of people on social media (Gaus 2018). Problem on
tech addiction and steps being taken to reduce this is another pain area as Facebook
management has a lot to think in this area. As a trend in industry now the focus is to bring
down technology addiction and Facebook must partner in this.

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2.7 The Strategic Management style of Facebook
Facebook is a technology company and social network based in the United States. The firm
was developed in 2004 by Chris Hughes, Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, and Mark
Zuckerberg (Hall, 2021). The initial idea of starting the company came from Mark
Zuckerberg. Facebook's headquarters are situated in California, Menlo Park. Initially, the
platform was launched in college, where users were allowed to post updates and create
profiles to connect with friends ("Facebook," 2022). With time the site become famous for its
capability to share photos and videos, the like button, and the messaging option. Research
indicates that in the past thirteen years, Facebook has developed into a huge advertising
platform ("Facebook," 2022). In addition, the company has taken the initiative to spearhead
the provision of internet access in underdeveloped nations. Besides, the firm is also venturing
into virtual reality and artificial intelligence. With Zuckerberg as the CEO, Facebook has
grown to include over one billion active clients, whereby most of them access the platform
through its mobile app ("Facebook," 2022). As of 2021, it was the most prominent social site
globally, with around 3 billion users, and almost half of them were utilizing the platform daily
(Hall, 2021). Notably, access to the forum is free; thus, the company primarily earns its cash
from advertisements.
Accordingly, the astronomical growth witnessed in the company is not by accident but a result
of strategic solid and open marketing planning. Over the years, Zuckerberg has focused the
firm’s plan on the intelligent acquisition, aggressive monetization of users and rapid
development to increase its penetration into the market (Shukaev, 2019, p1). In addition,
Zuckerberg has played a pivotal role in ensuring the success and growth of Facebook. In this
regard, Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has employed several strategic tools to enhance
the firm's organizational performance. Thus, there is a need to describe and analyze the
strategic management style used by Mark Zuckerberg. Notably, several models can be applied
to understand different business strategies.
2.7.1 The Business and Corporate Strategies used by Zuckerberg
Over the years, Zuckerberg has employed several business strategies which have brought
positive contributions to the firm. One of the effective strategies that Zuckerberg has
embraced is the continuous acquisition of similar start-up companies. The first acquisition by

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Facebook occurred in 2009, whereby the company bought Friend Feed for $47.5 million
(Shukaev, 2019, p2). Notably, this acquisition enabled Facebook to compete with Twitter
since Friend Feed was a real-time web. Another significant investment by Zuckerberg was
that of Instagram; this move was made to counter the competition from Snapchat. Essentially,
the main reason for using these strategy patterns is to ensure that Facebook remains relevant
in the social network industry (Shukaev, 2019, p2). In 2014, Facebook acquired the
WhatsApp application for nineteen billion dollars (Shukaev, 2019, p2). This move enabled the
firm to compete effectively with rapidly developing companies such as Google Hangouts, Kik
Messenger, and Line. Thus, the acquisition has been one of the fundamental strategies that
have contributed to the tremendous growth of Facebook as a company. 
Another important strategy that Zuckerberg has utilized is the aggressive monetization of
users. According to Ray (2012), Facebook attributes a considerable percentage of its growth
to monetization (p4). According to Zuckerberg, individuals using mobile products are
engaged; thus, they hope to increase engagement while introducing new products and
enhancing their platform (Ray, 2012, p4). In addition, the CEO holds that Facebook is
determined to integrate monetization into its product teams to develop a more valuable and
more potent company (Ray, 2012, p4). The company is also planning the same strategy for
WhatsApp and Messenger.
Accordingly, the key results and objectives model can be used to elaborate on the use of
monetization and acquisition by Zuckerberg. Specifically, the theory involves integrating the
broader organizational objective into goals and assessing their significant results (Hart, 2022).
The model involves establishing about five attainable objectives and expected outcomes for
each (Hart, 2022). After identifying the results and objectives, one must plan initiatives to
achieve them. In the case of Zuckerberg, the main objectives are developing Facebook,
remaining relevant in the industry, and countering emerging competition. Thus, he
understands the need for the company to expand into different social network areas. As a
result, multi-billion-dollar firms have witnessed dramatic growth in evaluation and user base
(Shukaev, 2019, p3). Therefore, acquiring start-up companies enable Facebook to remain
growing, competitive and relevant in the technology industry. 
2.7.2 Internal and External Environment Analysis  

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Internal: - Facebook owns a considerable services portfolio, including Instagram, WhatsApp,
Messenger, and Facebook.com. WhatsApp is a secure, reliable, and simple messaging
application utilized by businesses and individuals across the globe to converse privately
(Helmond, Nieborg, and van der Vlist, 2019, p5). It serves more than one billion users who
fall between the age bracket of eighteen and twenty-nine (Helmond, Nieborg, and van der
Vlist, 2019, p5). Facebook enables individuals to communicate, discover, share and connect
on personal computers and mobile devices. The platform serves over 3 billion individuals
worldwide, with one-third of them consisting of the twenty-five to thirty-four age brackets
(Helmond, Nieborg, and van der Vlist, 2019, p5). On the other hand, the messenger is a
powerful but simple messaging application for individuals to associate with businesses,
groups, family, and friends. Lastly, Instagram brings individuals closer to things and people
they love. Thus, these four applications are the primary products of the Facebook firm.  
Additionally, Facebook has remarkable profitability and an exceptional leadership team.
Notably, the company generates significant revenue from its different platforms through
advertisement (Ray, 2012, p10). The chair, CEO, and founder of Facebook, Zuckerberg has a
primary responsibility to determine the company's product strategy and direction.  
External: - Given the broad scope of the social network and technology industry, Facebook
has several competitors, including TikTok, WeChat, Twitter, and YouTube. These platforms
keep Facebook on its toes; since they offer similar services as the company (Shukaev, 2019,
p6). Notably, Porter's five force model can be applied to understand the external environment
of Facebook. Under this perspective, Facebook experiences moderate rivalry in terms of
competition; since advertisers have several platforms to choose from. On the other hand,
suppliers possess average power; while Facebook shares a moderate substitution threat since
advertisers can utilize different media (Shukaev, 2019, p6). Lastly, the firm experiences
minimal entry threats due to the difficulty of amassing users. 
Lastly, one of the complex problems experienced by Facebook has been how to counter
competition rivalry. For instance, after the presidential election in 2016, the company faced
negative coverage that lasted for two years (Helmond, Nieborg, and van der Vlist, 2019, p2).
Interestingly, Facebook did not decrease its active users or its huge business partner’s network
as expected (Helmond, Nieborg, and van der Vlist, 2019, p2). Strategic management has been
one of the significant business frameworks that Zuckerberg has utilized to hold some of the

16
complex problems. The Facebook CEO has successfully laid out strategic missions and
objectives, which have helped the firm, maintain its competitive advantage (Helmond,
Nieborg, and van der Vlist, 2019, p3). Thus, regardless of the challenges faced, Facebook
remains the most popular social network.   
2.7.3 The Strategic Tools or Models used by The CEO of Facebook  
Zuckerberg has used two primary techniques, namely intensive growth and generic strategy,
to improve the organizational performance of Facebook. Specifically, these two strategies
have helped the firm maintain its competitive advantage regarding accessibility and efficiency
of services from online social networks (Greenspan, 2018). Michael Porter's theory can be
used to understand the generic strategy of competition. According to the model, every
company has a strategic direction and approach for business growth (Greenspan, 2018). In
this regard, Zuckerberg has adopted a generic strategy that guarantees a competitive
advantage and development through the features of a social network. In addition, the approach
ensures easy access to different platforms to capture a more significant percentage of the
market (Greenspan, 2018). Thus, Facebook has been able to address the competition from
firms like Snapchat, Twitter, and Google with a significant position in the sector of online
advertising (Greenspan, 2018). One of the effective generic strategies employed by
Zuckerberg is cost leadership. This entails minimizing the cost of executing business
(Greenspan, 2018). The strategy has enabled Facebook to offer different online services
worldwide. For example, the company utilizes computing technologies to increase the
efficiency and performance of its websites in social networking (Greenspan, 2018). Lastly,
Facebook can easily reach different internet users throughout the global market. 
Furthermore, the intensive growth strategy has also played a significant role in improving
Facebook's organizational performance. One of Zuckerberg's primary strategies of growth is
market penetration (Helmond, Nieborg, and van der Vlist, 2019, p7). The main objective here
is to increase the market share of the company. For instance, Zuckerberg has formed alliances
with different telecommunication firms to increase the number of users who benefit from the
services offered by Facebook (Helmond, Nieborg, and van der Vlist, 2019, p7). Thus, to
achieve this growth and offer the best service Facebook has been forced to enhance its
organizational performance. Another important strategy employed by Facebook for growth is
market development. The strategy focuses on joining new markets (Helmond, Nieborg, and

17
van der Vlist, 2019, p8). For instance, Zuckerberg has approached different governments for
coordination to permit their Citizens to use various social network services offered by
Facebook (Helmond, Nieborg, and van der Vlist, 2019, p8). This has enabled the firm to
improve its organizational performance to meet the global market's needs. Zuckerberg has
also used diversification to intensify growth by establishing new businesses. For example, he
bought Oculus VR to provide virtual reality technology that complements services in social
networking (Helmond, Nieborg, and van der Vlist, 2019, p8). Notably, this has significantly
improved the organizational performance of Facebook. 
2.7.4 How Zuckerberg created, developed, and designed strategic planning
Zuckerberg developed Facebook with a straightforward mission, making the world more
connected and open. Thus, to achieve this, he had to design and develop a strategic plan that
would help actualize his mission. The first step of the strategic plan was to increase the global
community enjoying Facebook's social networking services (Lynch and Coleman, 2018, p11).
However, to connect the whole world meant that every individual needed to have access to
the internet. Hence, part of Facebook's business strategy involves ensuring every individual is
connected to the internet (Lynch and Coleman, 2018, p11). Specifically, Zuckerberg has been
part of several campaigns worldwide to ensure that every individual has an internet
connection. Another essential step of Facebook's business strategy is expanding into different
social networking platforms (Lynch and Coleman, 2018, p8). In order to achieve this,
Zuckerberg embraced diversification and acquisition strategies. Specifically, Zuckerberg
came up with a plan to help his company remain relevant in the technology market. Thus, he
has bought several startup firms like WhatsApp and Instagram to expand Facebook in the
social networking sector (Helmond, Nieborg, and van der Vlist, 2019, p10). In addition,
diversification was an important strategy to include in Facebook's strategic plan. Notably,
Zuckerberg was focused on coming up with a strategy that meets the company's objectives. 
Additionally, given Facebook's line of work, Zuckerberg understood the firm was prone to
different problems. For instance, one of the significant problems experienced by the firm was
how to include every in its user base. According to Zuckerberg, over seven billion individuals
are across, but almost four billion people do not have access to the internet (Helmond,
Nieborg, and van der Vlist, 2019, p11). Thus, there is a need to close this gap and create
opportunities for this percentage that has been left out. On the other hand, Zuckerberg took it

18
upon himself to break down the wonky and messy challenges into manageable problems
(Ray, 2012, p10). Notably, he has been able to develop strategic planning that enables the
company to generate data that is accessible and cheap; hence, individuals from developing
countries can afford it. In addition, Facebook has simplified its content to ensure that
everybody understands it regardless of their education status. Zuckerberg has tried to ensure
that Facebook services are accessible to the poorest person in society. Lastly, the SWOT
analysis model can be applied to understand how Zuckerberg developed, created, and
designed the strategic planning for Facebook. The model involves weaknesses, threats,
opportunities, and strengths (Latief, Asniwati, and Akram, 2021, p4). Thus, to develop
appropriate strategic planning, Zuckerberg needs to consider these factors. 

2.7.5 Different Contemporary Strategic Issues in Strategy 

Strategy plays an essential role in the growth and development of a company. However,
several contemporary issues affect strategy in any business. The first contemporary strategic
issue is innovation. Notably, innovations in the management system and organizational
structure comprise new cooperation and coordination approaches (Stukalina, 2017, p5). In the
case of Facebook, innovation had been a significant issue of concern. Specifically, innovation
has pushed the company to get into collaborations and alliances to meet customers' emerging
needs. For example, the move by Facebook to partner with HTC and develop a Facebook
mobile phone was meant to counter the rising innovation of mobile gadgets (Stukalina, 2017,
p6). In addition, innovation is associated with the changes adopted by an institution to fit into
the existing market. Another contemporary issue is technology, whereby the rate of
technological improvement is exponentially high (Stukalina, 2017, p7). As a result,
technology capital investment has become an essential asset in different businesses. For
example, the move by Facebook to venture into virtue reality is a result of the need to be part
of the next-generation technology. Information overload is also a significant contemporary
issue in strategy. Existing research indicates that nothing is growing faster or charging more
than information (Stukalina, 2017, p 8). Estimates suggest that as of 2010, the worldwide
internet traffic was at around exabyte twenty-one a million terabytes (Stukalina, 2017, p8).
Hence, it is inevitable that information overload significantly impacts Facebook's daily
activities.      

19
Accordingly, the Innovation and resource-based perspective can be used to understand the
contemporary issues affecting strategy in Facebook. Innovation has been noted as one of the
significant issues that influence the activities and changes experienced by Facebook
Company. According to the competitive advantage resource-based theory, the long-term
success of an organization's innovation is dependent on its internal resources (Grant, 2019,
p5). The theory argues that internal resources allow a company to be competitive with its
competitors (Grant, 2019, p5). On the other hand, innovation contributes to the company's
financial performance in the market. According to this perspective, innovation is an
evolutionary procedure influenced by the firm's desire to improve financial performance
(Grant, 2019, p6). Thus, innovation has contributed significantly to the success of Facebook
as a company and social networking platform. As noted by the theory, its enormous internal
resources have facilitated Facebook's capability to be innovative. Thus, the growth of
Facebook has been a result of different individuals being creative and developing new ideas.
Lastly, through Innovation, Facebook has discovered new capabilities and interests in the
technology industry.

2.8 Conclusion
Entrepreneurship is a practice and a process that results in creativity, innovation and
enterprise development and growth. According to Bantie Workie M. C. (2019, p.5) there are
three different types of entrepreneurship. These are: the individual entrepreneur, entrepreneur,
and the Entrepreneurial Organization. The Man behind Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, is the
one from serial entrepreneurs who has made a real impact on our lives. He’s created a global
social network called Facebook and that too, from the dorm room of his university, Taha
Khan, (2022). On October 28, 2021, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, and founder of Facebook,
announced that the company name would change to Meta. He can also be described as a
transformational leader, because he motivates his employees through goal setting, offering
incentives, and providing opportunities that allow his employees to grow. A successful
entrepreneur can be considered as::- One who is able to generate individual and community
wealth by developing a business asset, and can do this repeatedly under a variety of
circumstances (Lyons et al, 2007, p.103), and Good leader who have clear mission, purpose
and values to be shared and sold to others, (Makhbul, 2011, p.117). As an Internet
entrepreneur Zuckerberg is characterized by the following attributes (Alef, 2010; Kirkpatrick,

20
2011; Ho You Gio and Yazdanifard, 2015; Mishra and Mishra, 2017): visionary, intelligent,
risk-taker, passion, hard-working, creative, flexible, courageous, energetic, responsible,
charming; team-builder, innovative, good listener, perseverant etc. Zuckerberg is not only a
successful businessman and entrepreneur, a passionate technologist and a creative leader.
As stated by Freeman (1984), the Key Stakeholders of Facebook are: - Users, Advertiser,
Shareholders, and Employees etc. The biggest problems that Mark Zuckerberg faced in
early days of Facebook are;- dealing with criticism, being called a “Toddler CEO”,
funding and investment, needed critical mass of users to be successful, decision making was
the toughest part for mark zuckerberg, choosing what to sell and to whom, and to prevent
the invasion of privacy. Additionally, some others challenges being faced by Facebook are: -
negative publicity, misuses of public data, advertisements on Facebook media, ever-changing
technology, and technology addiction are the main challenges. Over the years, zuckerberg has
focused the firm’s plan on the intelligent acquisition, aggressive monetization of users and
rapid development to increase its penetration into the market (Shukaev, 2019, p1). Facebook's
CEO, Mark zuckerberg, has employed several strategic tools to enhance the firm's
organizational performance. Thus, there is a need to describe and analyze the strategic
management style used by mark zuckerberg. These are business and corporate strategies,
internal and external environment analysis, tools or models used by the CEO, how zuckerberg
created, developed, and designed strategic planning, and different contemporary strategic
issues in strategy.
One of Zuckerberg's primary strategies of growth is market penetration (Helmond, Nieborg,
and van der Vlist, 2019, p7), to increase the market share of the company like formed
alliances with different telecommunication firms to increase the number of users who benefit
from the services offered by Facebook (Helmond, Nieborg, and van der Vlist, 2019, p7).
Another important strategy employed by Facebook for growth is market development that
focused on joining new markets (Helmond, Nieborg, and van der Vlist, 2019, p8). Zuckerberg
developed Facebook with a straightforward mission, making the world more connected and
open to design and develop a strategic plan that would help actualize his mission. The first
step of the strategic plan was to increase the global community enjoying Facebook's social
networking services (Lynch and Coleman, 2018, p11). Another essential step of Facebook's
business strategy is expanding into different social networking platforms (Lynch and

21
Coleman, 2018, p8). Specifically, Zuckerberg came up with a plan to help his company
remain relevant in the technology market. Thus, he has bought several startup firms like
WhatsApp and Instagramss to expand Facebook in the social networking sector (Helmond,
Nieborg, and van der Vlist, 2019, p10). One of the significant problems experienced by the
firm was how to include every in its user base. According to Zuckerberg, over seven billion
individuals are across, but almost four billion people do not have access to the internet
(Helmond, Nieborg, and van der Vlist, 2019, p11). Thus, there is a need to close this gap and
create opportunities for this percentage that has been left out. On the other hand, Zuckerberg
took it upon himself to break down the wonky and messy challenges into manageable
problems (Ray, 2012, p10). Zuckerberg has tried to ensure that Facebook services are
accessible to the poorest person in society. Lastly, the SWOT analysis model can be applied
to understand how Zuckerberg developed, created, and designed the strategic planning for
Facebook. The model involves weaknesses, threats, opportunities, and strengths (Latief,
Asniwati, and Akram, 2021, p4). Thus, to develop appropriate strategic planning, Zuckerberg
needs to consider these factors. Strategy plays an essential role in the growth and development
of a company. The several contemporary issues affect strategy in any business like innovation
and technology. Innovation and resource-based perspective can be used to understand the
contemporary issues affecting strategy in Facebook. Innovation has been noted as one of the
significant issues that influence the activities and changes experienced by Facebook
Company. According to the competitive advantage resource-based theory, the long-term
success of an organization's innovation is dependent on its internal resources (Grant, 2019,
p5). The theory argues that internal resources allow a company to be competitive with its
competitors (Grant, 2019, p5). On the other hand, innovation contributes to the company's
financial performance in the market. According to this perspective, innovation is an
evolutionary procedure influenced by the firm's desire to improve financial performance
(Grant, 2019, p6). Thus, innovation has contributed significantly to the success of Facebook
as a company and social networking platform.

2.9 Recommendations
Given the success that Facebook has enjoyed over the years, Zuckerberg has a huge task to
maintain the firm's current state into the future. Thus, he has to set goals that ensure the firm
remains relevant and keeps its pace of growth. First and foremost, Facebook should

22
concentrate on enhancing its public appearance as a socially conscious and secure platform.
Since the platform has experienced several casses of hostile critics, this will help clear the air
and control such criticism. In addition, Facebook needs to continue monetizing other
platforms like WhatsApp and Messenger. Due to their vast user base, the media can turn into
significant sources of revenue for the firm. Facebook should also focus on re-affirming its
commitment to security and privacy to ensure it wins back the trust and support of the public.
Additionally, the firm should focus on software and hardware development since it can
venture into this field. Facebook should focus on developing an app that caters specifically to
the needs and desires of the younger generation. This helps grow an innovative young
generation since they can share ideas and understands one another. Lastly, Facebook should
not stop its campaign of ensuring every individual is connected to the internet throughout the
world. Specifically, such a campaign plays a significant role in reducing illiteracy around the
globe and increasing connectivity to better people.

23
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