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Date: April 14th – 25th

Subject: Career Exploration

Total Periods: 10

Grade Level(s): 9

Description
The lessons seek to encourage some discussion about the nature of leadership, such as what the characteristics of a 'good leader' are. Also, consider why there might be different - and equally appropriate - leadership options for the same situation.
Objectives (Design): / Arizona Content Standards
·  Identify the main types of leadership style
·  Identify the main characteristics of different theories of leadership - trait, transactional, etc.
·  Demonstrate an ability to apply different leadership styles and characteristics to different business situations
·  Demonstrate an understanding of the problems associated with leading change in an organization
·  Show an understanding of the process by which individuals and groups cope with change
·  Demonstrate an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of different leadership approaches to a problem / 5.0 Demonstrate Decision Making and Critical Thinking Skills Required for Career Success. 5.1-5.3
7.0 Develop Leadership and Teamwork Skills Required for the Workplace. 7.3. 7.5
Materials and Resources (Development)
Computers connected to the Internet, Microsoft Office installed. Copy or email the assignment to students. Projector and wide screen may be helpful.
Procedures (Development & Implementation):
Set the Stage: Ask the students to think of a community service project during this lesson. Recognize that adapting to change is important in the 21st century, why many people resist change, and how managers can reduce resistance to change.
You may want to hand out or email the assignments to help guide the students thinking and comprehension.
1.  Teacher should go to this site to familiarize yourself about leadership http://www.bized.co.uk/educators/16-19/business/hrm/lesson/leadertypes.htm
2.  Show PowerPoint on the big screen using the projector from the site above, under resources or included within your lesson plan. Or ask students to open the presentation on their computers.
3.  Read the articles below about Bill Gates, Henry Ford and Phil Knight.
4.  Discuss the feedback from this exercise - try to make a list of characteristics that define (at this stage) what makes a good leader.
5.  Have students complete the two assignments at the end of this lesson.
6.  Brainstorm some idea and put the planning in place for a community service project to begin May 10th. From the student papers the teacher needs to find the top 3 issues they are concerned with.
Evaluation
Completed written assignment = 30 points (10 points per paragraph)
Self Evaluation Form = 30
Total Points = 60

Leadership the Bill Gates Way

Key Words – Lijjat Papad, Women and Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial venture, seven, Visionary, leadership, Bill Gates, Gates, contribution, Information Technology, IT, entrepreneurial, managerial skills, contribution, strengthen, product development, human resources, marketing management, Microsoft Corporation, criticism, leadership style

"Bill Gates is a modern business phenomenon: the greatest of the cyber-tycoons. His is not simply a story of technical brilliance and enormous wealth; it is one of remarkable business vision and an obsessive desire to win. It is also about a leadership style that is radically different to anything the business world has seen before."

-  Des DearLove in his book, Business the Bill Gates Way.

INTRODUCTION

In 1993, William Henry Gates III, popularly known as Bill Gates (Gates), was conferred the 'Price Waterhouse Leadership Award for Lifetime Achievement' by the Computerworld Smithsonian Honors Program (CSHP). This award was presented to Gates for his remarkable contribution to the Information Technology (IT) revolution, for the distinctiveness of its conception, for the wide reach of its vision, and the benefits it brought to the society.

In 1996, Gates was named the 'Technology Leader of the Year' by the editors of Industry Week for his corporate guidance and for his unique ability to make his company – Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft) – adapt quickly to changes in the industry.

With a market capitalization of US$ 260 billion on May 23, 2003, Microsoft had emerged as the global computer software leader and the world's most valuable company. Gates, the erstwhile CEO of Microsoft, was also the world's wealthiest individual.

Microsoft dominated the global PC software market. According to analysts, Gates had played a pivotal role in Microsoft's success.

He had made major contributions to strengthen the product development, human resources and marketing efforts of the company. Appreciating Gates leadership, James Collins, co-author of the book – Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, said, "To my mind, Microsoft has never been a company. It's a single remarkable individual, Gates, with thousands of the smartest, best-paid people anywhere helping that individual. It's basically like a big wheel, with Gates at the hub."
Though Gates was highly appreciated for his visionary leadership, he was also criticized by some analysts. Critics felt that sometimes Gates took things so much to heart that his emotional feeling overshadowed his rational thinking. They said that Gates' intense rivalry with some of his competitors made him personalize every battle and obscured his judgment. Critics claimed that winning was so important to Gates that he would go to any extent to beat his opponent. James Wallace of Seattle Post-Intelligencer said, "Bill Gates not only wants to win, but he wants to kill the competition. He wants to bury the wounded."

BACKGROUND NOTE

Gates was born in Seattle, Washington, US, on October 28, 1955. His father, William Henry Gates (II) Jr., was a lawyer while his mother, Mary Gates, was a school teacher. At a very young age, Gates exhibited a lot of intelligence and zeal. At the primary school itself, he excelled in Math and Science. Since his childhood, he was fond of reading business magazines like Fortune. Noticing his precocity, his parents enrolled him in Lakeside Preparatory School (LPS) in seventh grade at the age of 12. At LPS, Gates saw a computer for the first time in his life.
Gates, along with his friend, Paul Allen (Allen), used to spend hours in front of the computer. Sometimes he spent the whole day in the computer room reading computer books and magazines and developing computer programs. Gates was so obsessed with the computer that he often missed his classes and never did his homework on time.

In late 1968, Gates and Allen, along with two other schoolmates, formed a group called the 'Lakeside Programmers Group' (LPG). Gates and Allen always dreamed of solving practical problems through the use of computers. They got an opportunity in 1971 when Information Sciences Inc. (ISI) recruited them to develop a program to manage their payroll system.
In return for their work, ISI offered them free unlimited computer time. In addition, it provided LPG a fixed amount of income by way of royalties on the business made by ISI by selling LPG's programs. By entering into a business agreement with ISI, LPG gained a legal status.
Gates and Allen soon got many opportunities to prove their computer skills. In the fall of 1972, they started their own company called 'Traf-O-Data.' They developed a portable computer that allowed them to gauge traffic flow, do analysis and prepare reports. This project fetched them a sum of $20,000. Traf-O-Data existed only until Gates' entry into the college. When Gates was in his junior year, he received a job offer from the college administration to computerize the college's scheduling system….

ICFAI Center for Management Resources – http://www.icmr.icfai.org/casestudies/catalogue/Leadership%20and%20Entrepreneurship/LDEN014.htm

Henry Ford – A Great Innovator –

Key Words – Leadership, entrepreneurial, Henry Ford, Ford Motor Company, car, Model T, assembly line approach, mass-production, Highland Park, generating employment, US, managing human resources, criticisms, managerial practices.

"I will build a motor car for the multitude. It shall be large enough for the family, but small enough for the unskilled individual to operate easily and care for, and it shall be light in weight and it may be economical in maintenance. It will be built of honest materials, by the best workmen that money can hire, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it shall be so low in price that the man of moderate means may own one and enjoy with his family the blessings of happy hours spent in God's great open spaces."

- Vision of Henry Ford (1903).

"Ford's action transformed American industrial society."

- Peter Drucker, economist and management guru.

"There was no way to escape the fact that Henry Ford was the great business impresario of his era – or any era for that matter."

-  Douglas Brinkley, author, Wheels for the World.

INTRODUCTION

In November 1999, Fortune magazine named Henry Ford (Ford), founder of the Ford Motor Company (Ford Co.) as the 'Businessman of the 20th Century.' Ford was accorded this honor for transforming the lives of billions of people and revolutionizing the automobile world by creating a car which was affordable to the common working middle class. Ford was chosen ahead of three other finalists – Alfred Sloan Jr. (General Motors), Thomas Watson (IBM), and Bill Gates (Microsoft) – as the 20th century business leader.

Sheryl James (James), Detroit Free Press, reporter, feature writer, and winner of the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing (journalism), said, "Ford Motor Co.'s founder was a charismatic risk-taker who relentlessly pursued his vision." In December 1999, Ford was named the 'Automotive Entrepreneur of the Century' by the Car of the Century (COTC) International panel of journalists and historians for his invaluable contributions to the world and in particular to the field of automobile manufacturing.

Dick Holzhaus, founder, COTC International (Netherlands), commented, "The twentieth century can, in retrospect, be regarded as the 'century of the car' – a revolution of technology and lifestyle.

In this revolution, Ford Motor Company paved the way both as a manufacturer and as an industry leader. It was Henry Ford's vision to give people unprecedented mobility that changed the lives of millions throughout the world." These awards and recognitions were in recognition of Ford's invaluable contributions to the automobile industry. Ford was credited with enhancing the standards of living of people with his inventions like the quadricycle and the Ford Model T, and his use of the assembly-line production approach in the early 1900s.
Ford had formulated a philosophy of three Ps – People, Products and Profit – for his company. Explaining the relationship between the three Ps, he said in 1916, "I don't believe we should make such an awful profit on our cars. A reasonable profit is right, but not too much. I hold that it is better to sell a large number of cars at a reasonably small profit…...I hold this because it enables a larger number of people to buy and enjoy the use of a car and because it gives a larger number of men employment at good wages. Those are the two aims I have in life."

BACKGROUND NOTE

Ford was born on July 30, 1863 during the US Civil War in a farmland at Dearborn, near Detroit, Michigan. His mother passed away in March 1876. Later the same year, Ford got a job at the Michigan Car Company, but was sacked six days later for indicating a flaw in his foreman's work (Refer Exhibit I for important events in Ford's life).
As a boy, Ford developed his interest in mechanics by taking watches apart to look at how they worked. He would take the watch apart and then make it work again by joining the components together. Describing Ford's nature, Brinkley said, "Like the automobile itself, Ford's mind was never stationary. He was antsy to the point of near insanity and always willing to roll the dice, taking calculated risks and dreaming of a better tomorrow."
While still a school boy, Ford developed a steam turbine engine with a high number of revolutions per minute, which unfortunately burst and destroyed the school walls. Ford had a tool kit at home, which included a screwdriver, designed from a knitting needle and a pair of pincers, shaped from a watch spring. He loved to 'tinker' with things and was nicknamed the 'Grand Tinkerer.'

Ford dropped out of school at the age of 15. He had a strong aptitude for mechanics and engineering. He was keenly interested in learning how different things worked. Elucidating Ford's unique personality, James said, "Ford was a gregarious, well-liked youth, but not overly studious. He was a hands-on learner, always tinkering."
In 1879, when Ford was 16, he ran away from home. He went to Detroit where he worked as a trainee in a machine shop called James Flower & Brothers (JF&B) to learn how machines were made. Here, Ford acquired new skills such as to read blueprints and also studied the working of the internal combustion engine. Ford worked six days a week at JF&B and was paid $2.50 a week for ten hours work per day. He stayed on this job for three years.

In 1881, he began working at Dry Dock Engine Works (DDEW), a steamship company in Detroit. This gave him a chance to work with motors. Dissatisfied with his work at DDEW, Ford went back to Dearborn in 1882. He spent a few years in Dearborn in various activities like managing and repairing steam engines, working temporarily in Westinghouse Engine Company (Detroit), and repairing his father's farm equipment….