Mark Zuckerberg’s poor leadership skills are slowly dragging Meta down to failure, a Harvard expert says.
Zuckerberg’s shortcomings as CEO are “continuing to bedevil” the tech giant formerly known as Facebook, according to Bill George, a senior fellow at Harvard Business School and former CEO of medical technology company Medtronic.
“I think Facebook won’t do well as long as he’s there,” George tells CNBC Make It. “He’s probably one of the reasons why so many people are leaving the company. He’s really lost his way.”
George has spent the past 20 years studying leadership failures in the workplace, most recently summarizing these findings in a new book called, True North: Authentic Leadership in Today’s Workplace, Edition for Leaders in development”.
In short, George says that bosses who lose sight of their deepest beliefs, values, and purpose as leaders—especially in the name of money, fame, or power—are doomed to fail. And after decades of researching high-profile corporate collapses, he says he sees striking similarities to Zuckerberg and Meta today.
Zuckerberg and Meta did not immediately respond to CNBC Make It’s request for comment. The Meta CEO is largely responsible for his company’s meteoric rise to this point, transforming the company he co-founded in 2004 into a tech giant with a market cap of $450.46 billion as of Monday morning.
In doing so, he helped create the modern social media industry—a move he’s trying to replicate now by repositioning his company in the metaverse space. Given his past success, it might not be wise to bet against him, as CNBC’s Jim Cramer said on “Squawk Box” in February.
“I know this is probably out of fashion, I have full faith in Mark Zuckerberg. I think Zuckerberg will be able to achieve … the metaverse,” Cramer said, adding that Meta has a history of recovery after shares. decline, scandal and controversy. “There are some people you have to bet on. And if you go back to 2018 to that terrible summer crisis … nobody thought these people could come back.”
However, George says Meta will fail as long as Zuckerberg remains in charge. That is why:
A rationalizer who blames others
George’s book looks at five different types of bad bosses. Zuckerberg falls into not one, but three of those categories, George says.
First: George says Zuckerberg is a rationalizer, the kind of boss who isn’t willing to admit or learn from his mistakes. Instead, they rationalize missteps by putting the blame on others.
In February, the Meta lost more than $232 billion of its market value, marking the biggest one-day decline of any US stock in history. Zuckerberg and his executives blamed the results on several factors, including Apple’s 2021 privacy changes that have made it harder to target ads to smartphone users, as well as increased competition from rivals like TikTok.
These factors may have played a role – but it’s also likely that the huge expenditure on metaverse research and development played a role. Meta’s virtual reality division reported more than $10 billion in losses during 2021 alone and $2.8 billion during the second quarter of 2022 alone.
At least publicly, Zuckerberg has yet to admit or take responsibility for it, George says — although Zuckerberg said during a shareholder meeting in May that he expects his company to lose “significant” amounts of money over the next three to five years future, as it invests in metaverse technologies.
A loner who doesn’t take advice
Zuckerberg has become a loner who avoids forming close relationships and pushes others away, George says. Those bosses often don’t accept help, advice or feedback, which makes them prone to mistakes.
To some extent, Zuckerberg is known for trusting his gut over conventional wisdom: It’s part of how he built Meta into a multibillion-dollar tech giant. In the early days, however, he at least received some advice from trusted advisers.
One example: Roger McNamee, co-founder of private equity firm Elevation Partners and an early investor in Facebook. In 2006, McNamee advised Zuckerberg to reject Yahoo’s offer to buy Facebook for $1 billion. McNamee later encouraged Zuckerberg to hire former CEO Sheryl Sandberg, who ultimately played a critical role in building the company’s advertising business and internal operations.
Both times, Zuckerberg’s decisions were subject to McNamee’s advice — and both decisions have turned out to be very successful. However, as Meta grew, Zuckerberg eventually stopped listening, McNamee told the New Yorker in 2019.
The decision may have had at least one major consequence: In 2016, McNamee tried to warn Zuckerberg about the impact of Russian meddling in the US election on Facebook’s platforms. Zuckerberg reportedly dismissed the warning, ignoring McNamee for months.
US intelligence agencies have concluded that Facebook was a key platform in Russia’s meddling efforts, which may have contributed to the election of President Donald Trump.
A glory seeker who prioritizes profits
Finally, Zuckerberg is a glory seeker who puts fame and fortune above all else, George says. These types of bosses are never satisfied with what they have and are willing to go to extremes to earn more.
Zuckerberg prioritizes Meta’s profits and growth, even at the expense of the company’s billions of users, George says. It’s not a unique observation: Zuckerberg’s company has long been embroiled in controversy over issues related to the privacy and health of its users.
In one case, a Wall Street Journal investigation last year found that the Meta-owned Instagram platform was contributing to users’ mental health problems, particularly among teenage girls. The investigation revealed that Meta’s leadership actively chose to ignore the problem, to avoid jeopardizing user engagement and growth.
The decision shows Zuckerberg’s desire to prioritize revenue above all else, George says.
Update: This story has been updated to reflect earlier comments from Zuckerberg and CNBC’s Jim Cramer.
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