Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:

This is an individual assignment. For 20 total Catalyst points, identify a business leader you most admire. What qualities does he or she possess that make the person a good leader (15 points)? Describe based on the quality and attributes from your textbook. Start a new discussion thread for your post and go to one of your classmates' posts and comment on how that leader is similar or different (5 points) (your comments should be more than just I agree or good point). If someone already picked a leader, you cannot pick the same person. Steve Jobs is not available since we have discussed his qualifications and accomplishments extensively.

Here are some students essays: (DO NOT PICK A SAME LEADER)
1.
The business leader I most admire is Ma Yun, a significant and successful Chinese entrepreneur. He is well known of being the richest man in China as of November 2014. However, what I admire him the most is his attitude towards changing. He embraces change as an opportunity rather than a threat. In his early year of career, he worked in a department of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation of an information technology company. It was quite a decent job for most of the people, with good salary and satisfying working environment. But Ma Yun quitted his job, and he found Alibaba in his apartment with his friends, which is the beginning of Ma Yun’s business empire. New working environment is fearful, and unknown future often causes people hesitate to make a change. However, the successful example of Ma Yun motivates me that changing in life often comes with opportunities. 

2.
A business leader I admire is Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon. In 1994, Bezos left a high-paying job to start up his company after learning about the growth of the internet. I find it very admirable that Bezos had the courage to leave a job that was very secure to try something out of his comfort zone. Now, Bezos is considered the key role in the growth of e-commerce. I know there are many other entrepreneurs who took risks to become successful. However, a quality Bezos has that tops the others is his attentiveness. It is known that Bezos pays a lot of attention in to his business, especially the details. It is this attentiveness that Bezos and I share in common. And I find it important to know the details in order to run a successful business.

3.
Li jiacheng is a chinese business magnate based in Hong Kong. He is the richest person of East asian descent in the world and the eleventh richest person in the world with an estimated wealth of US $26.0 billion on 10 March 2011. Presently, he is the Chairman of Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL) and Cheung Kong Holdings, through them, he is the world's largest operator of container teminals and the world's largest health and beauty retailer.

Considered one of the most powerful figures in Asia. His companies make up 15% of the market cap of the Hong Kong stock exchange. Forbes magazine and the Forbes family honored Li Ka-Shing with the first ever "Malcolm S. Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award" on Sep5,2006,in Singapore. In spite of his wealth, Li has cultivated a reputation for leading a no-frills lifestyle, and is known to wear simple black dress shoes and an inexpensive Seiko wristwatch, which is at odds with the house he owns in one of Hong Kong's most expensive precincts. Deep Water Bay. Li is also regarded as one of Asia's most generous philan thropists, donating over US $1.41 billion to date to charity and other various philanthropic causes.

4.
Howard Schultz is the current CEO of Starbucks. He is a leader with great charisma when it comes to dealing with employees across the company. He has three main levels of interaction that work best for him. He names them as speaking from the heart, putting himself into the employees’ shoes, and sharing the dream and vision of the company with all of them (Hackman, & Johnson 256). The goal of his leadership is to sustain the passion that he sees in his employees and create a personality that can be associated with good leadership. He also wants to instill reverence amongst all employees as a way of increasing their competence when dealing with the coffee experience at the company. 

  He embodies the transformational democratic leadership style that allows people within the company to exercise better control of their visions as a whole. Ideally, his transformation comes with selling out his vision and inspiring workers to participate in the building of the company. He is empathetic and knows that people only grow if they have the right training and vision to achieve their goals.  His communication strategy is from top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top (Hackman, & Johnson 256). He knows that the only way of achieving success is by allowing people to be involved in the process of running the company. He offers the guidance and allows everyone to make contributions. He also values quality and does not seem perturbed by allowing others to chip in. This kind of emotional stability has made it easier to push the company to higher heights and attaining the intended growth with the company for the longest time possible (Hackman, & Johnson 256).