Mark Zuckerberg has "really lost his way," and is driving his firm Meta toward ruin, according to Bill George, a senior fellow at Harvard Business School.

George made these remarks in an interview with CNBC, discussing his latest book, "True North: Leading Authentically in Today's Workplace, Emerging Leader Edition." 

Tech CEO's Testify Remotely Before Senate Judiciary
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WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 17: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies remotely during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing titled, "Breaking the News: Censorship, Suppression, and the 2020 Election" on Capitol Hill on November 17, 2020 in Washington, DC. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is also scheduled to testify remotely.

Condemned to Fail

George has dedicated the last two decades of his life to researching leadership blunders in the workplace. George himself was a previous CEO of a medical technology business. 

His most recent book is a summary of his research, in which he discovered that bosses who lose sight of their principles and goals are condemned to fail. 

In essence, George claims that those in charge who lose sight of their most cherished ideals, principles, and role as a leader-especially when doing so for the sake of fame or power- are practically doomed.

He claims that after studying prominent company failures for decades, Zuckerberg and Meta of today bear significant similarities. 

As a student in college, Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook, which he has now grown into a $450 billion tech giant. He also oversaw the organization's redesign in preparation for creating the metaverse, which is expected to be the next big thing on the internet. 

However, the metaverse and everyone who entered it last year, 2021, has not had a good year in 2022. Building the platform has cost billions of dollars for Zuckerberg's rebranding business, and it has received a wave of criticisms after revealing a screenshot of Meta's Horizon Worlds for its graphics. 

Read also: Amazon Exec Says Zuckerberg's Metaverse a 'Distraction', Throws Shade At The Meta Project 

Bad Boss

In his book, George examines five different sorts of bad bosses, and he claims that Zuckerberg fits into not just one but three of those types. 

First, George claims that Zuckerberg is a rationalizer, the kind of leader that refuses to own up to or learn from their mistakes, so they resort to blaming others. 

In February, Meta had the largest single-day decline of any American stock in history, losing more than $232 billion from its market value, as per CNBC. 

The outcomes were attributed to several causes by Zuckerberg and his team, including Apple's privacy changes in 2021, which have made it more difficult to target advertisements to smartphone consumers, and growing competition from rivals like TikTok

Secondly, George claims that Zuckerberg has turned into a loner who avoids developing close connections and alienates others. These bosses frequently refuse assistance, suggestions, or criticism, which leaves them open to more errors. 

Lastly, he believes that Zuckerberg is a glory-seeker who values fame and money above all else. These are the bosses that are never genuinely happy with what they have and would do anything to get more. 

George claims that Zuckerberg puts Meta's earnings and growth ahead of the company's billions of users.

However, he still believes that Zuckerberg can still turn things around if he takes a break from work and reflects on his goals and principles that would ultimately shape Meta.

Related Article: Could the Metaverse Become a Successor to the Internet? Here's How It Might Turn Out  

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Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla

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