Faced with a stock price down 75 percent since its IPO and
conflict with subordinates throughout 2012, Zynga’s chief executive Mark Pincus
had plenty on his plate as he met with Bill Campbell of Apple in September of
that year. Zynga investor and venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield
& Byers had brought Campbell in to advise the CEO. While it is tempting to
play around the edges and work on “communication processes” and hand out more
employee stock-options, the bottom-line in such cases is typically the need to
improve the products either simply to be better products or better tailored to
changing consumer tastes and habits. Product development that can transform
companies may result from the vision of a leader for whom strategy is simply a
matter of reaching a destination already known.
Mark Pincus, CEO of Znyga. From this picture, it is hard not to like the guy. Reuters
The full essay is at "Visionary Leadership: The Case of Zynga."
