Lawrence “Larry” Page was born on 26^th March, 1973 in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. He is a world renounced computer scientist and internet entrepreneur. He co-founded Google with Sergey Brin in 1998 (White, 2007). Initially Google was Larry’s PHD project at the University of Michigan called BackRub at that time. The father of Larry Page was also a computer scientist with a PHD in computer sciences. His mother was a computer programming instructor Lyman Briggs College at the University of Michigan (Green, 2015). I would be safe to say that Larry Page had an opportunity since childhood to be in contact with the field of computer science and it would have greatly contributed to shaper him as a successful internet entrepreneur. The purpose of this paper is to analyze Larry Page from a perspective of a present, successful entrepreneurial leader. This paper sheds light on the leadership capabilities of Larry Page and also analyzes his personality in the light of different theories of personality. I will be discussing the factors that contributed to Larry Page’s success as a leader and what it tells us in terms of leading a team with high productivity and innovation. In the introductory part, I will focus on the skills, traits and behavior of Larry Page that will provide an opportunity to understand him as a person and how these factors contribute to him in making him what he is today.

Skills profile

As mentioned earlier, Larry page is a computer scientist. He possess a variety of technical and interpersonal skills. He is a person with a clear vision about what he want to do in the future and where he want Google and other of its subsidiaries. One of the sources behind his success is the fact that he is technically very strong. He has a great knowledge of computers and he is a great programmer. If we look at where Google came from, we can see that it originated from Larry Page’s PHD research project called BackRub (Battelle, 2005). Larry was interested in finding out ways in which a huge database of the information available on the internet can be crawled in a manner that it can be related to some key terms or keywords. At the user end, they can key in these keywords and they well be presented with the list of associated internet resources associated with these keywords. It was the technical background that enable Larry to design and develop an algorithm that was then transferred to a computer program that achieved the desired results.

Larry Page has very strong communication skills. He is confident in presenting his ideas to the larger audience. He also encourages an idea communication process at Google where a good idea can reach the top management irrespective of the position of the presenter. Communication skills are the fundamentals to effective leadership (Barge, 1994). Effective communication is required to influence people (Lussier, and Achua 190) and this is the property possessed by Larry Page.

Traits and corresponding behavior

As I have assessed from my research for the current project, I believe that Larry Page possesses two of the Big Five Personality Traits. He is Open to Experience an Extrovert.

Larry page is a futuristic person. He believes in new experience and innovation. According to the Big Five Personality Traits, People who are open to new experience want to explore new things and are not afraid of the risks that might hinder them (Gosling, Rentfrow, and Swann, 2003). It is this quality of Larry Page that has enabled Google to grow from a single search engine to a world leading company with innovative subsidiaries like AdSense, Google Analytisc, Android, Gmail and many more.

Larry Page is an extrovert who loves to share his ideas. During his PHD research, he was open about what he is expecting of BackRub and that is why he was able to establish a research partnership with Sergey Brin which then converted to a business partnership and still exists. Larry page is seen in many seminars and conferences delivery talks about what he want to do in future.

Leadership analysis

This is a fact that without an effective leader, there is no concept of an effective and productive organization. Leaders are humans and they are influenced by their nature and nurture. In the same way the leaders affect the behavior of others who are related to them somehow. Larry Page is also an effective leader as we all are aware of how successful organization Google has developed under his leadership. In this section of the paper, I would like to focus on the entrepreneurial leadership qualities and capabilities of Larry Page. I have divided the discussion to two broader sections i.e. Leadership Style and Leadership Traits.

Leadership Style

Larry Page is an entrepreneurial leader who has always led from the front. He did not inherit any of his businesses. He is the one who started them and made his businesses successful. This requires a great deal of dedication and trust on one’s self. He started the Google idea himself and then he came in contact with other people and some of them became his associates. Larry Page is a charismatic leader who has been leading since a young age and have been inspiring others over the times. Following are the different aspects of his leadership styles that, in my opinion make him a successful internet entrepreneurial leader. These are the points that Larry Page has mentioned at several talks (Beahm, 2014).

Don’t delegate

A leader is who trusts on the capabilities of his team and strives to provide them opportunities to self-improve (Lussier, and Achua, 2013). Larry page is a leader who believes in his team and is fully involved in the organizational activities at Google. Larry Page is a firm believer in not delegating his duties to others. In fact he is the one who does not delegate innovation, instead he leads the innovation (Beahm, 2014) which is one of the fundamental quality of leaders in the modern world. Larry Page has developed a very simplified organizational structure at Google where every person knows his/her duties and they are not encourage to delegate their duties to others. This brings a sense of responsibility and commitment to their work.

Don’t get in the way if you are not adding quality

Research has indicated that unnecessary interruption by seniors at jobs can contribute to staff burn-out (Freudenberger, 1974). In one of his talks (Beahm, 2014), Larry page pointed out that at Google, they have developed an organizational culture where people do not disturb each other unnecessarily. Each person takes full responsibility of what he/she is tasked with. Others can only interrupt you if you have a problem and they have the solution. If they don’t have the solution, you have to brainstorm the problem and use problem solving techniques to come up with plausible solutions. This organizational culture contributes highly to an effective environment which has a less chance of conflicts resulted from undue interruptions and disturbances.

Avoid bureaucratic leadership style

Bureaucratic leadership is one of the complex type of leadership (Uhl-Bien and Marion, 2009) in which is based on allocating fixed duties and has well defined hierarchal structure of authority in an organization. Bureaucratic leadership is in action in public organizations (Meier, 1989) that explain to a larger extant why these organizations lack innovation. Larry Page has developed Google to be an organization based on the principles of “Adhocracy” where staff are free to think and innovate. There are no fixed hours of work at Google (Jarvis, 2011). Google staff have the power to decide their own working hours. Larry Page is the CEO of the world’s largest internet firm but still does not enjoy a leadership style where he has all the decision making power in the organization.

Ideas are more important than age

As a young entrepreneur leader, Larry Page believes in ideas not what someone’s age is. Traditionally age and experience have been at the forefront of the concept of effective leadership. This traditional leadership style is dependent on what others have been doing and what are to be future leaders learning from them. It has little room for innovation. Instead it is based on following not leading. In the modern time if we look at Facebook, Twitter, Google, WhatsApp and other successful ventures, we can observe that there is young blood behind it with little experience and more innovation. Larry Page has been a successful young entrepreneur and he believes in innovation that is not dependent on the age of innovator (Lowe, 2009). I believe that the present and future belongs to young minds who possess a capacity to think out of box and take risks to identify problems, define them and come up with plausible solutions.

Motivating his team

Motivation is one of the fundamental aspect of an organization. Larry Page, as the CEO of Google believes in a leadership style where the full capacity of the employs can be reached if proper motivation I provided. For this reason, Larry Page has made it sure that the employs at Google enjoy benefits to an extent that their mind can remain free of any stress. At Google, all employs enjoy free health insurance, attractive retirement benefits, free gym and fitness training, free lunches and dinners, travel insurance, new parent allowance and much more (“Inside Look at Google’s Best Employee Perks | Inc.com,” 2015).

Leadership Traits

In this section of the paper I would be focusing on the leadership traits of Larry Page and how they have contributed to build up his personality to be followed by hundreds of thousands of people around the globe. There are many leadership traits that have been identified by scientific research but I would be focusing on those traits that I believe are the core factors behind Larry Page’s success.

Commitment and Communication

Larry Page have been one of the most committed person in the world in my opinion. Google under his leadership has always been evolving and bringing new ideas to the world market. He has the capacity to communicate effectively to his team. He listens and appreciates ideas from all the people working at google.

Pervasiveness

Larry Page is involved at all levels of Google operations. He listens and provides his opinions. He is a pervasive leader who does not keep a distance between himself and others working as part of his team. Larry Page is even involved in the recruitment process which helps him identify potential future innovators for his organization.

Futuristic and Innovative

Leadership is all about perceiving the future and finding innovative ways to achieve the futuristic goals. Google has incorporated a system of innovation under the leadership of Larry Page that focuses on identifying future opportunities and working in effective teaks to exploit these opportunities. A proper system of innovation is a fundamental part of futuristic organizations (Edquist, 2011).

Conclusion

Larry Page is one of the great Entrepreneurial Leader of the modern world. He has revolutionized the internet business industry by letting people reach the information they need from billions of webpages available online. Google is the largest employer of the world. He is kind of an Entrepreneur who enabled hundreds of thousands other online entrepreneurs earn from their websites with the help of Google AdSense scheme.

Larry Page believed in his idea of a global search engine for the internet that would help online users explore internet resources and he succeeded in it. At that point of time when Google has become the world leader in online search industry, Larry Page could have stopped and enjoyed the rest of his life. But in my opinion, he is a kind of person who enjoys progress, innovation and futuristic solutions to present problems. Larry page evolved as a great entrepreneurial leader over the years and adopted the personality traits that are necessary for a person to be effective in leading others. He is not only motivated himself towards the set goals but also a motivation force for his team members to follow his footsteps towards success. He possess the leadership behavior of trusting his team members and providing an environment where they can evolve to be effective leaders in their own way. I believe that Larry Page would lead Google to a more successful future by keeping his commitment and motivation at a level that inspires all his followers.

Larry Page would be an inspiration for future inventors and entrepreneurs for a long time to come.

References

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Freudenberger, H. J. (1974). Staff burn‐out. Journal of social issues, 30(1), 159-165.

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Jarvis, J. (2011). What would Google do?: Reverse-engineering the fastest growing company in the history of the world. Harper Business.

Lowe, J. (2009). Google speaks: Secrets of the world’s greatest billionaire entrepreneurs, Sergey Brin and Larry Page. John Wiley & Sons.

Lussier, R. N., & Achua, C. F. (2007). Leadership: Theory, application, skill development. Mason, OH: Thomson/SouthWestern.

Meier, K. J. (1989). Bureaucratic leadership in public organizations. Leadership and Politics: New Perspectives in Political Science. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 267-288.

Uhl-Bien, M., & Marion, R. (2009). Complexity leadership in bureaucratic forms of organizing: A meso model. The Leadership Quarterly, 20(4), 631-650.

White, C. (2007). Sergey Brin and Larry Page: The Founders of Google. The Rosen Publishing Group.

Larry Page Current Entrepreneurial Leader