Harvard Expert Says Zuckerberg Is Derailing Facebook: 'I Think The Wealth Went To His Head'

Shares of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, fell 64% in 2022. Amid the stock's plunge, a senior fellow at Harvard Business School and former CEO of medical technology company Medtronic, Bill George, said that Mark Zuckerberg's leadership approach as the CEO of Meta has not helped the company grow, and instead dragging it towards failure. 

In his latest book, "True North: Leading Authentically in Today's Workplace, Emerging Leader Edition," George said that "bosses that lose sight of their most deeply held beliefs, values, and purpose as a leader are doomed to fail." The book was published on Aug. 30, 2022.

He added that Zuckerberg and Meta are an example of this kind of failure.

George said Zuckerberg is to blame for Facebook losing its market share to upstart rival TikTok. "I think the wealth went to his head," George told Yahoo! Finance.

Zuckerberg's leadership is in question and coming under scrutiny after a challenging few quarters at Meta. 

Also Read: Mark Zuckerberg Is 'Kind Of Creepy And Controlling' - This Is What Meta's New AI Chatbot Says About Its Boss

"I think Facebook is not going to do well as long as he's there. He's likely one of the reasons so many people are turning away from the company. He's really lost his way," George added. 

"He's got a group of young people that are more like Mark's followers," George said. "It's too bad that Mark is really derailing right in real-time."

When asked what leadership change Zuckerberg needs to make, George replied, "An organization needs to say: 'This is what we stand for clearly. You may disagree, but this is what this company stands for.'"

"And I think he really has hurt a lot. And frankly, young people are moving away from Facebook," he added.

Talking about the leadership team at Facebook and how Zuckerberg is dealing with them, George said, "He had Sheryl Sandberg there. He had some senior mentors on the board. He pushed them all out."

In June 2022, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen said that Facebook can't recover as long as Zuckerberg is the leader. 

She also suggested that Zuckerberg should step down and allow change instead of allocating resources to a rebranding campaign. 

Originally published Sept. 18, 2022.

Photo: Anthony Quintano on flickr