Leadership Difference

Introduction

Think about someone you personally know or you met that you would consider as a leader. For example, I met Mr. Ho during my internship when he came to Seoul for the opening of a new property, Banyan Tree Club & Spa Seoul. I was invited as a guest from a rival hotel where I was working at the time. I did not know who he was when I first saw him but I found out within days. Then I asked myself, “Do I consider myself as a leader?” Well, I assumed that leaders can be in any shape and sizes but from my experience of seeing Mr. Ho, true leaders work behind the scenes. This assessment gave me a great opportunity to study the leadership styles of Mr. Ho, Kwon Ping (Ho, K.P.); CEO of Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts and Mr. Warren E. Buffett; CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.

There are many aspects of being a leader. There are traits, behaviours, relationship and contingency approach (Daft, 2008). Perhaps, they are much more complex in real life and the reality of leadership is changing through time from old to new paradigm (ibid.). If Warren Buffett is a leader in our generation, perhaps Ho is a leader for the next.

Leadership of Ho Kwon Ping

Ho Kwon Ping is one of Singapore's most prominent businessmen (SMU, 2010). He is chairman of Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts. According to Nureza (2004) he has a rebellious youth. He was a student activist in his early twenties by wanting to change the world and became the president of the student council. In Stanford University, he was exposed to the ideals of Marxism and revolution in the Third World and got suspended for a year for his involvement in student demonstrations.

In his first career, he made a bad business decision in his first project, which nearly bankrupted the company but his father did not allow him to resign and urged him to stay on to recoup the losses. However, he went on to become a successful businessman because of this big mistake (Nureza, 2004).

Nureza (2004) mentioned that Ho’s wife once...