(MBA401) Leadership assignment analysing the leadership of Melanie Perkins as an entrepreneur

Question

Task: In your leadership assignment research and analyse ONE contemporary leader. Mention the effect of the leader on the top management team of the organisations they have led. Mention the effect of their strategic leadership in developing the human resources of the organisations they have led. Mention the effect of the leader on the development of ethical practices within the organisations they have led.

Answer

Introduction
Today the business world is rapidly changing due to women entrepreneur and their leadership skills. It is the fact that women have good business plans on their head. Today the business women named Melanie Perkins has emerged to be a great entrepreneur. The business women have designed the graphic platform called Canva.Canva is the graphics designing tool used for creating resumes, presentations, posters, visual contents, brouchers, invites and certificates. The aim of the leadership assignmentis to explore and analyse the leadership skills of Melanie Perkins as a leader. The purpose is to interpret the action of the leader. The main objective of the leadership assignmentis to identify the attributes and leadership skills of a leader which has been influential in day today life.

Review of Melanie Perkinsand Canva in the leadership assignment
The parents of Melanie Perkins were from teaching and engineering background that’s why since her childhood she had also entrepreneurial spirit. It is found in this leadership assignmentthat from the age of 14 she started her first business she used to sell scarves in the market which were handmade. Melanie completed her career in psychology commerce and communication from western university of Australia. She taught basic fundamental of computer design also along with her major studies. And this was the time when she felt that students work hard in technical and compound platforms like illustrator and Photoshop. Perkins co-founded her husband with Fusion books which was her first startup. It is found in this leadership assignmentthis was a platform that allowed the learners to design the yearbook of their school by using very simple tools like illustration, drag and drop, fonts and so on. Perkins parents helped her a lot to print these yearbooks. To add new clients for her business she started to connect with people in universities and colleges. And in a very short period of time the business reached at very high level and this yearbook become the largest yearbook company in whole Australia.

Fusion books were performing very well but Perkins and cliff didn’t have any fund for the expansion and growth for the company and they were needed it. As per the leadership assignment findings they wanted to take help from progressed or developed capitalists and assistance but no one had believed on their ideas.But after the struggle of so many years a blessing came to them and they met with former Google executive and it proves like an opportunity for Canava.(Perkins, Hebron and Hazlewood 2018).

Effect of the leadership in top management
There are five leadership styles of Melanie Perkins that took her company on growth. Guts and determination, attention on small things, don’t listen to downer, Give back, have notes of the feedback of customers. The strongest quality of Perkins was her determination. It is found in the leadership assignmentthat there is a lot of rejection and it takes a long time to create a company and there is a lot of refusal, frustration and times where it would be a logical thing to admit defeat. When she first tried to get fund for Canva, more than 100 times she listened no. she always face it, in her place most startup founders would admit their defeat after 12 months, but according to her thinking she feels that if you constantly concentrate on what you are attempting to achieve and actually keepfocused on the foresight (the foresight is what a person will demonstrated behind in time), you will after some time break through and go to the exact or right solution.it is analyzed in the leadership assignment that only having demonstration is not enough along with this you also need to have guts. Melanie spoke to a lot of people about her future planning meanscanava aboutlong before the product even existed, which shows that she havereal guts and so did what she said. She believes that she didn’t require any magical powers, educational degree or inherent qualities. She take self-observation, passion to attain or achieve something meaningful, and an inclination to one day look at past and feel pride on what you have attained. It is found in the leadership assignmentthat while discipline gives the needed focus to attain success, in contrast, determination, entails having and devotedly working toward a major aim by thick and thin. Determination is what differentiate those who will burn out quickly and who are in this for the long fight. Demonstration isconsists of two things: action over time and firmness of choice.(Hooperand Stewart2019).

These were some principle followed by Melanie Perkins that took her business at the top most level at Australia. And the principle by which I get convinced mentioned in the leadership assignmentwas the principle of demonstration, self-awareness, guts and believes on you. If these principles are being followed than no one can stop any business to achieve success.

Strategic leadership in developing the human resource
Melanie Perkin followed two steps of strategies for her team to attain the big goal of her life the first step is to build one of the most endangered or unprotected companies of world, she says, indicating them off on her tips of finger. Second Step is to do the best we can. Melanie also follows the strategy of think as big as you want to achieve. Her thought was that as big you will be your dream as more you will grow.This one appears a kind of evident, but dream up crazy one of the most critical parts of my role has always been to dream up crazy-big goals. It is found in the leadership assignment now that Canva has reached this scale, I’ve been working hard to ensure every team at Canva is also dreaming big for itself.She has believed that teamwork is highly beneficial in bringing fruitful outcomes. All the employees of the organization must move with the same vision. She has emphasized conquering one goal after the other. There is a huge celebration when the target is accomplished between the employer and employees. Some of her strategies have laid a deep impact on my life. The lesson that I learned from the leadership assignmentis never to dream small else always dreams big. It is wise to work hard for the desired goals and not think much about the results. She has established a good work atmosphere. There is no competition among the employees. Thus, it will encourage excellent teamwork and thereby reduces conflicts. The company owner has always implemented a habit of regular skill development for the employees for certain work. This will keep upgrading their skills and knowledge. It has also influenced me to acquire new skills and knowledge for my bright career. As per the leadership assignment it has made me strive for bigger dreams and to make them happen with open eyes. The strategy she followed for business growth that is starting small and turning them into big have changed my mental mindset. It has helped me to set my life vision and goal(augusty 2020).

Development of ethical practices addressed in the leadership assignment
Perkins have high moral values, and she ensure those moral values are elected in mission of canva as well. In fact, these values are even mentioned into Canva's user guidelines. Canva does not prop up and will not allow its Service being operated to discriminate in against of others, especially when it will on the basis of, religion, race, sexual orientation, sex, age, national origin, disability and ancestry.

It is found in the leadership assignment that the company even says that if we find that in our sole determination that you use our Services for doing discrimination, especially if it’s basis on religion, race, sex, disability, age, national origin or ancestry, we may permanently or temporarily suspend or terminate your access on service without liability and notice for any reason. At Canva, the aim is to live the values each and every day. It is found in the leadership assignmentthat as a universal platform with a Circle across 190 countries, theyheartily believe in the essential responsibility theyhave to use their voice, their platform, and their reach to hold behind these values that regulatethem. While our dissimilar values might reverberate more at various area in time for every Canvanaut,the one that inherently threads through everything they do is to ‘Be a ForceFor better’. At Canva, it’s really important to them to leave a lifelong, positive impact on their world( Vidgen, Hindle and Randolph 2020).

Conclusion
From the above leadership assignmentresearch it can be concluded that to make the company or an organization or even to individual successful determination, guts, self believe and some ethics of your conduct are very important. Because until an entrepreneur will not follow these precious steps in life success can never be achieved. Perkins faced a lot of difficulties and rejection in the journey of Canva but she never accepts the failure and fights against of these and took each difficulty and rejection as a challenge. And after some time a day also come when her company become the most largest company of entire Australia. As per the leadership assignment determination, self believe, guts are the key points of a successful entrepreneur.

Reference
Agusty, R.M., 2020. Designing Business Model Canvas Transforms Into Balanced Scorecard in the XYZ University in Indonesia. Dinasti International Journal of Management Science, 1(6), pp.830-843.
Hooper, N. and Stewart, C., 2019. The science of startup. Company Director, 35(5), pp.20-26.
Lee, E.S., Szkudlarek, B., Nguyen, D.C. and Nardon, L., 2020. Unveiling the canvas ceiling: A multidisciplinary literature review of refugee employment and workforce integration. International Journal of Management Reviews, 22(2), pp.193-216.
Perkins, M.J., Hebron, M. and Hazlewood, R., Canva Pty Ltd, 2018. Systems and methods of matching style attributes. U.S. Patent 10,042,935.
Vidgen, R., Hindle, G. and Randolph, I., 2020. Exploring the ethical implications of business analytics with a business ethics canvas. European Journal of Operational Research, 281(3), pp.491-501.
Balasubramaniam, N., Kauppinen, M., Kujala, S. and Hiekkanen, K., 2020, November. Ethical guidelines for solving ethical issues and developing AI systems. In International Conference on Product-Focused Software Process Improvement (pp. 331-346). Springer, Cham.