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Mark Zuckerberg is the co-founder, chairperson and CEO of Meta Platforms Inc., formerly Facebook, Inc., the largest global social network. In Q2, 2021, Facebook had approximately 2.89 billion monthly active users. Since 2010, Time magazine has ranked Zuckerberg among the 100 wealthiest and most influential people in the world in its Person of the Year. However, Zuckerberg has been under fire, defending questionable privacy practices at Facebook. His private emails may be reviewed as part of an extensive US government antitrust investigation.
So how does this extraordinary entrepreneur think? I analyzed the thinking he displayed during Facebook’s 2013, 2014, and 2015 first quarter earnings conference calls. I then rated his commentary according to our Hierarchy of Thinking Styles.
The analysis revealed predominantly moderate positive thinking and extraordinary positive thinking, supported by Optimal Thinking.
As the leader of a networking company, Zuckerberg skillfully uses the language of connection: moderate positive thinking. He deploys moderate positive thinking to express his appreciation to Facebook employees for their support and hard work. Zuckerberg uses moderate positive thinking to describe the stability of the organization. He deploys extraordinary positive thinking to articulate innovation and progress.
His moderate positive thinking is particularly effective in presenting information with reasonable self-confidence. He uses words like “increasing”, “improvement”, “better”, and “normally”. He also uses phrases such as “good sign”, “good quarter”, “pretty meaningful”, “building the knowledge economy”, “strategy of improving quality” and “improving the world through sharing”.
However, Zuckerberg is clearly a “big picture” person who welcomes change. He deploys extraordinary positive thinking effortlessly to articulate Facebook’s focus on innovation and product differentiation. He is not deterred by obstacles and roadblocks that obstruct progress. Time and again, he cites metrics that rise above the status quo and predefined limitations.
Zuckerberg uses extraordinary positive thinking to articulate unusual beliefs, new processes, remarkable resources, and outstanding results. He uses words like “innovate”, “improvement”, “new”, and “amazing”. He also uses phrases such as “great progress”, “big fundamental believer”, “very big contributors”, “amazing journey”, “growing environmental consciousness”, and “talent management processes”.
Last year was a big year for us here. We started off the year with no ads at all on mobile and we ended up with approximately 23% of our ads revenue coming from mobile in the fourth quarter. That’s a pretty amazing change.
Keep in mind, this analysis provides a snapshot of Mark Zuckerberg’s thinking process in one specific context.
Optimal Thinking is the realistic style of thinking that empowers individuals, teams, departments, and entire organizations to be their best.
Like other successful CEOs, Zuckerberg employs Optimal Thinking to define Facebook’s values, standards, and direction.
.. another which is focused on kind of efficiency and helping people to get the most value out of each moment that they’re spending in Facebook. And then the fourth group is our core business, which is focused on helping people to see the best ads and basically make the most money per moment that people are spending at the lowest cost in most efficiency in terms of serving people.. Mobile is the perfect device for Facebook for three reasons
Zuckerberg displays personal and organizational maturity by frequently referring to ongoing “tests” to quantify and qualify optimization initiatives. Recognizing that optimization is synonymous with completion, his focus is on getting things right.
We just have to do it right… to get the right content to the right people.. that this is the right path going forward as well..
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The transcripts used in this article are © SeekingAlpha.com. 2013, 2014, 2015.
Read my analysis “How Howard Schultz Thinks” (Interim and former CEO of Starbucks, Inc.) as part of the “How CEO’s Think™” Optimal Thinking article series.
If you would like to nominate a well-known leader for a thinking analysis, feel free to include them in your comments below.
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9 Responses to “How Mark Zuckerberg Thinks”
Great article. Great ideas are never conceived by mediocre minds. Zuck is a man of action.
Zuckerberg needs to do more to assuage advertisers that Facebook is alert to hate speech as well as isn’t aunilateral censor. Love your posts and have followed you for years. I constantly use your 100-day optimal thinking audio program to keep me on the optimization track.
Brilliant analysis. Thanks.
Great analysis of Zuckerberg. It will be interesting to see how he deals with the anti-trust investigations coming Facebook’s way.
This is a really helpful piece of information. I am happy that you took the time to share this
info about Mark Zuckerberg. Please keep us up to date with his activities. Thanks again for sharing.
Zuckerberg achieved success by stealing intellectual property from his college mates. I guess that was his extraordinary negative thinking at work. Your articles are fascinating. Thanks.
Zuckerberg has become more moderate over the years. At the beginning, he was just out of the box. I was fascinated by your analysis and look forward to reading more as you do them.
I’ve been following your CEO thinking pos’s for several weeKS and have learned a lot from you. Have you considered analyzing Jamie Dimon’s thinking?
Great series of posts. Zuckerberg appears to use moderate positive thinking to gain rapport, extraordinary positive thinking to differentiate Facebook’s products and services. Optimal thinking appears to serve as the foundation for all the above. Very, very interesting stuff. I am going to take your assessment.
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