Leadership on the example of Barack Obama

Index

1 Introduction

2 Barack Obama
2.1 Family and Childhood
2.2 Studies and jobs before becoming president

3 Barack Obamas Management Style
3.1 Barack Obama’s Leadership as a strong brand
3.2 Barack Obama and the transformational leadership

4 Conclusion

4 List of literature

5 List of figures

1 Introduction

The aim of this article is to analyse the management style of the president of the United States Barack Obama and how Barack Obama activated and motivated thousands of volunteers. The analyse is founded on different books about Obama.

Furthermore, the person Barack Obama and his management style will be compared with a brand. The election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States is not only the story of an unprecedented rise but also a perfect lesson in the development and success of a strong brand.

Whether someone is a personal fan of Barack Obama or not, one thing is clear - the new CEO of the United States of America has changed the rules of marketing and leadership radically. For many experts the rise of the brand Obama has become the essence of perfect brand management, regardless of their nationality or political persuasion. The magazine “Advertising Age” allocated Barack Obama with this title.

The writer based his explanations on primary sources that are complemented by secondary literature. The analyse is based on magazines and books about Obama’s strategy and his leadership style. Moreover, important field reports provide comprehensive information about Obama.

2 Barack Obama

On the 20th of January 2009 Barack Hussein Obama became the 44th President of the United States. Obama is the son of a white American woman and a Kenyan and is the first black American in the White House.

Obama is a politician of the Democratic Party and a lawyer. From 2005 to 2008 he was a junior senator for Illinois in the Senate of the United States. In 2009 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.

Image 1 Barack Obama portrait

2.1 Family and Childhood

Obama's father, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. (1936-1982), was born in Nyang'oma Kogelo in Kenya and was Luo. Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham (1942-1995), came from Wichita, Kansas (USA), and had Irish, British and German ancestry. Obama's parents got to know each other as students at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. They married in 1961 in Hawaii, as marriages between blacks and whites were still banned.

In 1988 at Harvard Law School he got to know his wife Michelle Robinson Obama. The couple married in 1992 and has two daughters: Malia Ann and Natasha ("Sasha"). Michelle Obama worked until the end of 2008 in public administration from Chicago.

2.2 Studies and jobs before becoming president

Obama studied for two years from 1979 at Occidental College in Los Angeles and further two years at Columbia University in New York City, which is one of the universities of the Ivy League. After his bachelor's degree in 1983 in political science (specializing in international relations), he spent a year working for the economic consulting company Business International Corporation in New York.

In 1985, Obama moved to Chicago and worked for a nonprofit organization. Afterwards he studied law for three years at Harvard Law School. As the first African- American, he was there elected president of the Harvard Law Review journal. In 1991 he received his JD degree magna cum laude with an overall assessment.

In 1992, Obama returned to Chicago and started his career in politics. With a campaign for voter registration of African American citizens of Chicago, he has mobilized more than 150,000 people to the election of Bill Clinton as U.S. president. From 1993 he worked in the law firm Miner, Barnhill and Galland which is specializes in civil rights. Until 2004 he taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago.

3 Barack Obama’s Management Style

3.1 Barack Obama’s Leadership as a strong brand

3.1.1 Adaptive Leadership

The election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States is not only the story of an unprecedented rise, but also a perfect lesson in the development and success of a strong brand.

Whether someone is a personal fan of Barack Obama or not, one thing is clear - the new CEO of the United States of America has changed the rules of marketing and leadership radically. For many experts the rise of the brand Obama has become the essence of perfect brand management, regardless of their nationality or political persuasion. Barack Obama has been given this title by the magazine “Advertising Age”.

The Obama campaign has given new impetus to the marketing and leadership world, brand management for people with people and people.

[...]