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Keys to the Successes of Facebook: A UMUC White Paper Rough Draft

The High Achievers:

There has been tremendous research on and analysis of organizational structures, leadership, and management in order to define the requirements for creating a successful company. The result is the understanding that success is not determined by a single factor, but multiple factors working together, and what works for one company may not work for another. Ekaterina Walter, author of the ‘Think Like Zuck,’ identifies five keys to the success of Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook; passion, purpose, people, product, and partnership. Each is critical, but they are all dependent on each other. These five keys define the leadership, structure and management of the company.

Facebook is an online social media for-profit organization. The company was initially launched as a website by Harvard Sophomore, Mark Zuckerberg, on February 4, 2004 (Carlson, 2010).  The website was originally named “the facebook.com” and was run from Zuckerberg’s dorm room until he left school in June 2004.  The site was limited to students of Harvard but later released to the public in October 2005 (Ngai, et al., 2015). It is located in Menlo Park, California, with International Headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.

Individuals that want to connect with friends, families, and the world through Facebook, register by creating a user profile where options for name, profession, institution attended and other personal details are entered. The website has enabled sharing of photos and text messages, and the posting of status. Members can also safeguard the privacy of their information through profile settings. Effective in September 2006, anyone age 13 or older with a valid email address was allowed to join Facebook. The website can be stored on various electronic devices, such as smart phones, desktops, laptops and tablets. Access via mobile phones accounts for 33% of Facebook traffic.

Facebook’s first financial boost came in 2005 when Accel Partners invested $12.7 million into the network (Bio, 2016).  This allowed Facebook to grant access to other colleges, high schools, and international schools.  In April 2012, Zuckerberg purchased Instagram, followed by rolling out Facebook App Center later that year.  Facebook raised $16 billion by going public in May 2012 (Bio, 2016).  Most of Facebook’s income is generated by online advertisements.

The website has certainly had its successes. The company is currently at the top of Fortune 500, due to its steadily rising stock prices (source). It had one million users by the end of 2004 and 350 million by October 2011. By late 2007, Facebook had 100,000 business pages and, by 2010, 400 million people per month visited the site (Carlson, 2010). By the summer of 2011, Facebook was the largest online photo host with 100 billion photos. It became the largest IPO in history in XXXX (source). Its shares have grown to a remarkable value making it to top Wal-Mart’s recent market cap (source). It has climbed the rankings of Fortune 500 to almost 100 spots displacing the 250 companies at the upper part with regards to annual revenue (source). In 2010, Zuckerberg was named Person of the Year by Time magazine.

Zuckerberg’s passion for connecting people results in a never quit approach toward challenges. The company not only seeks out those that have this same passion, but their onboarding program is designed to steep them in the company values and the mission (Glassdoor, 2016). The company prides itself on an open culture, as indicated by their company information page (Newsroom.fb.com). Facebooks organizational structure is one of a matrix form, which attempts to use the advantages of both unitary and multi-dimensional form designs. Each organizations unit answers to different organizational leaders for different aspects of the work performed by the unit, as shown in figure 1, Unitary Matrix. This structure supports individuals being able to move about the company and work on various projects that they find most interesting.