Read the article and answer the questions. Leadership Lessons from a Pair of Socks When David Heath advises entrepreneur

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Read the article and answer the questions.
Leadership Lessons from a Pair of Socks
When David Heath advises entrepreneurs to get close to their
product, he is speaking from personal experience.
Before officially launching the apparel brand Bombas in 2013,
Heath walked around New York City carrying a backpack of prototype
socks that he handed out to almost everyone he encountered,
including the homeless community, which he considered his
target audience. This hands-on interaction gave Heath helpful
insights and direct feedback that he took into consideration when
designing the perfect sock.
Sticking close to your customers is essential for maintaining a
mission-focused work culture, Heath told a recent gathering at the
Business School. He still personally gives out socks to the
homeless during charity events, with participation strongly
encouraged among all employees. Bombas holds up to 15 giving events
monthly, including serving breakfast at shelters and delivering
late-night soups in winter.
“We put a ton of emphasis on company culture” Heath explains.
“The people at our organization really, really live what we do....
They come into work every day knowing that they’re fighting for
something because they’ve made relationships out in the community,
and they could see the direct impact.”
Part of a recent crop of for-profit charitable
organizations that pledge to give away their product each
time they make a sale, New York-based Bombas has donated more than
25 million socks to homeless shelters. Along the way, annual sales
have surged beyond $100 million, with year-over-year growth around
100 percent for what has been called the “most
high-quality, comfortable pair known to man.”
Heath, who studied business as an undergraduate at Babson
College, got the idea for Bombas in 2011 when he read that socks
were the most-requested clothing item in U.S. homeless shelters. At
that time, the start-up footwear company Toms (founded in 2006) was
promising to donate a pair of shoes for every pair sold, a model
adopted by Warby Parker when the eyeglasses-maker launched in 2010.
Heath figured it could also work for socks.
Bombas crowdfunded $145,000 in 2013, then raised another $1
million in 2014 from friends and family. That same year, Heath
struck a $200,000 investment with Daymond John of Shark
Tank. Bombas later raised another $3 million in Series A funding.
Within its first two and a half years of business, Bombas sold (and
donated) 1 million pairs of socks; the company surpassed 25 million
donations late last year. Adding to the company’s social appeal, in
2017, Bombas became a Certified B Corporation, a designation
given to companies that meet high standards for sustainability,
income equality, and community impact. Research suggests
millennials and Generation Z consumers really value the fact that
companies have a social mission.
As with any start-up, Heath acknowledged some challenges over
the past six years. At one point, Bombas dependence on Facebook for
marketing became a problem when the social media juggernaut shifted
its algorithm in a way that hurt the consumer cost per acquisition.
This was a lesson about the need to diversify marketing channels.
They’ve also overcome obstacles in maintaining sufficient
inventory. One year, Bombas so under-projected holiday sales that
the company had to refund more than 1 million customer orders that
couldn’t be fulfilled on time.
Another aspect to the learning curve was figuring out how to
design a sock that is most helpful to the homeless community.
Initially, Bombas donated the same socks it sold. But the homeless
population kept requesting socks in darker colors, which the
company’s charity partners explained was because of a preference
for socks that wouldn’t show wear. Bombas tweaked the product to
reflect that color preference, along with adding features like an
antimicrobial treatment and reinforced seams.
In an effort to better measure the social impact of donating
socks, Bombas is collecting more quantitative data to determine how
communities benefit from its donations. Anecdotally, Heath already
knows Bombas is making a difference. By giving socks to a homeless
shelter in North Carolina – one of more than 3,000 partners
nationwide – the company was able to help the shelter save about
$30,000 that was used to send two youths to community college, he
said.
Bombas is now expanding into channels beyond socks, including
t-shirts, and is also looking into opening retail outlets in the
future. To keep up with demand, Bombas nearly tripled its headcount
over the past year to 120 employees. Out of the 80 new hires, only
four people have left, a low rate of turnover that Heath credits to
the company’s strong social mission.
“We attract the right types of people who want to be a part of
something that is bigger than just simply showing up to collect a
paycheck,” Heath said.
Reference:
Kurczy, S. (2020, February 7). Leadership lessons from
a pair of socks. Ethics and Leadership News.
https://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/healthcar ... r-of-socks
1. Discuss the source(s) of power David Heath implements
in his leaderhship to affect other people's
behavior.
2. Discuss the four kinds of leadership behaviors that
motivate employees that House's Path-Goal Theory identifies.
Explain how Heath motivates his followers by implementing these
leadership behaviors.