The Accountant – Issue 3 of 2021 (MIA Publication)

Leadership is a Universal-Phenomena that can be applied to any discipline, which needs one to believe in oneself and contribute to the greater good of others. Leadership starts by earning the trust of the people around you, creating a team and contributing more to the overall picture.

Leaders lead countries, societies, and organisations. Rath and Conchie (2008) argue that most successful leaders constantly reshape the way people live and develop people’s opinions and values. Rath and Conchie (2008) continue to affirm that in the course of each person’s natural life, there will be leadership opportunities, but it will be up to the individual to take opportunities of these situations, which will leave an imprint and it will continue to nurture itself in the future.

According to Lazear (2005), Entrepreneurship is gathering the most important factors of production which are human, physical, and information resources and undertaking it efficiently. As such as Lazear (2005) points out, entrepreneurs, combine people together with physical capital to develop a dynamic and new product to serve the market. Entrepreneurs are not specialists; they have a variety of skills they can apply in the business world. Lazear (2005), describes these people who ‘initiate’ the development of a business or ‘reinvent’ the way a company works as entrepreneurs.

‘Heroic Challenge Management’ (HCM) is proposed by Galea et al. (2019) as a model of management that assisted the researcher to tackle a tough situation that he went through: the loss of his father at a young age and having to manage his family business with his grandfather. Its roots are the ‘Magical Formula’: Values, Inspiration and Passion. This also emerged from a further understanding of connecting Leadership and Entrepreneurship as concepts, which is the Management of an Enterprise. The concept is thus a response to a tough situation faced when managing the day-to-day affairs of a company.

HCM was introduced at the ‘International Journal of Art and Science’ conference in Budapest in 2019, and in a publication of the ‘International Journal of Business and Management Studies’. The research stems from the first article, ‘Leadership and Entrepreneurship: A Maltese Challenge Based Experience’ by Galea and Galea (2018) in Rome.

Two lectures were delivered at the University of Bologna, which were a very fundamental stepping stone for the researcher to build a solid foundation for the conferences in Rome and Budapest. At the University of Malta, the researcher lectured an entire study unit entitled ‘Business and Academic Report Writing’. He also lectured guest lectures at the Masters of Accountancy and Masters of Business Administration courses.

Galea et al. (2019) refer to the fact that his father contributed to the formation of the concept by being a strong inspiration for the researcher. Also working as a team with his grandfather provided the researcher a strong background to manage the company and encouragement to continue his education.

The essence of managing business lies in using resources in a manner that adds value to perceived stakeholders (Weick, 1995). Managing people is one of the essential functions of management, so managers understand the work elements and how these are organized in an efficient manner (Davidson, 1995).

Once the management structure is in place, the productivity of the workforce becomes a priority, whilst building a team and cooperative spirit among employers through effective leadership (Adeniyi, 2007). Slocum and Bass (2008) also refer to managerial functions when managers take decisions to steer the organization through, planning, organizing, leading and controlling.

Music has made it possible to connect all the elements and join the dots. With these sources of inspiration and music, the researcher gathered the strength to go on and manage the company. This style of management that his father and grandfather helped him shape made him the man that he is today and gave him a lot of strength.

The researcher is currently investigating how HCM can be applied in Maltese Business Education Classroom. The aim of this study is to explore how HCM is manifest in the teaching and learning of the business subjects and how it can be infused in the Business Education Syllabi. Ultimately the application of HCM to Accounting, Economics and Business Studies.

The attendance and participation of the students in these classes provided a strong contribution to the lessons and the development of the research. Listening and participating to the lecturer contributed immensely to the process of HCM, since ultimately the relationship of the teacher and student is very important to learn. This required a very strong Two-Way Communication between the teacher and the student.

The role of the student and the teacher is an inter-relationship that is required for education to be practiced at its strongest. The relationship of the teacher and the student is very fundamental. In these classes, the students are from a variety of countries, which makes it an international development. “Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen”. Kouzes and Barry (2007).

Would you like to participate and provide your own contribution too? You can make a difference and practice leadership by attending, listening and taking part in the organized MIA workshop ‘M21098 - Heroic Challenge Management Business Strategy’, to be held on 17th December 2021 via Zoom.