Leadership Lessons: Why Did Trump Win?

Great Discussion
Somesh Kumar, Project Manager, Ireland
Hi Jaap,
I was thinking about this as well and it seems Trump has some kind of charisma & blunt open talking style (which was risky) that Clinton somehow lacked. What else can explain a political novice defeating an accomplished politician, except of course his money power.
His first message after being elected about united America was contradictory to his inflammatory talks, which gives us a little hope that he won't be as radical as he projected himself during the election. Of course, I think the supporters probably never thought that some of his messages were inflammatory as they were possibly enamoured by his charisma.

What made Trump Win from a Leadership Perspective?
Anthony J. Adonis, Business Consultant, South Africa
The question should be: "What did Hillary not do what Trump explored to the fullest"?
What Trump did 1st is to understand that management is a science and not a power - that he understood from the beginning of the race.
He also explored the foundations of a good marketer - SWOT and PESTLE analyses where upon he could make sound marketing decisions and achieve sharp focus.
What he also completed was to listen and understood his audience as well as to study his competitor thoroughly.
A valuable lesson not to become complacent and assume that things are galvanized - that is what Hillary did and handed Trump the keys to the White House.
Trump also never focused too much on the negative publicity that could have derailed him but invested time and effort in areas that he knew could benefit him going forward.
Overall, these principles of management and understanding the market place/customers/clients as an entrepreneur/opportunist earned him the keys to the White House.

Trump: Asset or Liability?
R.Ijland, Entrepreneur, Netherlands
Despite his nasty remarks about groups and people, despite his business failures "The Donald" is still a winner and he appears to believe strongly in his capabilities to make a positive change for America and the people who voted for him.
I strongly believe that using the right management tools and models was a great help in his campagne, but his personality (whether you like it or not) was the biggest difference and decisive.
Many people in Holland see him as the new demon and as a liability, but I would ask everyone to give the man the change to show his qualities. We have all seen that Ronald Reagan also did the job well...

Leadership Lessons on Trump's Victory
Adewumi Oni, Other, Nigeria
One, as a leader you should never give up on your vision even when there is an overwhelming opposition or dissenting voice. Your inner voice must be louder than the dissenting voices. Dare to follow your guts feeling even if the numbers are not encouraging.
Two, never underestimate the power of the unlearned. Your undoing may come from ignoring the minions, the cleaners, drivers, janitors, and other low level staff. You will do well to accord them equal attention in your scheme of things.
Three, when competitors start to play it rough, don't start defending your position, go on the offensive. Give them enough to keep them busy and distracted from the market.
Four, as much as possible, keep a clean slate. Avoid actions that can be used against you at crucial moments.
God bless America.

Trump's Leadership May Change Now
Miller, Other, Australia
Donald Trump indeed knew and understood the audience well. Like Brexit people, many Americans are sick of politicians doing things right. He portrayed leadership qualities by saying he wanted to "do the right things" (re P Drucker and many others) for American people i.e., the voters.
He already was powerful as a manager of a billion dollar empire. Also he already had expert and referent power (also coercive) as Americans were aware of. Now he has formal legitimate (positional) power (the most powerful man in the world) to do what he needs to do to make the vision come true for Americans (or the majority who voted for him).
Roosevelt, Washington, Lincoln were the only true presidential leaders, the other 41 were politicians, managing the day to day formalities.
Time will tell if he can succeed doing what the majority of Americans want. Maybe not what the rest of the world wants or is happy with.
The SCARY BIT = will he try and match Ghandi, Luther King Jr, Mandela, Asoka, Caesar, Castro or Hitler. Or an American Zedong. All great leaders, but to what ends... I hope he takes on some attributes of the first 4.
Now, as President Elect, his leadership style may change (situational, contingent). His acceptance speech was positive, reflected in the stock market bounce back.

How Trump Won: Marketing
Paul Strodike, Management Consultant, South Africa
I fully concur with the opinions expressed in this article and I would like to add that not only did he listen to the audience but he also marketed directly corresponding to their concerns and hopes.

Trump's Win Factors: Charisma and Marketing
Mohamed Nusry, Business Consultant, Sri Lanka
I too agree that he has a charismatic leadership style. And, as an entrepreneur he knew some important marketing tools.

Trump's Leadership Style
Prabhakr H Waghodekar, HR Consultant, India
Successful leaders' styles can neither be analysed within the theoretical or scientific frame work constrained with 'n' factors that hardly make space in the post mortem. Leadership styles of Mahatma Gandhi, Luther King or Mandella or Obama can hardly be converted into universal management lessons/principles.
Trump is an entrepreneuer and tells what people like, independently from the ethical values a society or he possesses. Radical and outspoken leaders attract the public mind very fast, like Kejariwal or Anna Hazare in recent times in India captured the public mind. Trump could read the nerve of the people and ride on it.
After assuming the President's post he will appear differently as that will help him to survive.

Complete Arsehole and not a Leader
Per Eklund, ICT Consultant, Sweden
From my point of view it's sad that Trump was elected. True leadership requires integrity, courage, respect, compassion, honour, honesty, wisdom and sense of duty. I don't think Trump has any of these.

Trump Addressed the Basic Instinct of People
Mian Aamir, Manager, Pakistan
An analysis of who voted for Trump shows that his words attracted male chauvinist, less educated, poor income groups. He addressed basic instincts.
America stands divided today more than ever. The division created on 9/11 has been exploited on 11/9. This division however is based on misconstrued perceptions and he won't rule with these guiding principles. He will rule with the same guiding principles as enshrined in the constitution of the US.
His election points to one flaw of the electoral system i.e. the winner takes it all. And one shortcoming of human needs, no matter at what stage of progress we are, is that our instincts still rule us more than any other factor.

Trump Manipulated the System to His Advantage
Regina Sampson, Entrepreneur, United States
As a businessman, he has been taught to seize the opportunities presented. He addressed basic instincts, gained their buy-in, and exploited the system where he had the advantage.
He won because Clinton failed to do the same. She relied on established procedures, when clearly she should have listened to the audience whose support she needed to win (Bernie Sanders' supporters) and implemented some of his platform and processes, done something different.
I see Trump's victory as a rejection of these old policies, a desire for new ideas and leadership. If Clinton had exhibited this, she could have won.

Trump Spoke his Mind
Gabriel Uunona, Lecturer, Namibia
I think that the most contributing factor to Trump's victory is the way he spoke his mind. Many politicians would pretend and have a sheep's skin on during campaign, they would be influenced by their party's cadres etc., but, what I have observed, Trump did not allow anyone to influence his promises to the electorates.
Added to that, Trump is a successful man, evidently. Many electorates would be attracted by his success in business, the way he rule his businesses could convince people that he could make it for the Presidential position too.
Having said that does not mean his shortcomings are forgotten, however, if one looks at the bright side, that should be among the best of him now.
These observations are for the immediate victory only... We later have to learn how he will proceed with the actual presidential mandate.

Donald Trump Has Done Well in Heart and Obsession Touching
Dyana Sari, Teacher, Indonesia
He understood well what many Americans want. By his experience so far, he knew how to touch their heart and obsession, even when intellectuals didn't predict this.

Trumps Leadership: It is the Man and SITUATION That Did It
Gabi Levin, Other, Israel
The personality of DT surely played a role - it is the situation that made it possible. Obviously conditions were ripe and he took full advantage.
This is why the conditions were right:
1. Over the past 20 years, millions felt they were oppressed by a bigger and bigger government, sticking its nose into every aspect of their lives.
2. Millions of people felt that they are being exploited by lazy, careless people that have no regrets living well at the expense of their hard won money.
3. Millions of people saw how the USA becomes captive of small, arrogant, self appointed righteous that know what's good. These stifled more and more of the essential sense of freedom.
4. They saw millions of illegal immigrants living getting their hard earned money from the politicians.
5. They saw their politicians doing nada about it.
6. Not surprisingly, they went to VOTE, even if the media asked: what kind of people are they?

Conditions why Donald Trump Won
Garigipati Sudhir, Management Consultant, India
1. Clinton and her camp became overconfident of their victory with exit polls.
2. Trump ran the tortoise ran i.e., he was continuously focused.
3. Clinton dilly dallied over e-mails and she was also known to be elite class.
4. Obama could not crack the police shooting of poor blacks.
5. The world situation, especially the Syrian crisis and the tackling of muslim terrosism by the Obama government.
6. Finally lack of jobs for blue collar whites and downward economy of the USA.

Leadership Lessons - Why Did Trump Win?
Indradeb Prasanta Pal, Partner, India
Trump studied the way Indian leader Modiji (at that time outcast by US's 'Politically Correct Brigade') campaigned and won the Indian election in May 2014. He applied Modiji's principles and approach, and connected to the masses of the US American citizens - both urban and rural. Also he has been honest in his talks.

Why Did Trump Win? Leadership Perspective
Anders Ljunggren, Management Consultant, Sweden
Trump knew some of the most important things you have to communicate to make people to believe in you.
1. You have to be able to read and understand what the masses will go for and his timing is perfect, never so many Americans have been so fed up with “professional politics” and “the political establishment” as now.
2. You have to make people believe in the same things as you believe in – “Make America Great Again!”- after the recession in U.S and people see how China is taking over more and more of the world economy this campaign slogan was perfect.
3. When you manage to make people believe in WHY you are doing this, you just have to tell them some HOWs they think will work, like stop immigration, send back people to Mexico and change trade agreement as example.
4. Finally if you make a picture of threats and show them how you will make it safe to get out of that situation, people will come together to beat that enemy.
There is much more, but this is the basics connected to communication and leadership.

Trump Leadership: Act on Feelings of Many People
mohammad shahajahan, Manager, Bangladesh
I think Trump was able to read the feelings of many people.
The Democrats have been ruling for 2 terms and the expectation of the Americans was not fully fulfilled by the present government. Because of this, change was obvious.
Secondly, some worldwide scenarios like ISIS, Syria, etc. and the views of Democrats were not conform to most of white Americans which was positive for Trump.
Trump sucessfully used these feelings in his campaign, using his straight forward talk which American love much.

Trump's 'Strategy for the Layman'
Sergey Baltin, Manager, Russian Federation
Trump said what "sits in the heads" of the majority, but they are afraid to say - stop to total liberalism, it's time of conservatism.
Trump is the mouthpiece of the era. He appeared ready to speak openly. With a clear understandable position, in contrast to the vague and streamlined wordings of his predecessors.
His leadership lesson to us is: if you are a leader, then focus the majority in a particular direction. I would call it "strategy for the layman."
Trump speaks openly in a sequence of steps:
№ 1. We are here (analysis and honest acknowledgment of the facts)
№ 2. We have to be there (goal)
№ 3. We need to do this (strategy).

Why Trump Won the Election. Lessons for Leaders
Jacinth Haldane, Teacher
@Sergey Baltin: I think Trump won because some Democrat voters did not go out to vote. The Rebublicans went out and convinced their voters to go out and vote. Americans have a lot of unresolved issues that they thought the Democrats could have fixed. I guess they were so disappointed after the two terms that they decided not to go out and vote. Then they were contented with the knowldege that Hillary had won the popular votes, so they did not see the need to go out in their numbers and vote. Nobody expected Donald Trump to win. When you think of what he was proposing, the Democrats took it for granted that people would not go out and vote for him. They were unpleasantly surprised.
It is quite clear that popular votes cannot be trusted as the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Following is a lesson for all leaders and aspiring leaders: You have to fight to the very end to get what you want. You have to be a foot soldier, go to the people, meet them to win.

Trump Won Because he is a Skilled Manipulator
Bruce Cropper, Other, New Zealand
He is a very skilled manipulator on a massive scale. He identified the disaffection ("disgruntlement"?) of large numbers of lower and middle class voters in middle America, and was able to speak to them in language they (thought they) understood.
Actually, what he said was so vague and general that it amounted to little more than nothing, but the listeners filled in all the gaps for themselves according to their own beliefs and circumstances, and so came to believe that Trump was their man. It resembles Ericksonian hypnotic techniques (being "artfully vague").
While I don't intend the comparison to be taken all the way, it should be remembered that Adolf Hitler initially came into power by democratic process (retaining it by force thereafter). Detestable though his morals were, I believe Hitler was among the greatest if not the greatest of all demagogues. He tapped into the humiliation felt by the German people after their defeat in 1918 and the impositions of the Treaty of Versailles.

Leadership Perspective on Why Trump Won
Lanuzo, Professor, Philippines
Simple:
- A Leader sets direction and decides on the right things to do.
- A Manager does the things right.
- A Supervisor shows how to do the right things.
- A Sub-ordinate executes the right things delegated to him/her.

Trump Listened to and Promised what the Electorate Wanted
Stig Falster, Management Consultant, Australia
One of the main reasons was that he listened to the electorate and promised to deliver on what it wanted. He managed to convince most of middle America that he understood what others didn't. That, combined with the fact that he wasn't one of the established political elite, delivered him the victory.
He also managed to stay on message, use Twitter to good effect and did all of this at a much lower spend than his opponents. Politicians here in Australia and in other western democracies should learn something very simple from Trump's campaign - Listening to and heeding your electorate are the most important things you can do.

People were Tired of the Dystopian Socialist Policies
Mark Ianni, Other, United States
Trump won because he spoke plain & simple, not with political correctness.
Trump won because the majority of the people were tired of the dystopian socialist policies over the past 8 years. The people were tired of an anemic economy, no jobs or part-time or entry level jobs. Trump won because of a repudiation of Obama's socialist policies and a repudiation of Hillary Clinton and her crooked, corrupt activities and blood on her hands.
All of you non-Americans who haven't lived in the United States for the past 8 years haven't experienced the economic misery that has been going on here. My home value is down 25% since 2008. My median income is down since 2008. My health care costs are up 9000% since 2011! My savings have slowly dwindled through redistribution of wealth. The people voted to stop socialism and save our republic. Those of you who put down the common working man might think twice about their common sense and intelligence. I voted for Trump and I'm damn proud of it!

Management Principles by which Trump Won
maxmillian, Analyst, South Africa
I think his first speech where he was straight and blunt about people and groups was just a draw card to get every one to listen to him and have interest.
Secondly his vision for himself was to win, getting the priority right and focus on it. In so doing he did his SWOT analysis and PESTLE principles.
Then he went on to focus on the needs of his customers (voters) and made promises to meet their needs.

Destruction of the Middle Class
Miller, Other, Australia
Politics hmmmm
The notion of a middle class disappeared 20 years ago replaced with above average poor WORKING people. In Australia a refugee has a greater (free) expendable income than the so called middle class tax payer. The Americans voting for Trump just want a fair go for themselves. Trump advocated this basic need in his campaign. I fear that people are attempting to belittle Trump supporters. Just because the SO CALLED academics got it all wrong.
Trump voters are in general intelligent, mature, loyal and hard working people. Akin to Australia's middle class poor.
Politicians have been fooling the middle class that they are better off than they were 20 years ago...
Youth is wasted on the young and wisdom is wasted on the elderly.
Opportunity arose to lead these American people for the next term === Trump just had to put his hand up and take it.

Did Trump Really Won?
Zimin Andrew Alexander, преподаватель, кон�ультант, Russian Federation
Clinton actually won more voters (> 1 mln.).
Trump won a majority at electoral college.

Drain the Swamp (Winning Catchphrase of the Election)
David Warrington, Other, Germany
Remove the personalities.
America is not working. And the political elite are seen as corrupt and self-serving. So: Vote for more of the same, or a change? ⇒ A change.
Add the personalities.
Vote for someone deeply entrenched in current politics and with an ethically questionable political history, or take a risk on someone new, brash, inexperienced, but passionate. ⇒ Take a risk.
Lots of people here are talking about old-school management tools like SWOT, PESTLE and other nonsense. We should go back to Aristotle: Ethos, Logos, Pathos. Get your nose out of management text books and read up on historical revolutions and what has driven them. Trump and Brexit are mild in comparison.

Trump Leadership and Machiavelli
Reijling, Business Consultant, Netherlands
Trump could have been a student of Machiavelli, although I doubt weather he has ever read "Il Principe".
He was able to give the people the feeling he could represent them, but I doubt weather he can actually change the broken political system in de USA.
The lesson for all leaders is that they need to be able to sense the feelings in the lower levels of their organisation and/or society and act accordingly.
Especially leaders of big institutions still feel that they are always right and people should follow them.
I don't think Trump is the right leader, but he certainly is a smart one.

Trump Explored People's Pains
Antonio Sidnei, Business Consultant, Brazil
Trump explored the hurts, disappointments, financial crises, unemployment of Americans and associated all this with the politics of the predecessors.

Trump Knew the Market Really Well
Helen Strong, Business Consultant, South Africa
It was about 2 months before the election. I heard Trump itemizing all the different segments of the market, and speaking to their hopes and fears. Promising that he would help solve their problems. That is when I "knew" he had done his homework and understood what he had to do -- what was critical -- to buy the votes. Now we need to see if he will deliver.

Leadership Lessons - Why Did Trump Win?
Patricia Hind, United Kingdom
The tone of the recent American election was set by an unprecedented use of social media, which defined the election narrative. The scale and the nature of the Trump victory suggests that our social media experiences are fundamentally changing the concept of what we understand to be leadership - particularly through major changes to how relationships are managed.
Social Media allows 'no consequence' choices of who to follow and unfollow, where and when to comment or remain silent. It allows selective sharing and endorsement of opinions and for emotional investment to be declared and shared perceptions to be cultivated.
Increasingly leaders such as Trump use social media to communicate and influence. What will be the implications of this, for example, on the key leadership attribute of developing and maintaining trust? Or on the development of all important working relationships? We may be witnessing the impetus for the next evolution of leadership thinking.

Trump Deployed what I Call the P.U.T. Principle to Win
Gabriel Femi Adewara, Management Consultant, Nigeria
Trump is enterprise-oriented and does a lot of input-output analysis. He knows that politics is a nebulous or emotion-laden enterprise requiring mostly intangible or invisible inputs which nevertheless will be very potent in the end.
What he had to put into the race or enterprise consists mainly of 3 such intangibles:

1. PATIENCE in cornering and demolishing every opponent and making the seemingly outlandish views become not only understood but fully embraced by many would-be followers.
2. UNDERSTANDING (or discerning) the mood of the nation or the times or the market place of the electoral process, knowing that a large number of the populace want to take back their country from illegal immigrants, unfair trade practitioners and terrorists.
3. TRUST, with two fangs: earning people's trust about own character no matter the barrage of tar-brushes and shake people's trust in the establishment so they adopt you as Change Champion.

Leadership Lessons: Why Did Trump Win?
Sandy Musallam, Editor, United States
His campaign marketing strategy was almost the same as the Ronald Regan's campaign in 1980. Trump's marketing campaign strategy was to exploit the fears and wanting of the American voters in general. Americans are fed up with the status quo and Trump represented CHANGE. The slogan Make America Great Again touch deeply our souls and blinded our common sense.

Trump Won the Presidency with Marketing
Leigh Cowan, Management Consultant, Australia
Marketing is NOT just Marketing Communications... Most political party power brokers don't understand Marketing. Trump (or his trusted advisory group) do.
Until the Democrats abandon the "that's the way we always do it" mentality, they'll stay frustrated under-achievers.

Don't Poke the Bear
D. Combs, Lecturer, United States
Trump's message resonated with the average American. Many in the mainstream forgot about the quiet majority. Trump's ability to capture them with his slogan, Make America Great Again, was a message many here could connect to. Finally, there is an old saying, "don't poke the sleeping bear!" The white conservative working class male American is the bear.
These bears did not care about the liberal agenda until it started to offend them personally. All they want to do is raise their family in a safe community, make a good living, and believe in conservative values. The liberal agenda encroached on to their territory and woke this voting block up and they said enough is enough.
Trump tapped into this block of silent, forgotten voters. His skill to make the smallest person in the room feel great enabled him to walk away a winner. The mainstream does not and will not get it. Trump is a great transformational leader.

Trump's Master Cards to the White House
peter Alemoh, Accountant, Nigeria
Donald Trump was able to clinch the ticket to the white House against many odds. Despite his uncomplimentary remarks against America people and institutions he still won the elections. What did the magic? This is what I termed Trump Mastercards, 3 things responsible for his emergence as the winner of the November 8th elections, these are:
1. He was tough with his words and perceived as truly capable of addressing the American problem. This is important in management, good managers must be able to articulate what is needed to resolve a problem and communicate the same to the people they are serving. Hillary Clinton a very accomplished politician was perceived as been too dependent on already existing Government policies which is not what the people needed at a time like this. Trump was able to offer them the change option.
2. Hard work and determination. Despite criticisms from his party hierarchy and top government officials he was still focused.
3. Finance.

Consistency of Trump
Tommie Njobvu, Educationist, Zambia
Trump remained consistent with his core messages, the more he talked, the more people believed him, even when it may initially have sounded/seemed untrue or what it would turn out to be or what he would do afterwards. Consistence with passion!

Why Did Trump Win? He Explored Hate
RUBEN ACOSTA, Manager, Mexico
Trump won because he explored and exploited the amount of hate that is internalized in most of the American people against immigrants, it is not news that most of the white American people have deeply in their hearts a lot of disagreement to all politics that were giving benefits to all people coming from other countries (especially from Mexico).
The success of Trump is because he is not a politician, he is part of the real American culture and he only pointed all things that too many people in the US have hidden for many years: discrimination, homophobia, xenophobia and misogyny. Donald Trump is the new Führer.

Strategies and Factors Used and Helping Trump
Joe Joseph, Consultant, United States
Some points to ponder on the winning strategies Trump used:
1. He used the principle of Attention! Attention! And Attention!
For example, all the lewd comments and Trump talking dirty about women eleven years ago, etc. were simple attention seekers that gained him a lot of media air time which worked to his advantage.
2. His opponent Hillary's history of corruption and exposure of classified secrets along with timing of FBI investigation worked against her. So Trump was also favored by luck.
3. The polls never showed the true picture. It was almost like the presidential election of 1936 that pitted Alfred Landon, the Republican governor of Kansas, against the incumbent President, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Watch out for selection bias and nonresponse bias in these election polls just like the Literary Digest survey was conducted by mail in 1936.
4. Trump was demoralized by prior polls towards the end of the campaigning process but he never gave up as a leader with an attitude to fight to the finish.

Trump Primarily Won Due to Global Situation and Momentum
CHIEDU UDE, CEO, Nigeria
Globalization, Terrorism and Economic recession have dominated discussions globally for nearly two decades now.
The GLOBALIZATION-politico-economic phenomenon has drawn mixed perceptions and reactions given the prosperity and misery it has spawn round the world in disproportionate measures.
TERRORISM has kept immigration, national security in front burners and creating a new breed of politicians especially in the western world.
ECONOMIC RECESSION is perceived to have been partly caused by globalization, some politicians are now fueling isolationism and protectionism.
The above 3 combustible elements are ready-made attractive targets for smart "untraditional politicians" who hang dangle it before electorates baling for "change".
This phenomenon has caught fire in Europe already, aka Brexit and is far from burning out. More "Change" will follow.
Trump primarily is a product of the situation and momentum, of course not taking anything away from his mastery.
"The end justifies the means" is Donald Trump's other name.

President Obama's Actions Created the Environment
RaghdMuhi Al-Deen Jassim, Management Consultant, Iraq
It's known that the environment before the act plays a main role in the coming action. If you consider the preceding steps of president Obama in the political and military sides, these designed the future of the coming president to be a tough, radical, republican president.

Mr. Trump's Victory is a Huge Responsibility as a Leader
alberto escofet, Business Consultant
Yes, Mr. Trump won, but he polarized the world. Hopefully he is smart enough to "manage" his victory for the good and avoid the world to collapse. Having won the elections does not make Mr. Trump a winner, let us wait and see how he performs.
The leader of the United States of America and its government have a huge responsibility with this world that has been in many ways "handcrafted" or manipulated? in its own benefit, and it must be social responsible.

Mr. Trump Victory was Based on the Need for Change
ISAAC BARASA BATOYA, Other, Kenya
All people in the world want change. Trump capitalized on their desire for change.
Change from ruled by the same family, change from the same party, change of ideology and change for the sake of change.

Causes of the Victory of Trump
Paul Thompson, Teacher, Jamaica
I am suggesting that Mr. Trump's victory was based on:
1. His success in speaking directly to the deep seated wishes of many Americans who desire continued American hegemony in the world. Americans do not want to lose their status as massive consumers who can do as they wish in the world. Part of this was expressed in his rhetoric against Muslims and Latinos.
2. The use of the anachronistic Electoral College system which shows that the USA has a phony (funny?) democracy. Where else in the world does one win a national election with fewer votes than the opponent?
3. The disinterest of many electors who did not want him to be President, and yet did not vote.
4. The ease with which many Americans overlook evils like misogyny, racism, sexism, bigotry, and xenophobia. Apparently for many Americans, eschewing these vices is not necessary in order to make America great again.

How Did Trump Win? He Gave the People a Circus
Jose Luis Hernandez Magallon, Business Consultant, Mexico
To the populace "give them bread and circus" Roman emperors used to abide with common citizens with this saying. Trump gave them the circus, the question is: will he give them bread or just bread crumbs?
I agree with @Paul Thompson that the electoral system in use in the USA is anachronistic and should be renewed.

Almost Populism
Riccardo Barile, Director, Germany
Hi, I believe that Trump won because of its ability to understand and to listen the voice of the American middle class. His behavior has been quite populistic. His announcements are just words and it's not yet clear at all how they will become a reality.
Also, he just concentrated on his own leadership skills without bothering about creating a team.

People were Looking for an Honest Leader
Bruce Marshall, Business Consultant, United States
Personally, I believe Mr. Trump won this election for two reasons.
First that at least half the American people are fed up with the country's current leadership and Mrs. Clinton represented four more years of the same thing.
Second, Mr. Trump does not play by the same rules as the existing political class, he shoots from the hip and speaks his mind damn the consequences and a large portion of the American public is tired of the phony outrage, and politically correct speak that has ruled Washington.
This was a vote less about Mr. Trump than it was condemnation of the status quo and a demand to a return to honesty in the political arena. It is now up to Mr. Trump to live up to his promise.

Trump's Leadership was based on Fear and Undefined Change
Laura, Other, United States
I believe Donald Trump won the election because his campaign toyed with our fears and then preached the magical word "CHANGE". Hillary's campaign preached "She would continue on where Obama left off". For the many who felt Obama had left them behind, Hillary represented “the same old, same old”, but Trump represented “Change - but without definition”, and that is “THE” key point.
So the question at hand is how will our country fair over the next 4 years? Was playing “Russian Roulette” (a game Trump may have in his back pocket), with our country's future wise or extremely naive?

TRUMPED THE ODDS
Dr Robin C Hesler, Other, Canada
There are many great points noted in the responses. Trump won, but he didn't either. Many did not vote in the USA and H. Clinton won a million more votes than he did.
In terms of leadership where does Trump fit in. What are his leadership achievements? He got there tapping into unrest and dissatisfaction, and his opponents both republicans and the democrats made him a martyr by attacking him galvanizing people. Time will tell what his place in history will be related to his leadership abilities. Will he be led or will he lead?

Why Did Trump Won?
Ahmad Sultan Abdulla, Consultant, Malaysia
I've read a majority of comments and agree with most. Allow me to add some of my perspective probably not previously exhibited above.
First, his leadership was simply aimed at winning, that's all. In management, we strive for good leadership but sometimes, good leadership may not necessarily win you the price in a race.
Furthermore Trump used following techniques:
- Applied statistic & research data (had an Indian expert to analyze what American folks wanted to hear) and used related key words to sell.
- Applied different strokes for different folks. For the rich, he pandered the tax policy, for the poor - employment, for the disgruntled - racist, sexist white America voice, for the donors - Palestine, the capital of Israel, etc.
- He divided and conquered across political division.
- Consistency & believable
- Played as underdog.
- Perseverance despite all odds.

Trump Understood the Market Dynamics
JoHanna Sullivan, Other
I agree with @Anthony J. Adonis that Trump understood that the American people were ready for change he just had to bring them together. He also knew the majority of blacks who came out and voted for Obama because he was black would most likely not do that for Hilary, so Trump also understood the racial dynamics of his market. His choice of VP appealed to the right wing Christians, another market section. Etc...

Brand Equity-Trump Economics
RAJI GEORGE, Management Consultant, Sultanate of Oman
Trump's victory was well known in advance to our circle even before concluding his election campaign.
This is based on scientific conclusions and also on best judgement:
1. The US needed a change and this is true exactly with Change Management.
2. So long as the US lead the world, there's a rare chance for a lady president!
3. Ms. Clinton was in the administration for a long time, people thought nothing new shall be expected.
4. Trump could create his brand name so effectively, and his strategy to hit common people geographically was far beyond competitor's dream. The media and exit poll seem to have failed in assessing the impact of this strategies.
5. Trump could effectively imprint in the mind of the people, addressing the real issues faced by the US economy in the immediate future.
6. Trump's controversial remarks perhaps turned people to vote for him on capability and dynamic leadership which was a hard nut to crack.
7. Trump succeeded to hold US traditions and nationalism at higher levels of integrity.