28 Business Thinkers Who Changed the World - The management gurus and mavericks who changed the way we think about business

28 Business Thinkers Who Changed the World is a guide to the people who have shaped the way we do business today. Some are great intellectuals while others are ""gut instinct"" types. Some want to change the world while others want money and power. With energy and wit, Rhymer Rigby takes readers through the top business brains of our time to show the human behind the headlines, highlighting world industry leaders such as Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet, Sam Walton, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. With discussions on the influential people behind successful companies such as McDonalds, Sony, Southwest Airlines and Starbucks, he describes the oversized impact of their businesses on the world today. This book offers profiles on the great minds of the modern capitalist world. From Oprah to Mark Zuckerberg, Rhymer Rigby describes how they made it, the risks they took and the legacy they leave behind.

[...]... sharply, and anyone with an interest in design, or just the modern consumer world, should have an interest in Apple And for many Apple is Jobs and Jobs is Apple Jobs was born in 1955; his birth mother was single and he was given up for adoption The couple who adopted him were Paul and Clara Jobs who lived in Mountain View, California During his 10 28 Business Thinkers Who Changed the World childhood and. .. in the 1980s was its 1986 flotation This lasted all of two years (but managed to take in Black Monday) In 1988, Branson took the group back into private 19 20 28 Business Thinkers Who Changed the World hands He was, he said, sick of the City’s suits and its short-termist approach – and, it be must said, many in the City said they were sick of Branson The 1990s saw much of the same: books, vodka and. .. Bill Hewlett and David Packard, Bill Gates (even though Microsoft is not in the Valley), Andy Grove and the Google duo But for a lot of people, the choice would be an easy one – and they would plump for Steve Jobs On one hand, he is the epitome of the cool geek, effortlessly blending a love and understanding of technology with a slightly alternative, left-of-field world view And on the other, he is... Branson is still ubiquitous and is still very much the face of the Virgin brand The only real difference is that he has rather more competition these days When he first noticed that celebrity could work for a business as well as it worked for pop stars and artists, most UK businesspeople were buttoned up and reserved, and the idea of using stunts and themselves to sell their products would have seemed... wouldn’t last long So are we saying that you can’t learn from these people? Not at all Business history illuminates the present and lights the path ahead The stories of many of these people are tied into the story of the 20th century: both Grove and Soros escaped the Holocaust and made a new life in the United States Moreover, as big business has had a greater and greater impact on the lives of everyday... crossing the Atlantic The boat, the Virgin Atlantic Challenger, sank, but the publicity did Branson no harm The following year he broke the record in the Virgin Atlantic Challenger II The rest of the 1980s were a whirl of ventures Virgin Records went international Virgin launched an airship and balloon company, started a condom brand, went into hotels, and entered – and exited – satellite broadcasting The. .. stuff that looks beautiful 13 14 28 Business Thinkers Who Changed the World and is beautifully easy to use Most people don’t care about openness (as with the iPhone) or raw performance figures (as with the Mac’s processors) or even sound quality (the iPod is probably not a music geek’s choice) They care about how things look and feel – and Apple’s brilliant look and feel have won it not only legions... little real money being made outside the airlines It is for this reason, so the thinking goes, that Branson likes his companies private, not because City suits are stodgy and unimaginative Bower 21 22 28 Business Thinkers Who Changed the World paints Branson as a shameless self-publicist, a sharp operator and a man whose greatest talent is separating bankers from their money Branson’s endless stunts... compounded; the S&P 500 has gained 9.3 per cent 25 26 28 Business Thinkers Who Changed the World In rather blunter terms, $100 invested in the S&P in 1965 would be worth $5,430; invested in Berkshire Hathaway it would be worth $434,057 Indeed, Berkshire Hathaway has created a fair few ‘surprise’ millionaires in Omaha Buffett has not always been lauded, however He famously sat out the dotcom boom – as the bubbling... card?’, and journalists who call his PA to get an interview sometimes find themselves speaking to Buffett himself, as he often answers his own phone As Buffett is now in his 80s he has said he is looking for a successor, and the rumours are that it could be Ajit Jain, the head of Berkshire’s reinsurance operations, whom Buffett has described as a ‘superstar’ 27 28 28 Business Thinkers Who Changed the World . Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rigby, Rhymer.  28 business thinkers who changed the world : the management gurus and mavericks who changed the way we think about. w1 h0" alt="" 28 Business Thinkers Who Changed the World The management gurus and mavericks who changed the way we think about business RHYMER