An Apple TV commercial once said, "The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do". Nobody makes it big by playing it safe. Success needs you to take risks, think out of the box and disruptive established models. However, while ingenuity and bravery should be applauded, some find of these barons found themselves frowned upon.
Business Insider India looks at the world's most successful business leaders who broke and remodeled the notions of business
2. Some called him a rebel; others celebrate him as a hero. Love him or hate
him, you just can't ignore Steve Jobs - the Co-founder of Apple and chairman
of Pixar. While Jobs has been widely criticized for dominating his colleagues,
firing many in a moment of anger or even taking the credit away from juniors,
he is undoubtedly one of the most innovaties visionaries of all times. After all,
he gave us the Apple devices we love to use.
3. Jack Welch is best known for streamlining GE and reducing management
from 29 levels to only six. While he pulled up the cumulative value of GE
up from $12 billion to $280 billion - the greatest leap under any CEO, he
is also notorious among former employees as he got many of them fired.
4. Once the richest man in the world, Bill Gates in only a college dropout!
Instead of studying at the iconic Harvard University, Bill and Paul Allen
opened Microsoft, and the rest is history. Bill was the one who insisted
upon a 'closed-source ethic' and formed the foundation of the gigantic
software industry as we know it now.
5. The father of the modern automobile and Ford Motors was a rather odd
entrepreneur. The inventor of the modern assembly line, contrary to the notion of
his investors, Ford insisted upon designing an automobile for the common man.
He also payed his employees more than the average salary, and promoted 'welfare
capitalism' - call it the precursor to CSR.
6. Virgin opened its first store in London in 1971, and 22 year old Richard Branson
was behind it.
Currently Virgin is known for its record stores, labels, and airlines business, and
Branson as a 'virgin' to the idea of business has powered himself to be the big
daddy among daredevil entrepreneurs. He has proved one could be dirty rich,
and still be cool.
7. Sam Walton, the man behind Wal-Mart asks you to break rules in his
autobiography. In line with Steve Jobs, he once said, "I always prided
myself on breaking everybody else's rules, and I always favoured the
mavericks who challenged my rules."
8. Ray Kroc is the man behind the best know restaurant chain in the world -
McDonald's. His ingenuity and devotion towards catering towards the
common man led him to transform his family-owned drive-in into a billion
dollar restaurant chain. He also revolutionized the hospitality industry by
introducing strict guidelines for how products should be prepared and sold.
9. Rupert Murdoch is one of the most powerful media baron with the
News Corporation, Fox News, and the New York Post in his bag. While
he has been criticized for holding too much power and using the
power of the media to promote his interests, it must be noted that he
has drawn a line between his political and commercial interests.
10. Meet an entrepreneur who is not interested in making money! Craigslist's
CEO Jim Buckmaster feels the key to their success is an anti-commercial
value system based on three 'ironies - 'the ironies of unbranding,
demonetizing, and noncompeting.' Most of Craigslist's service is free. That
explains why it has not garnered much respect as a business.
11. The most unexpected entry in the list, this celebrity stamped as the 'Most
Overrated Celebrity' by the Guinness Book of World Records hates to call herself
a 'businesswoman'. Owever, her celebrity status is worth millions and she
remains in the media for things that have actually got people into trouble - sex
tapes, ditsy behavior, and drunken parties. If she earns a couple of thousand
dollars to just turn up to a party or dance the night away, there is surely
something that she does to market herself that others don't.