28 Pensadores Que Cambiaron El Mundo De Los Negocios.

i

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

ii

Publisher’s note
Every possible effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this
book is accurate at the time of going to press, and the publishers and authors cannot
accept responsibility for any errors oromissions, however caused. No responsibility
for loss or damage occasioned to any person acting, or refraining from action, as a
result of the material in this publication can be accepted by the editor, the publisher or
any of the authors.

First published in Great Britain and the United States in 2011 by Kogan Page Limited
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, orcriticism or review,
as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be
reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in
writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the
terms and licences issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these termsshould be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned addresses:
120 Pentonville Road
London N1 9JN
United Kingdom
www.koganpage.com

1518 Walnut Street, Suite 1100
Philadelphia PA 19102
USA

4737/23 Ansari Road
Daryaganj
New Delhi 110002
India

© Rhymer Rigby, 2011
The right of Rhymer Rigby to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him
in accordance withthe Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
ISBN
E-ISBN

978 0 7494 6239 0
978 0 7494 6240 6

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
 Rigby, Rhymer.
  28 business thinkers who changed the world : the management gurus and mavericks who
changed the way we thinkabout business / Rhymer Rigby.
       p. cm.
  ISBN 978-0-7494-6239-0 -- ISBN 978-0-7494-6240-6  1.  Businesspeople--Biography. 2. 
Management. 3.  Business.  I. Title. II. Title: Twenty eight business thinkers who changed the
world.
  HC29.R54 2011
  338.092’2--dc22
                                                            2011000191
Typeset by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby
Print productionmanaged by Jellyfish
Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe

iii

Contents
Introduction 1
01

Steve Jobs 9

02

Richard Branson 17

03

Warren Buffett 23

04

Jeff Bezos 31

05

The Google Duo (Sergey Brin and Larry Page) 39

06

Sir Tim Berners-Lee 47

07

Anita Roddick 53

08

Ray Kroc 61

09

Rupert Murdoch 69

10

Peter Drucker 7711

Ingvar Kamprad 85

12

Oprah 93

13

Sam Walton 101

14

Mary Kay Ash 109

15

Bill Gates 117

16

David Ogilvy 125

17

Meg Whitman 133

18

Mark Zuckerberg 141

19

Howard Schultz 145

20

Jack Welch 153

21

Michael Dell 161

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Contents

22

Tom Peters! 167

23

Ricardo Semler 177

24

Herb Kelleher 183

25

Andy Grove 19126

Roman Abramovich 199

27

George Soros 205

28

Akio Morita 211
General sources 217
Index 219

1

Introduction
What makes a great
business thinker?

O

ne description of Rupert Murdoch isn’t a bad first answer –
it’s ‘the ability to consistently see round the corner’. But
actually the more you look the more you realize that defining what
makes a real game changer isabout as easy as nailing jelly to a wall.
In many cases, you can fairly accurately distil what these people did
into a sentence or less. Ingvar Kamprad: brought style to the masses.
Warren Buffett: invested in what he understood and believed in.
Anita Roddick: business for social change. Howard Schultz: coffee
as a lifestyle statement. And so on. But it doesn’t really help that
much....