As part of its 100th anniversary, Forbes released on Tuesday September 19 the results of its special study that highlights the world's 100 greatest business minds.
When creating the list, Forbes experts selected people who had a strong influence on the processes taking place in the business world, or who inspired the development of entrepreneurship.
This is what the top 10 most outstanding businessmen of our time, according to Forbes, look like. They are all sorted in alphabetical order, not in ranking "highest to lowest."
10. Mark Benioff
The man who founded Salesforce started his business at the age of 15. It was at this age that he created the company Liberty Software, which creates games for the Atari 800 computer. By the age of 16, the young man earned $ 1,500 a month, enough to pay for his studies at the University of Southern California.
Benioff spent a summer internship at Apple, working as a programmer in the Macintosh division under the direction of Steve Jobs. This experience was later useful to him, as he realized that revolutionary ideas can be encouraged by entrepreneurs.
Benioff currently heads the development company of the eponymous cloud-based CRM system. This longtime competitor to Oracle is valued at $ 40 billion. Salesforce's particular idea was to move away from selling software that companies had to install on their servers. Salesforce allowed people to access line-of-business applications from a web browser. And although you won't surprise anyone with such now, in the late nineties it was a revolutionary idea.
9. Jeff Bezos
Owns Amazon, one of the world's largest online retailers.
Now it is difficult to imagine that the office of such a successful company was located in the garage of the future billionaire, where, along with several employees, he started developing software for an online bookstore. Subsequently, the office expanded to a two-room building. In 1995, the entrepreneur opened Amazon.com, named after a meandering South American river.
The businessman, through large retail partnerships, constantly expanded the range of products that Amazon was ready to offer. The books were joined by CDs, and later by clothing, electronics, toys, and more. Although many of the dot coms went bankrupt in the early 90s, Amazon thrived, with annual sales skyrocketing from $ 510,000 in 1995 to over $ 17 billion in 2011.
Bezos is currently worth an estimated $ 72.8 billion.
8. Warren Buffett
Like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett donates billions of dollars to charities, refuting the stereotype of the greed and callousness of "capitalism sharks." He tops the list of billionaire philanthropists with over $ 46 billion in donations since 2000. This is about 71% of his fortune. By comparison, Bill Gates has donated $ 18 billion since 2000, or 22% of his fortune.
7. Bernard Arnault
This French businessman is one of the owners of the LVMH luxury conglomerate and one of the richest people on earth. According to Forbes, Arno's fortune reaches $ 34 billion.
Arnault is nicknamed "the wolf in cashmere" due to the acquisition of a large number of fashion and beauty brands, including Givenchy, Guerlain, Sephora, Fendi and Loro Piana, as well as many jewelry brands, including TAG Heuer, De Beers and Bulgari. ... Many did not believe in the advisability of collecting "under one roof" of various brands, since this does not allow them to focus on one direction, moreover, some of the companies acquired by Arno were direct competitors.
However, Arnault, as a true genius entrepreneur, did not pay attention to critics. He changed the conglomerate's pricing policy, making the brands' products available not only to very wealthy buyers, but also to middle-income people. And those who are dissatisfied with this "averaging" can always buy things from expensive limited editions of clothing and accessories.
6.Giorgio Armani
The founder of Armani is a visible proof of the theory that a beautiful person also grows old beautifully. During his life, he tried many activities: from an assistant photographer to a window designer, but the fame and wealth of Armani brought the creation of clothing models. Initially, he did this for various Italian brands, and then in 1974 presented clothes under his own name. A year later, following the persuasion of a friend of the architect Sergio Galeotti, Armani created his own company.
The Italian fashion designer has been recruited to create costumes for iconic films such as The Matrix, American Gigolo and The Untouchables.
5. Philip Anschutz
The American businessman, despite his multi-billion dollar fortune ($ 12.5 billion), leads a rather modest lifestyle and does not seek publicity too much. He very rarely gives interviews to the press (he gave the last detailed interview already in 1974). However, it is known that Anschutz is the head of one of the largest oil companies in the United States, owns several football clubs and cinemas, a railway and a huge number of farms. And Anschutz also owns the telecommunications company Qwest Communications - one of the leaders in this industry in America.
4. Paul Allen
Paul Allen first left his mark on the business world when he co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates. This happened in 1975, and since then Allen has remained one of the main innovators in entrepreneurship and technology. He is the founder and chairman of Vulcan Inc., which oversees the businessman's philanthropic and business interests, from sports teams like the Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trail Blazers to heritage preservation projects like Seattle Cinerama and the Pop Culture Museum.
Through his commercial and philanthropic investments, the Microsoft cofounder has pioneered important events and innovations in science, technology, space, education and the arts. For example, since 2003, he has invested over $ 500 million in basic brain research, opening the Allen Institute for Brain Science. He also created the Allen Institute for Cell Science and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence.
3. Michael Eisner
For 21 years, Eisner was the permanent leader of The Walt Disney Company. Under him, the Walt Disney Television Animation division appeared, producing cartoons for TV. Children love cartoons in the morning and the ratings from this decision were very good. In addition, Eisner authorized the sale to television companies of the rights to show old Disney cartoons and films. These steps have significantly strengthened the company's financial position. However, Disney veterans criticized Eisner's actions, reproaching him that he was focused only on making a profit and the new products of the film studio lost their notorious Disney spirit. In 2005, the Disney Company boss stepped down from his post.
2. Karl Icahn
Icahn made his fortune as one of the notorious Wall Street raiders in the 1980s. He owned large stakes in corporations such as RJR Nabisco, Texaco, Phillips Petroleum and Viacom. In addition to raiding, he was engaged in the so-called "greenmail": buyback of shares of companies at an inflated price.Such was Icahn's success that he inspired many of the writers to portray the famous Wall Street movie Gordon Gekko.
Currently, 81-year-old Icahn is ranked 43rd in the Forbes list of the richest people.
1. Sheldon Adelson
On the first line in the selection of the best business minds of our time is one of the leaders of the global gaming business, the founder of Las Vegas Sands Corp. and an influential sponsor of the US Republicans.
Adelson's source of wealth and current investment was the computer trade show COMDEX, designed for the computer industry. It was an innovative solution that was incredibly popular. The first event took place in 1979, and in 1995 the businessman sold COMDEX to the Japanese telecommunications corporation SoftBank Japan for $ 862 million. After that, in 1988, the businessman acquired the popular gambling establishment The Sands Hotel & Casino. It featured celebrities such as Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, and filmed 1960's Ocean's 11.
However, later Adelson personally blew up The Sands Hotel & Casino in order to build in its place the most luxurious Venetian hotel-casino, decorated in the Venetian style (up to canals and gondoliers). And then he entered the international arena, building luxurious casino hotel complexes in a number of countries.
Throughout his career, Sheldon Adelson has created over 50 diversified companies.
Russia in the list of outstanding entrepreneurs of the century was represented by Yuri Milner (55th place). He participated in the creation of Mail.Ru Group and the international venture fund DST Global.