Who is your Favourite Business Icon?

Hey People,

Who is that one Business Leader whether at present or in History, you have always idolized and thought, this person gets it… Like he is on the right track as to how to think about the world or economy as a whole. What makes you think so, or what traits do you try and bring it in your own life. Do share your thoughts and opinions on this. Would love to know :slight_smile:

Also would love to know from @nithin who is yours ?

3 Likes

Of course, it’s @Nithin but you would say I’m biased towards that 😅

But I would say, at the moment, it’s Leela Nair, she went from being the chief HR executive at Unilever to the first female CEO of Chanel.

What inspired me the most was that she started off as a management trainee at Unilever and rose through the ranks to become the CHRO, which goes to show that patience, persistence, and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.

8 Likes

Hmm. Historically I have a soft spot for the “Industrial Barons”. John D. Rockefeller being the prime candidate.

Dude started from dirt, and then ended up amassing 300 Billion dollars of Inflation adjusted money today. Not even shares in liquid cash tradable Bonds. They were product of the the Industrial Revolution and had the good ole’ if you aren’t with me you are against me mindset to Business. They lead relatively normal lives. As in even if you had all the money in the world in 1860, the best you could do with it is buy houses, farmland and horses and sit in heat without electricity hoping you don’t catch Tuberculosis.

This is also brought simplicity to their style of Business. They asked basically the same variations of these 3 questions :

  1. I Hate competition, how can I run them out of Business ?
  2. How can I vertically and horizontally own the entire supply chain ?
  3. I Make Oil, How can I make more Oil ?

There is also a very interesting stranger than fiction story about JDR, is that he was a devout Chistian and never went anywhere without his personal copy of the bible ( That man swept the floor of his Church until he died at 97) . So while he had to visit Cornelius Vanderbilt in a meeting, he reached the station, but realized he had forgot his Bible, decided to postpone the train trip and went back home. This very train ended up falling in a crashing bridge and everyone onboard the train died. No survivors. This news reached him and he never really recovered from this incident. He started believing that God had saved him for a reason and anyone who stands against him or Standard Oil stands against God himself. This led him to corner 90% of the world’s oil reserve at that time.

One of my favourite Biographies ever is also about him , sharing the link if someone wants to check it out :

The book is loooong, clocks around 800 pages without citations. There should surely be some Summary notes as well, if anyone is interested they can search for them.

7 Likes

Undoubtedly its @nithin, You would know he has been a catalyst in changing the capital market if you have traded with traditional broker.

He has provided
1.Transperancy with the process
2.credibility over the time
3.Level playing field with software, education and brokerage charges.

How many of us can expect a billion dollar company founder to get a reply on basic questions on trading.

So yeah!

4 Likes

The more I read about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patagonia,_Inc. the more impressed I am with Vyon Chouinard. Not just for being able to build a large profitable and sustainable business, but being conscious of the impact the business has on the environment and society.

Read this blog to know how they think about the world, and how different they are to the rest. In a world where every business wants you to keep buying something new and replacing the old, Patagonia nudges their customers to repair, so as to reduce the carbon footprint of their business.

7 Likes

My favourite business icon would be Anand Mahindra and John D Rockfeller.

1 Like

On a lighter vein mine would be Rocket Singh because on a serious note he taught me that business is all about people - professional peers, vendors, customers.

As there are lot many good Business lcon’s , for me , two prominent Business icons come to my mind is , AM Naik of L&T and Anand Mahindra of Mahindra & Mahindra , both are not only Highest Indian civilian awardees , but their contribution to the Nation building & uplifting the National pride is immense. And another striking personality is Benjamin Franklin.( writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and political philosopher)

3 Likes

Indian entrepreneurs who are my favorite are Mr. Sridhar Vembu of Zoho , Mr. Nithin Kamath of Zerodha and Dr. A Velumani of Thyocare :heart_eyes:

Globally, It is currently Elon Musk :crazy_face:

1 Like

Am mildly surprised no-one’s mentioned good old Steve yet! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Agreed, he has been criticized for his extremely aggressive management style. But, Steve Jobs had everything from maniacal attention to detail, excellent public-speaking/presentation skills, to a knack for negotiation.

After all, it takes a special kind of person,
after being ousted from a company he founded,
to start another venture so successful that
he could regain control of his original company.

Truly a Phoenix of his era. :heart_eyes:

1 Like

Our lord Mr. Ratan tata of TATA group
Mr. Mukesh ambani of Reliance industries

With you in this! Have been idolizing him since my grad and learnt so much from his management styles, his passion towards business and keeping up with the new age trends and businesses.

Malavika Krishna, appreciate how she has turned the company around by paying off CCD’s borrowings despite the pandemic — From over ₹7,000 crores of debt in 2017 to just ₹2,000 crores today.

2 Likes

Tim Cook! I’m really impressed by his business strategies and his discipline in handling a big company.

@nithin sir :pray:

Ratan Tata and Dhirubhai Ambani , my role models with the motto of ’ Do something, that your coming generations can be proud of ’

@nithin sir is my role model with the motto of ’ sky is the limit ’

Zhong Shanshan is what I want to be. He was a brick and cement mason. Lacked proper education. No luxury of money. No easy life after all. Now single handly controls a multi billion industry.