Famous Entrepreneurs

Since the Industrial Revolution, history is full of Famous Entrepreneurs, people who have changed history or lifestyles by their innovative exploits. Here are a few of my favourites

Henry Ford (1863 - 1947) - Founded the ford motor company and developed the idea of an assembly line. Each worker performing the same operation on a moving conveyor of cars. The same principal was employed by Ray Krock and the McDonald brothers to make burgers in the 1950's.

Whilst increasing efficiency and profits dramatically it did take any satisfaction for the Ford workers, although the increase in salary more than compensated for the mundane work.

Bill Gates (b1955) - The joint founder of Microsoft along with Paul Allen. One of the most famous entrepreneurs of the present day, partly due to his business methods. Long before the days of the PC, Gates studied Basic programming on old GE and DEC computer systems. He joined Honeywell in 1974. Microsoft began in 1976 and developed several languages for computers including Basic, (Beginners All purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), nowadays forgotten but in the 70's it was the language that let everyone write programs.

The real innovation came with MS-DOS, the operating system which still powers PC's. Gates wrote this originally in 1980 at the request of IBM.

Richard Branson (b1950) - Whilst one of the most successful entrepreneurs, Branson, a dyslexic, has the ability to connect and promote anything he turns his hand to. His business empire covers soft drink, Airlines, Cell phones, Records and many other items.  Richard started with a school magazine whilst at university, the mag became so successful he skipped university and went into publishing. He then saw an opportunity with the record industry. The UK government maintained prices country wide at that time,

Branson forced many changes on the record industry that made discount records available, the first person to do so. His chain of VIrgin record stores are still the foundation of his business.

Samuel Moore Walton (1918 - 1992) - Walton began Wal-Mart the largest retailer in the USA, After a very prestigious sports career at school Walton worked for JC Penney's until 1942. He than joined the Army Intelligence Corps. On leaving he purchased a small store in Newport, Arkansas. He stocked a wide range of goods at low prices and stayed open longer than all his competitors.

He pioneered discount merchandising by negotiating low prices with wholesales, but passing the savings on to his customers, this was unusual at the time, normally the extra profit was kept by the retailer. This certainly worked and is still the principal the company operated on today, Certainly one of the most famous entrepreneurs in the USA.