David Lester - Global Brands that Changed the World

Edited By David Lester

JAICO PUBLISHING HOUSE

Ahmedabad Bangalore Bhopal Bhubaneswar Chennai
Delhi Hyderabad Kolkata Lucknow Mumbai

Published by Jaico Publishing House
A-2 Jash Chambers, 7-A Sir Phirozshah Mehta Road
Fort, Mumbai - 400 001
www.jaicobooks.com

Crimson Publishing

Original English language edition published by
Crimson Publishing
Westminster House, Kew Road
Richmond, Surrey, TW9 2ND, UK
All Rights Reserved.

To be sold only in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan,
Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

GLOBAL BRANDS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
ISBN 978-81-8495-267-4

First Jaico Impression: 2011

No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in
any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any
information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Many people are fascinated by how businesses that very often have been taken for granted as part of our lives actually began. And many are people who have become interested in starting companies as a result of the excellent TV programmes The Apprentice or Dragons' Den, and want to know more about what it really takes to get a business off the ground. They wonder whether they should have pursued their idea, whether they were cut out to be an entrepreneur, and enjoy the thoughts reading Global Brands That Changed the World provokes.

And be under no illusion: reading this book will provoke thoughts. It is fascinating to learn why some of the products we take for granted actually came about. Just how much was carefully planned, and how much happened by pure chance? It's intriguing to wonder how things might have been without some of those twists of fate. And to wonder what might have become of some of your own ideas. Or whether there is another brilliant idea for a brand-new global business within your reach if you could just think a little more about it. I have started a number of successful businesses myself, and still get the same buzz of excitement from reading these stories; is there another great business I could start that would grow to this level of success?

One factor that makes this more tantalising than ever is the speed at which some businesses can grow. Google and Bebo are the two most obvious examples from this collection. Ten years ago, neither had been launched to 'consumers' yet today each has tens, or hundreds, of millions of people using them regularly. I am sure that in 10 years' time, there will be several more businesses that are as well known as Google is today which haven't been started yet. That's the nature of the world we live in, with technology speeding up the rate at which some businesses can grow. Could one of those new businesses be yours?

Whatever your reasons for reading this book, I hope it delivers what you want. Should it inspire you to go on and set up your own business, then wonderful you have chosen a challenging but potentially very rewarding path. And should it put you off the idea, then well done for realising that perhaps being an entrepreneur isn't for you; it certainly isn't for everyone. One study I read recently suggests that roughly one in 20 people have the personality type to be an entrepreneur; no more.

So, what does it take to be an entrepreneur, judging from the people whose stories are told in these pages? Two significant qualities rise above the rest: passion for the idea, and the determination to find a way through no matter what problems are encountered. Age, experience, family background and starting capital are not requirements it is genuinely possible to build a truly great business whatever your current financial status, or age, or education level. As it should be.

How did we select the companies for this book?

We set out to find a wide variety of businesses, focusing on the sort of businesses most people think about starting, in other words avoiding less-practical ideas such as mining or financial institutions! From there, we applied three strict criteria:

Above all, we wanted to show that good ideas, turned into businesses by one or a small group of people, have gone on to become global giants throughout the last 100 years or so, and continue to do so.

Wherever possible we have spoken to the founders directly; inevitably, given the age of some of the businesses covered here, some of those are dead, so we have relied on company archives and others who know the story.

It is a sad truth that very few of these companies were founded by women. The closest we get is Bebo, co-founded by Xochi Birch, Green & Black's, co-founded by Josephine Fairley, Lonely Planet, co-founded by Maureen Wheeler, and eBay, where a woman, Meg Whitman, was the CEO who drove most of eBay's substantial growth. Equally disappointing is the racial mix of founders, being predominantly white. Both of these have much to do with the era when the majority of the businesses covered, which is probably inevitable when trying to cover a group of such dominant brands, given when most of these were set up. About half the businesses we cover were started before the Second World War; and many more in the two decades after it ended, it would be the 1970s before women and non-white racial groups started to set up ambitious businesses, a trend which has grown far too slowly for many people's taste. I look forward to doing a new edition of Global Brands That Changed the World in 10 years' time, and hopefully seeing a much wider variety of founders then.