100 Great Businesses and the Minds Behind Them

by Emily Ross, Angus Holland

Inside the success of 100 Business Geniuses Risk-loving entrepreneurs. Innovative geniuses. Self-starters and mavericks. The world's greatest businesses were built by unique people, each bringing their own style and savvy to the marketplace. 100 Great Businesses and the Minds Behind Them is a diverse and inspiring collections of great business stories. Covering a variety of success paths, brilliant strategies and engaging entrepreneurs, each profile explores the genius behind the greatest business An engrossing look at what makes entrepreneurs and business geniuses tick, this book highlights the pivotal moments in the lives of great businesses, with lasting lesson on the art of making your business a success.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction

432 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2005

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book provides lots of background and context to how many of the great companies have come into existence.

I felt like the stories could have been more succinct. I lost interest fast. and a lot of this information is so easily accessible through online content. I'd quickly put this down after reading the first hundred pages and browsing the rest.

[Gini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting!!! Red Bull, Barbie, Kate & Andy Spade, Dyson Vacuum cleaners, Pixar and the list goes on and on!

[Shaher Jamal Eddin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of business stories, after reading this book I appreciate a lot of products more than before because of the stories and challenges that the founders went through to make it.
Moreover I came to a conclusion that there is no secret recipe for a successful business owner nor a secret way to run a business as the success stories were about people with various types of personalities who run their business in traditional & nontraditional ways.

I would definitely recommend this book for you..
Happy reading.

[Tanvee Agrawal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great piece of research based work. With a global coverage of some of the most amazing, popular and large businesses, this book inspires a deep realization of potential. Paying attention to many businesses, for me the success boiled down to two factors- innovation (could be a fluke like Kellogg's cornflakes or a sharp acumen like IKEA) and marketing irrelevant to the scale with which it started. To my surprise many were door to door deliveries and mail order business during its inception.
Do you underestimate yourself? Hog upon this book.

[Suhel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly ok, good to get a whirlwind tour of different entrepreneurs across different markets, geography and timelines.

Some of the businesses are no longer dominant (e.g. Blackberry) but at that time were, which is useful insight in itself, in that we make decisions based on best available info but aren't critical enough in questioning "what would make this false/irrelevant?".

Interestingly, this is something I'm reading and learning from another book I'm reading currently "Charlie's Almanac", who has a good lattice of mental models which supports his critical analysis and decision making. Charlie Munger is the business partner at Berkshire Hathaway & Warren Buffet's business partner.

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, snippet chapter style coffee table kind of book. Interesting things I didn't know about the businesses already were fun to learn.

[Amaniology ♥️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

كتاب ايجابي ممتع تعرفت فيه على الاختراعات الجميلة التي ساهمت بصنع ذكرياتنا وسهلت الحياة لنا وامتعتنا، ورحلة الثراء الفاحش لاصحابها والفال لنا ان شاءالله 😄

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ross and Holland provide mini-profiles of 100 quite different companies, some of which were later sold before they became dominant in their respective industries, others that continue to thrive under the leadership of their founders or second-generation successors. What these remarkable companies share in common (other than their great success) is that each is based on an insight with regard to how to solve a problem. Here’s an example of such an insight that resulted, not in one great company but in a product that transformed an entire industry. For example, George de Mestral was irritated by the fact that burrs stuck to his clothes and to his dog's fur on their walks in the Alps. He examined the burrs and saw the possibility of binding two materials reversibly in a simple fashion. He devised a hook-and-loop fastener in 1945 and later patented the device, naming it "Velcro" after the French words velours and crochet meaning “velvet hook.”

Here are two mini-commentaries, each of which includes a brief excerpt or two from the narrative.

Calloway Golf: The Big Bertha driver is probably its most famous product, certainly the one that accelerated its most rapid and most profitable period of growth. Working with his chief club designer, Dick Helmstretter, Ely Calloway developed a BB-3 prototype and tested it on a driving range and as he recalls, “neither of us could do anything but hit it great. We just sort of looked at each other and said, ‘wow, we’ll never be able to make enough.’” Calloway renamed it “Big Bertha” after a large howitzer used by the German Army during World War One. Pro golfers as well as hackers soon found that they could hit drives with it longer and straighter than with any other club. Two years before his death in 1999, Calloway explained, “Up until 1991, what was wrong with drivers is that everyone hated them. The driver was the least favored club in the bag, or the most feared. They bought them but they did not like them. Big Bertha changed the attitude of the masses from one of fear about the driver to one of affection.”

Liquid Paper: Betty Nesmith Graham was a single mother who returned to the workplace to support herself and her young son. She immediately encountered difficulties with the recently introduced electric typewriter. Making only one mistake required that an entire page be retyped and she was constantly making mistakes. Then she decided to experiment with a white, water-based tempera paint. Using a thin paintbrush, she easily corrected her mistakes. She called this liquid “Mistake Out” and began to give and then sell small bottles of it to other secretaries. By 1957, she was selling about 100 bottles a month. The next year, she renamed it “Liquid Paper.” Graham retired from the company in 1975 and died in 1980 at age 56, just six months after selling her corporation to Gillette for $47.5-million. Liquid Paper is now owned by Newell Rubbermaid.

[Sadia Dina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice sum-up and you will find your track to proceed if you want further through this.

[Jsg169 · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK I'm not a business person but I found all of the examples in the book fascinating. It really gives you perspective on how innovation and persistence can create a great product or company. It's probably more gear toward the entrepreneur but it's more interesting enough for the average person. Since it's in bit size section it's easy to read over a long time.

[Nez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Listened to the audio: some stories were interesting, but most were rather dull. Most of the information you could find by looking at Wikipedia. The audio version was also made more painful by the annoying and terrible attempt at American accents. It made me scream out in horror every time the reader pretended to be American.

[Kevin Simpson-verger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought this book was pretty cool. It was really long on audio format but the stories behind the founders of the companies are worth hearing. Several international companies that you would have never heard of, but their stories are interesting. Would recommend to a friend.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked some of the different stories of how businesses made it big. Didn't really go into the why so much but still a good book.

[Hadi Wijaya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book, but I am not at level of entrepreneur now, so a little bit boring reading it. Too much information and can memorize all of them.

[Jana Elston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! Very inspirational!

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! Very inspirational!

[Lori Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read book on entrepreneurial success stories for the knowledge worker or aspiring entrepreneur.

[Marco Puccia · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books, hands down.

[Abdulrahman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Excellent Excellent. The title says it all.

[Diego Leal · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok. Lots of intros to great entrepreneurs from the US and for some reason many from Australia.