Showing results for "Barons" in Business Leaders

In the early twentieth century, young Ganga Bhishan Agarwal, aka Haldiram, gained a reputation for making the best bhujia in town. Fast-forward a century and the Haldiram’s empire has a revenue much greater than that of McDonald’s and Domino’s combined. In Bhujia Barons, Pavitra Kumar...

A "pacy, smartly reported" (Financial Times) account of the historic quest to rekindle the human exploration and colonization of space led by two rival billionaires The Space Barons is the story of a group of billionaire entrepreneurs who are pouring their fortunes into the epic resurrection of...

Biographical profile of Walter Elias Disney, the man who built an empire on the back of a mouse. Imbued with an iron-like drive to succeed, Disney pushed, prodded, and pressed those around him, as he did himself, to succeed. He was always on the edge of vision and technology. An unmitigated risk taker, Disney constantly flirted with financial ruin, seemingly bent on a mission to remain in debt while his brother Roy's ambition was to harness Walt's financial excesses.

The great American automotive pioneers were entrepreneurial inventors and visionaries who changed the American landscape and brought us a new national culture. The dawn of the automobile ushered away the ubiquitous horse-drawn carriages and the rutted, dusty and wash-boarded dirt roads they traveled on, and replaced them with cars powered by steam, electricity and gasoline.

A Road Well Traveled offers many lessons to be drawn from the pioneers of the automotive industry and the fascinating lives they led. Some became fabulously wealthy; others died in obscurity. But they developed America's largest industry in the space of one generation and demonstrated the skills and characteristics necessary to achieve such success.

Biographical profile of Roy Chapin, the automobile pioneer who gave us many memorable cars including the Hudson Hornet, featured in the 2006 Disney-Pixar animated film Cars as Doc Hudson, a 1951 model (voice of Paul Newman). Chapin's success in the automobile world overshadowed his appointment as chairman of the Highway Transport Committee during World War I and as Secretary of Commerce under President Hoover.

Here's a biographical profile of Charles Nash, an American automobile tycoon who died in 1948 in the tony city of Beverly Hills, California, leaving an estate of approximately $50 million. Not bad considering his roots: a dirt-poor farm boy whose parents split up when he was six years old and essentially abandoned him. Unimaginable today, a court indentured the six-year-old to a Michigan farmer to work for room and board until he was 21.

Here's a biographical profile of Charles Howard who built the world's largest automobile dealer network. Howard owned the famous thoroughbred Seabiscuit, and the story of the scrappy horse is fascinating; but Howard's rise to power and wealth is just as captivating. Howard gained the Buick franchise for San Francisco in 1904 but couldn't sell the three cars. Then the Great Earthquake of 1906 struck and changed San Francisco and Howard's fortunes forever.

Here's a biographical profile of the White brothers who built steamers and trucks and developed a reputation for unique marketing concepts. "The Fight of the Century" took place in 1910, pitting Jack Johnson, the first African American heavyweight boxing champion against Jim Jefferies who was white. The fight was shrouded with racial tension and gave rise to the term "Great White Hope," referring to the need to find a white man capable of defeating the black champion.

Here's a biographical profile of Charles and J. Frank Duryea, two visionaries who were among the first to recognize the potential of the automobile. In 1892 they built America's first gasoline-powered car and had it running successfully the following year.

Here's a biographical profile of John D. Hertz, a prolific industrialist and founder of several famous companies. Yellow cabs are as prosaic to America as black taxis are to London. In 1915, Hertz formed Yellow Cab in Chicago and painted his taxis yellow after the University of Chicago determined it was the most distinct color at a long distance.

Here's a biographical profile of Harvey Firestone, founder of Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. Once upon a time there were four friends who called themselves the Vagabonds. They took summer trips together, shared their thoughts, dreams and visions, and forever changed the world we live in. They were born into simple farming families but set their horizons well beyond their pastures. They were inventive and industrious, and they achieved extraordinary success.

Here's a biographical profile of the Freelan and Francis Stanley, identical twins who developed the Stanley Steamers, cars powered by steam engines. In 1897 the brothers, dressed alike in overcoats, bowler hats and sporting thick black beards appeared on Maple Street in Watertown, Mass., driving a horseless carriage that was nearly soundless. Spectators were stunned by the quick pace and eerie silence. One observer later recalled: "It was like watching a pair of pants run down the street with nobody in them."

Here's a biographical profile of Henry Leland, one of the less well-known American automobile pioneers, but who's cars are top named brands and his imprint on the development of the American automobile industry is with few parallels. If Leland had named his cars in his own image, like Ford, Chrysler, Dodge or Olds, he would be renowned - he founded Cadillac and Lincoln. When General Motors nearly went bankrupt in 1910, Leland's Cadillac division kept the company afloat.

Here's a biographical profile of Walter Chrysler, the pioneer automotive genius who established one of the iconic brands in American automobiles and was known as "Mr. Fix It," for his uncanny ability to fix sick automobile companies. The Chrysler Building is one of the most recognizable icons of New York City; the Chrysler name, a symbol of American automotive ingenuity, and the Chrysler story one of humble beginnings in the best American tradition.

Buick is one of the best known automobile brands today as it was more than a century ago. But unlike other automobile pioneers, Ford, Dodge, and Olds, who became rich and famous with their car companies, Buick prospered not at all from his namesake. Although Buick was a visionary and an outstanding engineer, he simply did not have all the tools to succeed, lacking management sense among other things.

Several prominent brother teams pioneered the American automobile industry: Horace and John Dodge, Charles and Frank Duryea, Francis and Freelan Stanley, five Studebaker brothers and James and William Packard. However, the seven burly Fisher brothers were not only the most numerous of all the families, each one extensively involved in developing the famous "Body by Fisher" brand and subsequently General Motors, they were also among the most successful of the automobile titans.

Here's a biographical profile of Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., a fashionable dresser whose starched and pressed stiff-collared shirts, double-breasted suits, spats, and a pearl tie pin gave him the appearance of a dandy, of a playboy. But Sloan, who built General Motors into the largest corporation in the world through hard work and vision, and devoted the same zeal to philanthropy, had no time for play.

Here's a biographical profile of Henry J. Kaiser, a great industrialist and philanthropist who had a profound impact on America's ability to prevail in World War II. People tend to regard the great American titans of the past as robber barons, men who made their fortunes off the backs of the oppressed, flaunting laws and living like nabobs while others had to scratch for a living.

Henry Ford, an American folk hero to many, was a man with several faces. He was a genius who revolutionized the automobile industry, irrevocably altered American culture and commerce, developed mass production, and helped the middle class emerge in America. He was also an anti-Semitic autocrat who hated Wall Street, bankers and financiers with unmitigated passion.