Steve Wozniak

Steve Wozniak, or “Woz” as he is commonly called, is best known for co-founding Apple along with high school friend Steve Jobs. But Wozniak didn’t set out to establish one of the world’s most influential computer companies. His goal early in life was to be an engineer and a lifelong employee of Hewlett Packard — and to have enough spare time to tinker with electronic … [ Read more ]

Best Business Books 2007: Biography

strategy+business reviews the best business biography books of 2007

Andrew Carnegie

In the pantheon of the industrial giants who dominated late-nineteenth-century American capitalism, Andrew Carnegie has consistently stood out as the most fascinating and enigmatic character. Celebrated as the creator of the modern steel industry, he earned equal renown for the disbursement of his vast fortune to numerous philanthropic causes. As opposed to the cold, austere image of a Rockefeller, Carnegie seemed to radiate genuine warmth … [ Read more ]

Muhammad Yunus

Dr. Muhammad Yunus, 2006 nobel laureate and founder of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, addressed an audience of more than 700 on Oct. 20, 2007 at Pepperdine’s School of Law. His address was titled “Social Enterprise: Doing Well by Doing Good.”

My Life as a Knowledge Worker

Peter Drucker describes seven personal experiences that taught him how to grow, change, and age. [Hat Tip to Personal MBA]

Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction

In this biography, Pulitzer Prize winner McCraw neatly divides his emphasis between Schumpeter’s professional and personal life. He portrays his subject as a somewhat self-absorbed insatiable scholar not entirely comfortable with his contemporaries, which might explain marriages and affairs with much older and younger women, as well as his affinity with students and often-strained relations with colleagues of his own generation. McGraw lucidly addresses Schumpeter’s … [ Read more ]

The Thought Leader Interview: Bill George

There’s no single path to authentic leadership, says the former Medtronic chief executive. We must all discover our own.

James Burnham: The Owner-Manager Struggle

An important American thinker in the early part of the twentieth century, James Burnham saw owners and managers in a perpetual struggle for power. In important respects, his ideas still resonate.

Wozniak Reflects on Founding Apple Computer

When Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs cofounded Apple Computer in the 1970s, Woz recalls he wanted to build the best computer possible while Jobs “had a vision for making companies.” The result is history, Wozniak told a Stanford Business School audience.

An interview with Kent Monroe

Kent B. Monroe talks about guidelines and basic rules to follow for developing and maintaining an effective organizational approach to solving pricing problems.

Giants of Enterprise: Seven Business Innovators and the Empires They Built

Business historian Tedlow (Harvard Business Sch.) presents seven magnates in a historical context that reflects the growth of the United States as an economic power from the mid-1800s to the latter part of the 20th century. Presenting biographical essays divided chronologically into three sections, he first discusses Andrew Carnegie (U.S. Steel), George Eastman (Kodak), and Henry Ford (automobiles) and their contributions to the emergence of … [ Read more ]

Mapping the Entrepreneurial Psyche

What leads a person to start a company? “The impulse…to prove oneself superior to others.”

Editor’s Note: a look at the life and work of economist Joseph A. Schumpeter

An Interview with David Taube

In this interview David Taube talks
about franchising and its pros and
cons as a business expansion model.

Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days

Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days is a collection of interviews with founders of famous technology companies about what happened in the very earliest days. These people are celebrities now. What was it like when they were just a couple friends with an idea? Founders like Steve Wozniak (Apple), Caterina Fake (Flickr), Mitch Kapor (Lotus), Max Levchin (PayPal), and Sabeer Bhatia (Hotmail) tell … [ Read more ]

Iacocca’s Nine Cs of Leadership

“I’ve never been Commander in Chief, but I’ve been a CEO. I understand a few things about leadership at the top. I’ve figured out nine points-not ten. I call them the ‘Nine Cs of Leadership'” – says an excerpt from former Chrysler Chairman and CEO Lee Iacocca’s Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

Enlightened Industrialist: Walther Rathenau

Celebrated by Peter Drucker as a key influence, Walther Rathenau deserves to be remembered as a major figure in pre-War Germany.

Spotlight on Edward de Bono

In this issue of Spotlight, Edward de Bono talks to editor Sarah Powell about the development, application and impact of his ideas about thinking and creativity.

Rediscovering Schumpeter: The Power of Capitalism

Economist Joseph Schumpeter was perhaps the most powerful thinker ever on innovation, entrepreneurship, and capitalism. He was also one of the most unusual personalities of the 20th century, as Harvard Business School professor emeritus Thomas K. McCraw shows in a new biography. Read our interview and book excerpt.

New Developments in Valuation: An interview with Tom Copeland

One of the most eminent authorities in the field of valuation is Tom Copeland, not least because of the fact that he is the co-author of the standard work in the field of valuation. Professor Copeland is the most appropriate person to ask which subjects are currently under discussion in the field of finance and financing. Are fundamental changes taking place or are the developments … [ Read more ]

Nobodies to Somebodies: How 100 Great Careers Got Their Start

Peter Han cofounded a software company soon after college and sold it a few years later. By any measure he was already successful, but he still was curious about how others found long-term meaning in their work. So he set out to learn what a diverse group of influential “somebodies” had done back when they were still “nobodies.”

Nobodies to Somebodies is based on Han’s interviews … [ Read more ]