Great ideas are hard to come by
Putting them to work is even harder
Meet the founders who turned concepts into companies and changed the face of business
Company: Starbucks
Sales: $11.7 billion
Market Value: $40 billion
Employees: 149,000
Advice: Always challenge the old ways
In the darkest days of the Great Recession, many analysts and media pundits had written off Starbucks as an overreaching victim of changing consumer habits. Howard Schultz, who regained his job as CEO in early 2008 after an eight-year hiatus, would have none of it.
When he returned, Starbucks' profits and revenues were tanking. The stock price had fallen so severely that at one point he feared the company could be taken over. Starbucks had become a brand that had been stretched beyond its demography. But Schultz did what few builders of companies are known to do -- but what all of the greatest entrepreneurs always do: He brought financial discipline, bottom-line efficiency, and a back-to-basics focus to the company.
Growth and success had covered up a lot of mistakes and led to a tremendous amount of waste. The world's dominant purveyor of chai lattes, for example, had been losing tens of millions of dollars a year by pouring excess steamed milk down the drain. By simply putting a serrated internal ring inside a pitcher to guide how much milk a barista should use for a latte, Starbucks saved millions. "You wouldn't think a steaming pitcher could be sexy," says Schultz. "But it became very sexy at Starbucks."
As with Steve Jobs at Apple, the second coming of Howard Schultz saved Starbucks from being just another also-ran. And in turning around an iconic brand, Schultz, now 58, demonstrated that he could do what most founders are said not to do: challenge the old way of doing things.
Company: Facebook
Sales: $3.71 billion
Market Value: $75 billion-$100 billion (estimate)
Employees: 3,200
Advice: Embrace paranoia
By the time Mark Zuckerberg celebrates his 28th birthday this May, Facebook will in all likelihood have gone public and become the biggest IPO of all time. The long-anticipated event will create hundreds of millionaires, result in a valuation of an Internet company that will approach $100 billion, and make the geek who dropped out of Harvard University his generation's Bill Gates.
Yet it has been only eight years since the social-networking site was launched from Zuckerberg's dorm room at Harvard. It would be easy to chalk a good bit of his success to luck and timing. But that would be a serious mistake. What's helped make Facebook the world's dominant social network is an obsessive entrepreneurial genius who has taken a page from another of Silicon Valley's legendary denizens, Intel's Andy Grove, who famously stated -- and lived by -- the dictum that only the paranoid survive.
Zuckerberg is the Valley's most paranoid entrepreneur these days, taking nothing for granted. It's why he has pushed out a constant flow of innovative changes to Facebook's platform, making it easier for developers to create applications for the community and ensuring that each new iteration keeps it ahead of the competition. It's the single most important explanation for why Facebook has yet to face any formidable rival in its space, including last year's challenge from heavyweight Google.
Fuente: CNN Money - FORTUNE
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