The 12 Greatest Entrepreneurs of our Time (part 5 of 6)

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

8. John Mackey

Company: Whole Foods

Sales: $10.1 billion

Market Value: $15.5 billion

Employees: 56,200

Advice: Purpose inspires people

In 1978, John Mackey and his then-girlfriend Renee Lawson opened their first vegetarian food store in an old Victorian home in Austin. They had modest ambitions: to make a living, have fun, and help a few people live healthier by eating better. A bearded, shaggy-haired college dropout, Mackey had just turned 25 and thought profit was little more than a "necessary evil."

Fast forward: Whole Foods Market now has more than 300 supermarkets and over 56,000 employees (or "team members"). The success of the upscale food retailer has changed the way many of the industry's mainstream competitors operate. "If you told me 20 years ago that Wal-Mart would be one of the leading sellers of organic foods in the world, I would have thought that was ridiculous," the 58-year-old Mackey says.

How does he do it? Among the six fundamental precepts that are at the core of Whole Foods are a commitment to sell the highest-quality natural and organic products available, satisfy and delight the customers, and promote environmental stewardship. Many companies have mission statements with lofty principles that are little more than wall hangings. 

9. Herb Kelleher

Company: Southwest Airlines

Sales: $15.6 billion

Market Value: $6.4 billion

Employees: 45,392

Advice: Make your employees No. 1

When Herb Kelleher took an aptitude test at Wesleyan University, where he majored in English, he was told that there were three things he was best suited for: working as a journalist, an editor, or a lawyer. Kelleher chose law, and it was a good thing. It would take five long years of often tortuous litigation by competitors to get Southwest Airlines out of court and into the air in June 1971.

In an industry plagued by vast amounts of red ink, Southwest marked its 39th consecutive year of profitability in 2011, a feat unmatched in U.S. aviation history. What's more, Kelleher, 81, proved that you could still charge low fares and be nicely profitable. Southwest is not only the largest U.S. domestic airline but also responsible, as one economist noted, for 90% of the low-fare airline business that exists in America.

How did Kelleher do it? He kept costs extraordinarily low and customer service high -- and he did both by creating a culture that respected the people he carefully hired. Like Sam Walton, he understood that front-line personnel can either make you or break you. And Kelleher got his people to sign on to the program through profit-sharing plans and stock options that made employees feel and act like owners. It separated Southwest from the pack.

"Years ago," he once told an interviewer, "the business schools used to pose it as a conundrum. They would say, `Well, who comes first? Your employees, your shareholders, or your customers?' But it's not a conundrum. Your employees come first. And if you treat your employees right, guess what? Your customers come back, and that makes your shareholders happy. Start with employees and the rest follows from that".

Fuente: CNN Money - FORTUNE