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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs
It's not everyday that we see people turning their dreams into amazing ideas.
Here we take a look at 12 greatest entrepreneurs of our time, including an Indian, according to Fortune magazine.
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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs
Narayana Murthy
Company: Infosys
Sales: $6.0 billion
Market Value: $32 billion
Employees: 145,088
Advice: Sacrifice today, cash in tomorrow
Global rank: 10
He and six other engineers co-founded Infosys in 1981. Murthy served as CEO from 1981 to 2002. From 2002 to 2011, he served as the Chairman. In 2011, he stepped down from the board and became Chairman Emeritus.
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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs
Murthy's first job position was at IIM Ahmedabad, where he worked as the chief systems programmer. After IIM Ahmedabad, he started a company named Softronics in 1976.
When that company failed, he joined Patni Computer Systems in Pune.
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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs
Steve Jobs
Company: Apple
Sales: $108.2 billion
Market Value: $546 billion
Employees: 63,300
Advice: Say no to focus groups and market research.
Global rank: 1
Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman, designer and inventor. He is best known as the co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc.
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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs
Through Apple, he was widely recognised as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution and for his influential career in the computer and consumer electronics fields.
Jobs also co-founded and served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, when Disney acquired Pixar.
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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs
Bill Gates
Company: Microsoft
Sales: $69.9 billion
Market Value: $273.5 billion
Employees: 90,000
Advice: Find very smart people and create small teams.
Global rank: 2
William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen.
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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs
He is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people and was the wealthiest overall from 1995 to 2009, excluding 2008, when he was ranked third; in 2011 he was the wealthiest American and the second wealthiest person.
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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs
Fred Smith
Company: FedEx
Sales: $39.3 billion
Market Value: $30 billion
Employees: 255,573
Advice: Rely on "first-level" managers
Global rank: 3
"When people ask me what principles have guided me since I started FedEx Corp. years ago," he has said, "my answer often startles them: It's the leadership tenets that I learned in the US Marine Corps during my service in Vietnam."
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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs
FedEx Corporation, originally known as FDX Corporation, is a logistics services company, based in the United States with headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee.
The name "FedEx" is a syllabic abbreviation of the name of the company's original air division, Federal Express, which was used from 1973 until 2000.
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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs
Jeff Bezos
Company: Amazon
Sales: $84.0 billion
Market Value: $48.1 billion
Employees: 56,200
Advice: Take regular mini-retreats
Global rank: 4
Jeffrey Preston "Jeff" Bezos is the founder, president, chief executive officer, and chairman of the board of Amazon.com.
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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs
Bezos often showed intense scientific interests. He rigged an electric alarm to keep his younger siblings out of his room. He converted his parents' garage into a laboratory for science projects.
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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs
Larry Page and Sergey Brin
Company: Google
Sales: $37.9 billion
Market Value: $203.2 billion
Employees: 32,500
Advice: Spare no expense on innovation
Global rank: 5
Lawrence "Larry" Page is an American computer scientist and internet entrepreneur who, with Sergey Brin, is best known as the co-founder of Google.
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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs
Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin is an American computer scientist and Internet entrepreneur who, with Larry Page, co-founded Google, one of the most profitable Internet companies.
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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs
Howard Schultz
Company: Starbucks
Sales: $11.7 billion
Market Value: $40 billion
Employees: 149,000
Advice: Always challenge the old ways
Global rank: 6
Howard Schultz is an American business magnate. He is best known as the chairman and CEO of Starbucks and a former owner of the Seattle SuperSonics.
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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs
After graduating, he worked as a salesperson for Xerox Corporation. In 1979 he became a general manager for Swedish drip coffee maker manufacturer, Hammarplast.
In 1981, Schultz visited a client of Hammarplast, a fledgling coffee-bean shop called Starbucks Coffee Company in Seattle which he joined as the Director of Marketing a year later.
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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs
Mark Zuckerberg
Company: Facebook
Sales: $3.71 billion
Market Value: $75 billion-$100 billion
Employees: 3,200
Advice: Embrace paranoia
Global rank: 7
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is an American computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur. He is best known for co-creating the social networking site Facebook, of which he is chief executive.
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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs
It was co-founded as a private company in 2004 by Zuckerberg and classmates Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, and Chris Hughes while they were students at Harvard University.
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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs
John Mackey
Company: Whole Foods
Sales: $10.1 billion
Market Value: $15.5 billion
Employees: 56,200
Advice: Purpose inspires people
Global rank: 8
John Mackey is an American businessman. He is the CEO of Whole Foods Market which he had co-founded in 1980.
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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs
Named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2003, Mackey is a strong supporter of free market economics.
He is one of the most influential advocates in the movement for organic food.
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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs
Herb Kelleher
Company: Southwest Airlines
Sales: $15.6 billion
Market Value: $6.4 billion
Employees: 45,392
Advice: Make your customers No. 1
Global rank: 9
Herbert "Herb" Dwight Kelleher is the co-founder, Chairman Emeritus, and former CEO of Southwest Airlines (based in the United States).
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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs
Kelleher was born in Trenton, New Jersey on March 12, 1931 and raised in Audubon, New Jersey, where he graduated from Haddon Heights High School.
He has a bachelor's degree from Wesleyan University where he was an Olin Scholar and where his major was English and his minor Philosophy, and a Juris Doctor from New York University where he was a Root-Tilden Scholar.
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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs
Sam Walton
Company: Wal-Mart Stores
Sales: $446.9 billion
Market Value: $36.5 billion
Employees: 2.0 million
Advice: Give the people what they want
Global rank: 11
Samuel Moore "Sam" Walton was a businessman and entrepreneur born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, best known for founding the retailers Walmart and Sam's Club.
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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs
In 1945, after leaving the military, Walton took over management of his first variety store at the age of 26. With the help of a $20,000 loan from his father-in-law, plus $5,000 he had saved from his time in the Army, Walton purchased a Ben Franklin variety store in Newport, Arkansas.
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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs
Muhammad Yunus
Company: Grameen Bank
Advice: Small gifts can equal big impacts
Global rank: 12
Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi economist and founder of the Grameen Bank, an institution that provides microcredit (small loans to poor people possessing no collateral) to help its clients establish creditworthiness and financial self-sufficiency.
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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs
In 2006 Yunus and Grameen received the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts through microcredit to create economic and social development from below".
Yunus himself has received several other national and international honours.