Forbes Greatest Business Stories of All Time

What do Bill Gates, Henry Ford, J. P. Morgan, Mary Kay Ash, and Walt Disney all have in common? Uncompromising vision, a willingness to take risks, and exceptional business acumen. Not only did these individuals amass great fortunes, they revolutionized the business world and helped shape society as we know it. Theirs are just a few of the stories collected in this anthology of commercial ingenuity.

Drawing on a wealth of sources, this priceless collection brings to life extraordinary achievements, many of them forgotten or little known: how Robert Morris, the preeminent merchant of the eighteenth century, financed the American Revolution with his personal credit; how Ray Kroc used a shrewd real estate strategy to turn a faltering hamburger franchise operation into the McDonald′s fast food empire; and how Mary Kay Ash built a billion–dollar direct sales cosmetics company by preaching a message of economic empowerment to women.

Enlightening and fascinating, Forbes(r) Greatest Business Stories of All Time celebrates larger–than–life ambition, inspired leadership, wheeling and dealing, and hard work.

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Partial table of contents:

Robert Morris: America′s First Financier.

Cyrus McCormick′s Reaper and the Industrialization of Farming.

John D. Rockefeller and the Modern Corporation.

Henry Ford and the Model T. Charles Merrill and the Democratization of Stock Ownership.

Walt Disney and his Family–Entertainment Empire.

Ray Kroc, McDonald′s, and the Fast–Food Industry.

Betting the Company: Joseph Wilson and the Xerox 914.

American Express and the Charge Card.

Mary Kay Ash and her Corporate Culture for Women.

Sam Walton, Wal–Mart, and the Discounting of America.

The Turnaround at Harley–Davidson.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.

and the Leveraged Buyout.

William Gates and the Dominance of Microsoft.

Notes on Sources.

Index.

DANIEL GROSS is a Harvard–trained historian and journalist.