From Predators to Icons

In the popular imagination, the business media, and the schools of business and management that train new generations of entrepreneurs and executives, achieving extraordinary success in business is attributed to far-sighted individuals who have taken bold risks, provided innovative leadership, and introduced new products, services, or ideas superior to those of the competition. Amid the growing skepticism about the means by which vast amounts of wealth are accumulated and its consequences, however, this belief is long overdue for reevaluation. In From Predators to Icons, Michel Villette, a sociologist, and Catherine Vuillermot, a business historian, examine the careers of thirty-two of today's wealthiest global executives—including Warren Buffett, Ingvar Kamprad, Bernard Arnault, Jim Clark, and Richard Branson—in order to challenge the conventional explanations for their extreme success and come to a better understanding of modern business practices. In contrast to the familiar