From Predators to Icons : Exposing the Myth of the Business Hero

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 executivesincluding Warren Buffett, Ingvar Kamprad, Bernard Arnault, Jim Clark, and Richard Bransonin order to challenge the conventional explanations for their extreme success and come to a better understanding of modern business practices. Book jacket.

Michel Villette is Professor of Sociology, AgroParisTech and EHESS (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales), Paris. He is the author of several books in French. Catherine Vuillermot is Assistant Professor of Business History at L'Universite de Franche Comt. John R. Kimberly is the Henry Bower Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies and Professor of Management, Health Care Systems, and Sociology at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. George Holoch previously translated Smoke Mirrors, Inc. for Cornell.