Thank You For Disrupting The Disruptive Business Philosophies of The World's Great Entrepreneurs

The business ideas and innovation philosophies of the world’s great entrepreneurs—for anyone to implement in any business

Steve Jobs. Jeff Bezos. Larry Page. Sergey Brin. Zhang Ruimin. Marc Benioff. Millions of words have been written about the great entrepreneurs of the world. This book is not about describing their achievements. Nor is it about their charisma, personal trials, or their place in popular culture. We have all heard or read about them already. This book is about the entrepreneur, the thinker. It is about the grand ideas, the disruptive thoughts, the innovative underpinnings and business philosophies that gave rise to their achievements. 

Thank You For Disrupting: The Disruptive Business Philosophies of The World’s Great Entrepreneurs examines 20 of the most significant business leaders of our time. Author Jean-Marie Dru, himself a disruptor who coined the term decades ago, explains not only the impact these leaders have had on their own companies, but also their immense influence on the business world as a whole. Each chapter is replete with in-depth analyses, insightful comments, and personal observations from the author, including discussions covering the experimentation and platforms of Jeff Bezos, to the recruitment policies and core values of Sergey Brin and Larry Page, to the complete CSR and company activism of Paul Polman, and many more. Illustrating how the vision of a disruptive innovator can reach far beyond his or her company, this engaging book encourages and inspires readers to become disruptors in in their own businesses.

The Disruptive Business Philosophies of The World’s Great Entrepreneurs is a must-read for anyone interested in the why and how behind the most significant and influential business achievements of our time. 

JEAN-MARIE DRU is Chairman of TBWA, a leading advertising network with over 11,000 employees across 275 offices in 95 countries. TBWA has been named in 2019 one of the World's Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company and in 2018 Global Agency of the Year by Adweek. Jean-Marie Dru is the author of six books including Disruption, Beyond Disruption, and The Ways to New, and the inventor of TBWA's landmark 1992 DISRUPTION^® method to help companies develop business-changing ideas. Jean-Marie Dru is also President of UNICEF France and President of the French Academy of Medicine Foundation.

Introduction: Thank You for Disrupting xi

Part One Disruptive Company Leadership 1

Chapter 1 Steve Jobs: On User Experience, Design and Timelessness 3

All in One 4

The Art of Reduction 7

Life Lessons 8

Chapter 2 Jeff Bezos: On Experimentation and Platforms 11

Experimentation as a Strategy 12

The Platform Economy 14

Chapter 3 Herb Kelleher: On Human Resources and Operational Quality 19

Employees First 20

The Art Is in the Implementation 24

Chapter 4 Bernard Arnault: On the Management of Creativity and Brand Building 27

Art and Commerce 28

The Luxury Industry as Model 31

Chapter 5 Zhang Ruimin: On Decentralization and Customer-Centricity 35

Everyone Is a CEO 38

Zero Distance with the Customer 41

Chapter 6 Jack Ma: On Chinese Business Models and Disruptive Management 45

A Contrarian Model 46

Embracing Change through Paradox 50

U.S. In, China Out 51

Part Two Disruptive Business Thinking 57

Chapter 7 Jim Collins: On the Search for Excellence and the Management of Alternatives 59

Good to Great 60

The Era of the And 63

Chapter 8 Clayton Christensen: On Disruptive Innovation 67

Bottom-up Disruption 69

The Disruption Controversy 71

Chapter 9 Jedidiah Yueh: On the Behaviors of Companies of the New Economy 75

Lessons from an Entrepreneur 78

Category of One 87

Part Three Disruptive Corporate Culture 91

Chapter 10 Sergey Brin and Larry Page: On Recruitment Policies and Core Values 95

HR as a Science 96

A Fertile Environment 98

Chapter 11 Patty McCord: On Employee Empowerment and Talent Management 101

Disruptive HR Practices 103

A Contrasting Culture 104

Chapter 12 The Disruption Company: On Corporate Culture Components and Disruption 107

Vision, Values, Practices 108

People, Story, Place 110

The Disruption Methodology 112

Part Four Disruptive Brand Building 115

Chapter 13 Marc Pritchard: On Transparency, Accountability, and Creativity 119

Leading Change in the Marketing World 121

Making Brands Serve a Higher Purpose 125

Chapter 14 Brian Chesky: On Brand Building and Disruptive Data 131

Shaping an Iconic Brand 132

The Single Disruptive Data 135

Chapter 15 Lee Clow: On the Power of Great Advertising 139

Big Brand Ideas 140

Creativity, the Advertiser’s Best Bet 143

Chapter 16 Oprah Winfrey: On Building a One-Person Brand 147

The Ultimate Celebrity Brand 148

The One-Person Businesses 152

Chapter 17 Arianna Huffington: On Digital Journalism and Women’s Empowerment 157

The Consecration of Online Journalism 158

Women in Business 161

Part Five Disruptive Social Purpose 165

Chapter 18 Paul Polman: On Complete CSR and Corporate Activism 173

A Force for Good 174

CEO Activism 177

Chapter 19 Emmanuel Faber: On Social Purpose and the Bottom of the Pyramid 183

Side Roads 184

The Bottom of the Pyramid 187

Chapter 20 Marc Benioff and Suzanne DiBianca: On Scaling up Philanthropy 193

A Native Philanthropist 194

Pledge 1% 197

Conclusion: Disruption Ahead 201

Acknowledgments 203

Notes 205

Index 233

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.