One of the most valuable companies in 2014 is Apple. According to Fortune Global 500 estimates, Yabloko occupied an honorable fifteenth place in 2014, losing a couple of positions to Samsung Electronics. But in 2012, when Apple reached 500 billion in equity capital, surpassing the oil and gas company Exxon Mobil, Fortun gave Yabloko first place. But 500 billion dollars is not a record for them, because on February 10, 2015, a maximum world record was recorded in stock trading - $122 per share, the estimated value of the company was more than seven hundred billion dollars.
From the first day of their birth, Yabloko had many managers, including Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, who was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the lowest paid executive director with a daily salary of $1.
During the existence of Yabloko, the company’s financial indicators either grew rapidly or fell down with the same desire, and the company’s managers influenced the technological direction.
Among the significant figures was Steve Wozniak, who became the founder of Apple.
According to statistics from various research centers, the main growth of Yabloko was observed during the reign of Steve Jobs, and declines were observed during the years of his absence. Therefore, we can safely call Steve Jobs the main key figure in the development of the company.
Over the years of its existence and growth, there have been many debates about who is the founder of Apple - Wozniak or Jobs. And is it true that the first Apple computer was assembled in a garage, or in a student laboratory where both Steves worked?
Some authoritative publications, collecting historical information, interviews and answering the question of who is the founder of Apple, they wrote “Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak,” while others wrote, “Steve Jobs is the only founder of the company.”
But both Steves, answering the journalists’ question, evasively avoided answering, without solely taking upon themselves the function of creator. So who officially became the founder of Apple, according to the papers? Most sources say that Steve Jobs is the official and sole founder of the company.
The company was officially registered in April 1976, although Jobs and Wozniak began their activities much earlier, meeting in the garage and assembling the first computer based on the eight-bit microprocessor MOS 6502 Technology.
Many print media that have written and are writing articles about the history of the creation of Apple, opposite the question “who is the founder of Apple,” indicate: Steve Jobs, although Jobs himself always said:
Steve Wozniak and I worked together to create the first Apple computer.
After the official registration of the company, the first computer, Apple-1, saw the light of day, and a little later, Apple-2, which sold millions of copies.
The Apple-2 industry continued until 1993, improving somewhat from release to release.
Since in the 80s Apple-2 computers had few competitors, the main peak in the popularization of the personal computer from Yabloko fell precisely during this period; over five million devices were sold.
However, at the same time, the company experienced failure, having released an unsuccessful model of the Apple-3 computer, which, surprisingly, did not at all affect the sales of the first shares of the Yabloko company.
Failures continued to plague the company in 1981, when Steve Wozniak left the company due to a plane crash, and Jobs was forced to lay off more than 50 employees. The mass layoff was associated with the failed Apple-3 project.
To lift the company from the bottom, Jobs invited John Sculley to the position of president of the company.
But the business relationship between Jobs and Sculley did not work out, and Jobs left Yabloko, creating the Next company.
The famous Macintosh computer was first released in 1984. For twenty years, the Yabloko company produced these computers as the main product, using Motorolla processors and its own operating system Mac OS.
In the mid-90s, Apple licensed the right to use its own OS to other computer manufacturers, but the licenses were soon revoked.
In 1996, the Yabloko company was on the verge of bankruptcy. Losses amount to more than two billion dollars.
In 1997, the founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, returned to the Yabloko members, after which the company's business went uphill. The company begins to master new technologies not related to computers, and already in 2001 the first iPod music player was released.
In 2007, Apple released the sensational iPhone, and Steve Jobs began to be called the first person in the world to provide users with pocket Internet.
Three years later, Apple releases the first iPad.
The last three new products released by the company radically change the financial situation, and Apple becomes the most successful manufacturer in the market of modern gadgets.
The stunning success of Yabloko gave rise to envious people, and caring competitors, one after another, began to overwhelm the company with lawsuits.
Even the Finnish company Nokia did not stand aside and in 2009 filed a lawsuit against Yabloko, accusing them of violating several patents. The court then upheld the claim from Nokia and ordered Yabloko to pay compensation.
While the 2 giants were suing, a line of gadgets from Samsung Galaxy, like two peas in a pod similar to the iPhone and iPad. Apple filed a lawsuit against Samsung with the wording “copying software, interface and design” of the above-mentioned gadgets, but in response Samsung company filed a lawsuit against Yabloko with the same wording that Nokia filed and won in 2009.
The court found both companies to be violators, satisfying all claims, and ordered them to pay compensation to each other, and also banned the sale of popular gadgets on their territory by both companies (the trials took place in South Korea).
In 2011, Steve Jobs died of an incurable disease. Apple has continued its work and is successfully releasing new innovative devices.
The Japanese themselves put the recipe for the Japanese miracle into two words: wakon yosai. This means taking the latest knowledge developed by foreigners, but not allowing it to undermine the foundations of the Japanese way of thinking.
Japan has proven surprisingly open to fresh ideas. However, innovation alone would not be enough for a miracle. An equally important component of wakon yosai was the developed communal consciousness of the Japanese, which found its expression in the corporate spirit. The old and the new were most harmoniously combined in the brainchild of the famous Akio Morita - the Sony concern.
Sony is one of those that gave the phrase “Made in Japan” prestige and made Japan one of the most technologically advanced countries in the eyes of the whole world. Sony was created after the end of World War II, during a difficult time for the country. This was the most opportune moment for the revival of the country. The company was founded by two physicists: Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka.
Morita became a legend during his lifetime. The founder of Sony had many roles: physicist, engineer, inventor, businessman, athlete (for 30 years, every Tuesday, at exactly 7.30 am, the cheerful and fit Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sony Corporation appeared on the court; and also scuba diving, windsurfing, water skis...).
Akio Morita was born on January 26, 1921 in Nagoya, into a family of respectable distillers. His ancestors made a living by making sake - rice vodka; therefore, Akio Morita’s parents hoped to eventually transfer the family business to him. Akio was the eldest son, and in Japan at that time almost all the children of merchants and entrepreneurs followed in the footsteps of their fathers. However, Akio did not want to study the ancient skill and brew sake, as all his relatives did up to and including the fifteenth generation. It was the 20th century, and the boy was interested in mathematics and physics. Oddly enough, the father approved of his son's decision and allowed him to follow his own path.
For this, Morita enters the Imperial University in Osaka. After finishing it, he goes to military service, where he manages to receive the rank of officer. After finishing his service, Akio Morita goes to work at the Japan Precision Instrument Company, where he meets Masaru Ibuka.
Masaru Ibuka was a physicist from head to toe. He was 13 years older than Morita. Already from his student years, he stood out from his fellow students, for which he received the nickname “genius-inventor.” At the time of Morita's arrival at the Japan Precision Instrument Company, Ibuka was her general director. The future founders of Sony quickly found mutual language. Passion for technology was the meaning of life for both. They did not think about any revolutions, but simply did what brought them pleasure and money... with which problems soon arose.
After the end of the war, the Japan Precision Instrument Company lost the military orders that had kept it alive for the past few years. All employees lost their jobs overnight, and Ibuka lost his business. Akio Morita, in order to somehow earn some money, gets a job as a teacher at a university, and Ibuka goes to a small workshop for repairing electrical appliances. But for both, these decisions became a cage in which the bird could be imprisoned. They longed to invent, to create something of their own. And of course, make money from this, which a small repair shop and teaching at a university could not bring, which Morita lost quickly enough, since by law officers did not have the right to be teachers.
On May 7, 1946, the Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo Kabusiki Kaisa company was founded, the authorized capital of which was $375 (Morita even borrowed a small amount from his parents). The company initially had 20 employees in total (all from Ibuki's previous project). However, the company's activities were not revolutionary. No inventions or discoveries at first. You just had to survive. The company's activities in this regard mainly consisted of the production of voltmeters, rice fryers and small electrical appliances.
The story of our company, Morita later wrote, is the story of a group of people striving to help Ibuka realize his dreams. Ibuka was too much of a dreamer for business; he did not fit into the well-established rhythm of work. Therefore, Morita, having taken over the management of the enterprise, entrusted the technical part of the work to his partner. The business tandem lasted for about half a century.
Ibuka was actively generating ideas. For example, I came up with an electric rice cooker, a kind of hybrid of a tub and an electric stove. It was possible to cook rice in it, but eating it later was not possible: it either burned or turned out undercooked.
However, it was on such units that the company’s philosophy was formed and honed, which was not to bring to life products that already existed on the market, but to produce completely new products.
The company's first major discovery took place in 1949, when Masaru Ibuka patented a magnetic tape for sound reproduction. A year later, the G-Type tape recorder was released, which, despite its wretchedness, became the basis for the company's future developments. The G-Type tape recorder had only two disadvantages. But they put an end to his future. It was heavy and expensive. The G-Type weighed 35 kilograms and cost $900. A total of 20 of these VCRs were produced. It was not possible to sell them until Akio Morito decided to appeal to the Supreme Court of Japan, making an offer to purchase these tape recorders in order to replace stenographers with them. The deal went through and 20 G-Types went to court (in two years a new version of the tape recorder will be released, weighing 13 kg). In the early 1950s, Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka acquired a license for the production of transistors from the American Western Electric (the price of the patent was 25 thousand dollars). This was a turning point in the company's history. In 54, the first transistor produced in the depths of Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo Kabusiki Kaisa was released. After this, the first radio receiver developed not for military purposes comes out. The receiver was given the name TR-2 (by that time TR1 already existed, it was an unsuccessful receiver). This radio receiver began to be in quite high demand and soon Ibuka and Morita released a TV and VCR. These devices were also based on a transistor. In 1956, a physicist, the future owner, came to the company Nobel Prize Rayon Esaki, who will contribute to the future success of the company.
By the end of the 50s, Morita and Ibuka began to think about entering the company into the US market. It was clear that the current name was not suitable for this. It was too complicated and long. It was decided to rename the company Sony.
This word was derived from the Latin sonus, which means sound. Another consonance was the English sonny, son. It seemed to emphasize that the company was run by young and energetic people. But in Japanese, sonny would mean losing money. When one letter was removed, it turned out to be Sony. The word was easy to remember and pronounce, and was not tied to any known national language.
Expansion in the USA
In 1963, Sony listed its shares on the New York Stock Exchange. It was the first Japanese company to be listed on the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange). To achieve a stronger position in the American market, Akio Morita moved to the United States and soon moved his entire family there. Having settled in New York on fashionable Fifth Avenue, Morita temporarily became an American. Thus, he sought to understand the specifics of American business, the characteristics of the market, the traditions and character of Americans. The sociable and witty Japanese easily made acquaintances in the business circles of New York. He realized what his company lacked - openness. The traditional isolation and impenetrability of Japanese culture reduced its effectiveness management decisions. A new look at Western business, a view from the inside, allowed Morita to combine the experience of East and West, Japanese thoughtfulness, centralization and European openness in his policy.
In 1968, the first Trinitron color TV was made in Sony laboratories, then sales offices and enterprises were opened in the USA, Great Britain, and Germany. Factories and plants were built - in San Diego, Bridgend, the number of employees and employees grew (now Sony enterprises employ 173 thousand people).
Rock and roll era
Morita was a true workaholic and demanded the same dedication from his employees. At the same time, his range of interests was not limited to the affairs of the corporation: Morita loved painting and music, especially Beethoven, played sports and closely followed the successes of famous tennis players. Morita also wrote books, of which the most popular was his autobiography Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony (Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony, New York, 1988).
In the early 1960s, with the advent of rock and roll, young people began to listen to more music. Morita often watched his children listen to the Beatles, Little Richard and Elvis Presley from morning to evening. And not just teenagers: even Japanese adults now bought expensive stereo systems for cars and took large, heavy tape recorders with them on picnics or to the beach. And although the department of new technologies fundamentally did not want to release a tape recorder without a recording function, Morita insisted on his own. This is how the Walkman portable player appeared, a bestseller in the late 1970s. The combination of Sony Walkman did not seem very successful to the managers, and they came up with several variations of the name for Europe and America: Freestyle for the Swedes, Stowaway for the UK and Soundabout for the United States. However, the level of sales immediately fell - the trademark was no longer recognizable, and Morita again unified the name. The correctness of his decision was immediately confirmed by new growth in profits.
The first home video cassette recorder SL-6300
The first portable player TPS-L2
First CD prototype
Video camera BVM-1
First CD player CDP-101
Portable CD player D-50
In 1982, Sony Corporation released the first compact disc to the market. The most familiar storage medium for people in the 1990s, the compact disc was originally intended only for recording sound transferred to digital format. The standard CD-ROM capacity of 640 MB was determined in a rather interesting way. Morita conducted a marketing study, during which it turned out that among potential CD-ROM buyers, the majority are fans of classical music who are ready to high precision playback fork out for a CD that is by no means cheap. And on the Japanese music market, among other classics, the absolute leader in sales is Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, the performance of which takes 73 and a half minutes. By converting 74 minutes of 16-bit stereo sound into bytes, Sony engineers obtained a capacity of 640MB.
In the late 1980s, Sony entered the world of show business and the film industry: in January 1988, the corporation acquired the recording studio CBS Records Inc., later transformed into Sony Music Entertainment. And most recently she bought the film studio Columbia Pictures, one of the largest film studios in America.
To completely become related to music, in 1988 Sony acquired the record company CBS Records Inc and renamed it Sony Music Entertainment. Today, this company is one of the largest recording companies in the world. A year later, Sony acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment Inc., thereby adding its name to the film industry.
Then came the 90s - the time when Sony began to simply rivet technological innovations. Participation in the development of the DVD format, the creation of Blu-Ray, new TVs, the most popular series of Sony Vaio laptops, the Play Station and Play Station Portable game consoles, Memory Stick memory cards, a series of Cyber-Shot digital cameras, batteries for laptops, monitors, an entertainment organizer for called CLIE, a series of DVD players, camcorders and cam recorders, Bravia TVs, mobile phones produced jointly with Ericsson and much more. That's what Sony has done lately.
It should be noted that at the beginning of its existence, Sony was strikingly different from other Japanese companies, thereby giving them food for thought (and even changing the concept of Japanese business). The fact is that Sony hired people on a competitive basis, without considering their academic performance at the university or any connections in the company. This was strikingly different from the traditions accepted in Japan at that time, since 99% of companies hired people who were somehow familiar with the president to leadership positions. Sony has made the hiring process impartial. They say that for many years Akio Morita personally talked with the candidates. This practice will subsequently be adopted by other Japanese companies.
Philosophy of success
Revolutionary developments have become a Sony trademark. The company created the first transistor television (1959), the first liquid crystal television (1962), the first VCR (1964), etc.
Success is achieved along untrodden paths, Morita liked to say. It was this principle that he based the philosophy of his company.
And Morita considered the formation of a corporate philosophy to be the most important task of a manager. A leader-manager needs a theoretically strong and practically applicable concept in order to develop a way of thinking that would push subordinates to achieve their goals in any conditions.
The actions of the manager depend decisively on how he understands the essence of the enterprise. The management concept adopted in the United States consists of setting measurable goals and objectives and developing specific means of achieving them. American-type managers illustrate their projects with flowcharts in the form of squares, circles and arrows between them.
For a Japanese manager, a company is not a passive object of management, but something organically whole, a living organism endowed with a soul. For it to live, it is not enough just to design it and assemble it from individual cubes. It needs to be raised. And the source of a company’s development is its soul, in other words, its philosophy, system of values and beliefs. The notorious hymns, program speeches of leaders and wall propaganda are nothing more than the most figurative and capacious expression of the mission, ideals and raison d'être of the enterprise.
Thousands of employees united in a single impulse of work with the help of simple spells. Their authors knew better than anyone the national weaknesses of their compatriots.
First of all, a sense of duty to the team, almost identical to a feeling of shame: the Japanese are psychologically uncomfortable, ashamed not to do what others do - not to stay after work, not to help their comrades.
The Japanese's heightened sense of gratitude was also exploited. Thus, a Japanese person who gets a job feels indebted to his employer for the rest of his life and pays off the debt with his labor. This makes it clear why the lifelong employment system was able to establish itself in Japan.
Founders
Morita was remembered by the public as a born businessman. While Ibuka preferred invention and work in the laboratory to everything else, Akio dealt with management issues. And he dealt with them perfectly. At the same time, he wrote two books. The first was called “Meaningless School Achievements.” In it, the author explained why successful studies at school do not in any way affect a person’s future achievements in life, and in particular in business (in general, Akio was an ardent opponent of the idea that success depends on successful studies at school and in college). Morita's second book was the famous “Made in Japan” - the history of the Sony Corporation. This book was published in the late 80s, but is still being republished today.
Akio Morita received many awards during his life. He is the first Japanese person to receive the OBE medal. In addition, he was awarded the honorary title of recipient of the National Order of the Legion of Honor, and also received the Order of the Holy Treasure, First Class, from the Emperor of Japan. Akio Morita was a workaholic, devoting himself completely to work. In addition, he demanded the same from his subordinates. True, it is worth noting that Morita did not ignore other aspects of life at all. So, he was a fairly active tennis player, loved skiing and scuba diving. The West loved Morita. It was he who found the way to the hearts of Americans and Europeans for Sony.
Masaru Ibuka is less famous outside of Japan. The reason for this was that he was involved in the scientific development of new products for the company and tried not to be in sight all the time, like Morita. A clear division of responsibilities among company leaders has largely become one of the key factors for successful management at Sony. But don’t think that Ibuka dealt only with technical issues. For example, it was he who drew up the famous company charter, which is still observed today: “We will never receive income through dishonest means. We will focus on producing sophisticated devices that will benefit society. We will not divide our products into mechanical and electronic, but we will try to apply our knowledge and experience in both areas simultaneously. We will provide complete independence to those enterprises that will cooperate with us, and we will try to strengthen and develop relationships with them. We will select employees based on their abilities and personal qualities. There will be no formal positions in our company. We will pay our employees bonuses proportional to the income generated by their activities and will make every effort to provide them with a decent living." Masaru Ibuka would have turned 100 years old this year.
According to Russian legislation, a founder is an individual (legal) person who creates (establishes) a company, organization or firm. He is the full owner of his organization, manages its activities and makes all important decisions. The founder of a company can be one or more people.
Individuals (legal entities) who decide to create a new company will act as its owners in the future. In most cases, companies are established by several persons - by each of them contributing a share of their own funds to the authorized capital of the organization.
If an individual decides to create an organization alone, then he will be its sole owner. Often people do not know the meaning of the word “founder”, identifying it with the director. In fact, these are completely different concepts. Main function director of a company is the organization of its activities in the direction indicated by the owner.
A founder is a person who creates a company from scratch. The director must skillfully manage this company, properly organize and expand its activities. As a rule, he has no ownership rights in the company unless he is one of its founders. Information about the owners of each legal entity must be entered into the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (Unified State Register legal persons).
A limited liability company is an organization created by one or more individuals (legal entities). The authorized capital of the company is divided into certain shares. Participants in the organization bear the risk of possible losses within the limits of the shares contributed to them. An LLC can be established by both residents and non-residents. The number of founders must be less than 50.
Each participant in a limited liability company is obliged to timely contribute to the authorized capital the amount of share determined by the agreement on establishment. The founders of the LLC receive quarterly or once a year profits in the form of dividends in an amount proportional to the share of funds they contributed to the management company. The amount of dividends is determined by the management body of the company, which is appointed by its owners. The participants of an LLC are jointly and severally liable for its obligations.
Legislative acts provide a definition of the founder of a limited liability company. It can be one person (individual or legal) or several. But in practice, limited liability companies are created by at least 2 persons.
Often the sole founder of an LLC serves as the director of the company. This situation does not lead to anything good. The founder saves on staff, placing a bunch of responsibilities on his shoulders. In limited liability companies, it is not so easy to perfectly organize the work of staff and monitor the activities of the organization. For these purposes, the position of director is being introduced. It is he who manages the company, expands its capabilities and provides the founder with reports on the work done. In this way, the owner can properly coordinate the work of the company or set new courses for its activities.
An additional liability company is a business organization created by individuals or legal entities. The management company of ODO is divided into shares specified in the constituent documents. Its participants bear subsidiary liability for their obligations. An ALC may have one or several founders. In the second case, their number should not be more than 50.
The main documents of an ALC are the constituent agreement and the Charter. The minimum authorized capital is 10 thousand rubles. In an ODO, the founder is the owner of the company. He appoints higher authorities management, which resolves all important issues in society. ALC and LLC differ in that the founders of the former are liable for the organization’s obligations not only within the limits of the charter capital, but also manage additional funds determined by the Charter. In practice, companies with additional liability are rarely created in the Russian Federation.
IN joint stock company The founder is the owner of the created company. He is often confused with a shareholder, who actually only owns a block of shares in the company. A joint stock company is created by the founders, and shareholders appear in it to attract additional capital. For these purposes, the owners of a joint stock company issue securities - shares.
The number of founders in a joint stock company is usually 5-7 people, but the number of shareholders is not limited. The founders of a joint stock company appoint a Board of Directors, manage the company's activities and make important decisions. In a joint-stock company, it is the owners who receive the bulk of the profit, but they also risk losing not only the management capital, but also personal property in the event of a ban
Today LifeGlobe will introduce you to the most interesting examples of how the future popularity of a nascent company can depend on a lucky coincidence, luck, or even a spelling error. We present to your attention the history of the emergence of 20 leading world brands of our time
It has always been known that a company’s future success depends on a catchy, memorable name. Recently, when creating any large company or for the purpose of rebranding an existing but unpopular one, the practice of “brainstorming” is most often used - when all employees gather in one room and “throw” their name ideas onto a common table. This is an interesting and correct approach, but sometimes no “brainstorming” can compare with the will of chance, which brings up completely unexpected ideas or forces you to make a mistake that in the future will cause the mega-popularity of the brand...
Of course, in last words there was a reference to the most famous case of this kind - a typo when registering the domain of Google, the most extensive and popular search engine today. Initially, Page and Brin's search system was called BackRab, but at some point they decided that something needed to be changed - in 1997, a brainstorming session was held among students in the Stanford University dormitory, the goal of which was to find a name that suited would be a search engine capable of processing colossal amounts of information. After several fruitless hours, the idea came to Page himself - the word googol, meaning one followed by a hundred zeros, but the student who was entrusted with registering the domain name made a typo, as a result of which the domain google.com was born.
In order not to go far, let's remember how Facebook was created - the largest social network in the world at the moment. As you know, Mark Zuckerberg’s first trick was to steal photographs and data of Harvard students and post them on his Facemash website with the ability to vote for this or that photo. But the university management did not appreciate the student’s resourcefulness and Mark was expelled. After some time, the idea of another project, much larger and this time completely legal, came into Zuckerberg’s bright head. One day, Mark was going through old things and accidentally came across his school photo album, “The Photo Address Book.” He remembered that no one ever liked this name, because... it was long and took a long time to pronounce, so everyone called the album simply “Facebook” - this is how the future social network got a name that is not known today except in the most backward countries of the world or some native tribes of South America =)
Another social resource that is popular here - VKontakte - got its name due to the fact that Pavel Durov, who created it, listened to the radio station "Echo of Moscow", where the phrase "In full contact with information" was often repeated on air. Without hesitation, Pavel removed unnecessary words and registered a domain name, which was recently shortened to just two letters VK. Well, I didn’t bother with the logo at all - I used the example of Facebook =)
The name of the Russian search resource Yandex is actually an abbreviation, and it is different in Russian and English - “Language Index” in Russian and “Yet Another iNDEX” in English. Nothing is known for sure about who came up with this idea, but according to the official version it was one of the search engine developers
Domain name for the foreign search engine Yahoo! was invented, without knowing it, by the Irish writer Jonathan Swift, who used this word to describe an annoying tribe of natives in Gulliver's Adventures. In addition, it is also a joyful cry common in America, which is why the founders of Yahoo! Jerry Yang and David Filo chose exactly this name for the domain of the future search resource - in their understanding, “Yahoo!” means the user's joy at what he found necessary information
The creator of the Hotmail trademark, which today is part of Microsoft, is Sabir Bhatia, who at one time went through a bunch of names ending in “mail” and, in the end, settled on the name Hotmail - due to the fact that it also encrypts abbreviation HTML. The very idea of creating mailboxes that can be accessed from any corner of the planet where there is Internet belongs to Jack Smith. Today Hotmail is on the verge of closing due to the emergence of more convenient Outlook.com. In 2013, Hotmail will cease to exist forever, and its users will be automatically transferred to the new email service
In order not to stray too far from the Internet and IT technologies, let’s remember one of the leading manufacturers of prestigious new consumer electronics - Apple, whose brand was recognized as the most expensive brand in the world in May 2011. The history of the name is quite comical - one fine day, after three months of fruitless attempts to come up with a name for the company, Steve Jobs threatened his partners that if they did not offer him a normal option by 5 pm, he would name the company after his favorite fruit - an apple ! They didn't offer...
The name of another major electronics manufacturer was decided by a coin - William Hewlett and David Packard tossed it when they decided whose last name would appear first in the name of their joint venture, the first office of which was Hewlett's garage. It is logical to assume that since the company is called Hewlett/Packard, the coin turned out to be lucky for the garage owner =)
The Japanese company Sony also went through a long search - the creators of Tokyo Tsushin Koge Kabushiki Kaisa (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Company) Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuki wanted to find a shorter and more concise name, but could not come up with anything. And then the Latin language came to their aid, and specifically the word sonus, which translates as “sound.” It was the 50s and in Japan the American word sonny, consonant with it, was widespread in Japan, but written in Japanese hieroglyphs it meant “unprofitable.” The problem was solved with the inherent simplicity of the Japanese - they crossed out the extra N from the name and registered the SONY brand
Another Japanese giant company specializing in the production of digital equipment for home and office - Canon - initially, when created in the 30s of the last century, bore the intricate name Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory in Japan. But with the creation of the first camera, named for some reason in honor of the Buddhist goddess of mercy Kwanon, the brothers Goro and Saburo Yoshida decided to rename the company and at the same time take several consonant names, including Canon, “just in case.” Such foresight helped them in the future to avoid problems with religious structures, which did not like the fact that the name of the great goddess was “some kind of incomprehensible thing” - in the end, the Yoshida brothers settled on the name Canon, because it turned out that, in addition to being sweet-sounding, it is also translated from in English as “canon”, and in French means “gun” - so since that time more and more “photo guns” have been produced =)
The name of the South Korean industrial concern Samsung means “Three Stars”. The reason for the company’s name is not known for certain, but many associate it with the three sons of its founder
The name of the American company Kodak was born thanks to the love of its founder, George Eastman, for the letter “K” - he was looking for short words that would begin and end with this letter. He was also attracted to it by the fact that in all any popular alphabets in the world, the letter “K” is written the same way. As a result, the word “Kodak” was born in Eastman’s head - this is the sound, in his opinion, made by a camera with 100-frame film that he invented in 1888
The creator of the Xerox machine, Chester Carlson, wanted to highlight the fact that before his invention, the dry-powder copier, only wet copying technologies existed. So Chester sat down with the dictionaries and found Greek the word "xer", literally translated as "dry", and based on it he came up with the name for his device - "xerox"
In order not to go far, let us remember that in another American state a company was born whose products we consumed by the liter in the 90s - we are talking about Pepsi-Cola, which pharmacist Caleb Bradham invented at the end of the century before last. There are several versions of where this name came from. According to the more common one, Caleb named the drink after pepsin, a digestive enzyme that helps our stomach break down protein. According to another version, Bradham simply took the name of the company of one of his local competitors - Pep Cola - and “edited” it a little. The last opinion that you can pay attention to is based on the assumption that people liked that the black drink gave them vigor and strength (from English pep - energy, vigor) - hence the name
Already in this, the 21st century, Pepsi-Cola has been thoroughly replaced by another no less dark and no less harmful drink - Coca-Cola. Pharmacist John Stith Pemberton didn’t think much about the name - he named it after the main ingredients of his recipe, created on May 8, 1886 - three parts coca leaves (which are so popular in Colombia...) to one part tropical cola nuts. You can learn about other ingredients from the article What is in everyone's favorite Coca-Cola. According to another version, the name for the drink was invented by a local farmer who sold it to a pharmacist for $250. The Coca-Cola logo was written in calligraphy by Pemberton's accountant Frank Robinson - a gifted accountant, judging by the fact that the logo has not changed since then)
There is also an interesting story connected with the name of the German industrial concerns Adidas and Puma. Once upon a time, in the 20s of the 20th century, two brothers, Adolf and Rudolf Dassler, founded a common shoe making company. They called it simply - Dassler (full name - "Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory"). In 1948, after the death of their father, the brothers had a big quarrel and decided to go their separate ways. As a result, they agreed that no one would use the name Dassler anymore. Adolf named his newly formed company Addas, which was later replaced by the more benign Adidas (from Adolf's shortened name - Adi Dassler), and brother Rudolf founded the Ruda factory, later renamed to the similar word Puma. This is where the joint story of the Dassler brothers finally ended.
The Tokyo engineering company Mitsubishi was founded in the early 1870s, the logo was a three-leaf clover - the coat of arms of the family of the company's founder, Yataro Iwasaki. As a consequence of the coat of arms, the name “Three Diamonds” was coined (“mitsu” - “three”, “hishi” - “diamond”, according to another version of the translation - “water chestnut”). Why then doesn't it sound like Mitsuhisi? The answer lies in the phenomenon of Japanese morphonology, or Rendaku, as a result of which often the voiceless initial consonants of a root become voiced when read if the root of the word is preceded by a prefix or other root. This is why the "h" in the middle of Mitsuhishi is pronounced like a "b"
The history of the name of the South Korean financial and industrial group Daewoo is not as interesting as the translation of the name itself is unusual, which few people know about. The founder of the company, Kim Woo Chong, called it simply and modestly - “Big Universe”. Indeed, much more modest)
No less interesting is the name of the German auto giant Audi. The word itself is borrowed from Latin and translates as “Listen!”, but the main interesting feature is that Audi is the Latin version of the surname of the company’s founder, August Horch. The fact is that they didn’t think much about the name for the first car produced at the newly formed plant - they simply called it Horch, but when they began to come up with a name for the next model, the son of one of his partners came to the aid of August, who suggested a Latin version of the manager’s surname . From then on, the history of one of the most successful automobile companies in the world begins, which today is part of the Volkswagen Group.
As you can see, some companies were named on a whim, others needed weeks and months to find a suitable name, but all of them, nevertheless, became successful in their economic niches - mainly thanks to the right name, an interesting idea and the well-coordinated work of their teams
December 25th is the birthday of Conrad Hilton, the man who built a hotel empire and took the hospitality industry to a new level. Hilton Corporation and 9 other legendary companies of our time - in a special ELLE review.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates demonstrated his talent as a programmer while still in school, developing a lesson schedule that allowed him to be in a class with as many girls as possible every time. Who would have thought then that the savvy teenager had ahead of him - the creation of a transnational corporation that would develop the world's most popular operating system, Windows. Gates decided to start his own business in 1975, and in less than forty years his brainchild went from three employees and 16 thousand dollars in the bank to the status of a business giant (almost 90 thousand people on staff) and the largest manufacturer software, mobile phones and computer technology. By the way, if you decide to try your luck and become part of the Microsoft team, keep in mind that the company takes great pleasure in recruiting women and even hosts summer camps for high school girls to spark their interest in the industry. But despite this, be prepared for an extraordinary selection procedure (for example, during testing, candidates have to answer questions like “why sewer hatches have round shape"), as well as fierce competition - for one vacancy in the company there is an average of 1 million 300 thousand resumes.
Brothers Mac and Dick McDonald became fast food pioneers when they opened the first self-service restaurant in December 1948. It is likely that their business would have remained a project on the scale of the state of California if it had not been for a nimble supplier of cocktail mixers named Ray Kroc, who, by the way, was on the verge of bankruptcy at the time of his acquaintance with McDonald's. It was he who believed in the future of the company and launched the sale of franchises, and in 1961 bought the business from his brothers for $2.7 million. The company was created by him in 1955, and already in 1965 it managed more than 700 restaurants in the United States. The first foreign McDonald's opened in Canada in 1967, after which the hamburger corporation began its victorious march across the planet. In Russia, the opening of the first McDonald's took place on January 31, 1990 and caused an incredible stir: as many as 30 thousand people lined up for overseas cheeseburgers, despite the frost. By the way, respecting the local traditions of different countries, the company adapts the menu and presentation of dishes: for example, the menu of Indian restaurants does not include Big Mac, but there is Maharaja Mac, made from lamb meat. In total, McDonald's has more than 35 thousand restaurants in the world, and, despite scandals and litigation (it’s worth remembering at least the story of the sensational documentary film“Double Help”, as well as the recent court case won by Jamie Oliver), the company remains incredibly popular: more than 70 million people become its customers every day.
Michael Dell did not shine with his abilities at school, but already at the age of 12 he demonstrated his extraordinary talent as an entrepreneur, earning $2,000 by distributing a magazine subscription. A simple craft opened up the technique of direct sales for the young businessman: Dell found out the names of newlyweds, sending them Greeting Cards with an offer for a two-week free subscription. Amazingly, it was this direct sales technology that later became the signature know-how of the Dell business empire - a developer, manufacturer and seller of computers, servers and software. The company (which Dell founded at the age of 19, with $1,000 in his pocket) was the first in its industry to refuse to work with intermediaries and exclude warehouses from the business chain: computers here are assembled only upon order from a client and delivered directly to the buyer, offering them as bonus: constant service support, minimum prices and numerous bonus gifts. It was Dell that, for the first time in its industry, decided to sell computers via the Internet. With such bold innovation and exceptional customer focus, it's no surprise that the corporation topped Fortune magazine's list of "Admired Companies" in 2005.
If the name of the Spanish company Inditex doesn’t mean much to you, believe me, you are very familiar with its brands: Zara, Oysho, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Pull and Bear, Stradivarius - and this is not the whole list. The history of the corporation began in the 70s, when Spanish entrepreneur Amancio Ortega decided to open an inexpensive but fashionable clothes and named it Zara. The business turned out to be successful, Ortega continued to open more and more stores, which in 1985 formed the Inditex holding. Further - more: new brands were born within the corporation, each with its own style and target audience, then textile, accessories, and shoe stores appeared. Thanks to the diversity of brands and the ability to instantly respond to demand dynamics, Inditex has turned into a real business empire, demonstrating fantastic growth rates. Today the company owns more than 5 thousand. retail outlets on all 5 continents and does not plan to stop there.
The most popular family entertainment empire, the Disney Corporation has gone from a tiny studio in a garage to one of the world's most powerful giants over nine decades. Animation was Disney's clear vocation: he began drawing comics at the age of seven, took a course in caricature and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts. Having started in 1923 with cartoons about Alice in Wonderland, five years later he introduced Mickey Mouse to the public (whom, by the way, he himself voiced), and seven years later he received an Oscar - the first of a record 29! In 1937, Disney gave the world Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the highest-grossing film of all time (surpassed only by Gone with the Wind), which ushered in an entire era of feature-length cartoons. This was followed by the classics “Bambi”, “Dumbo”, “Beauty and the Beast”, the company gained a whole army of fans. After numerous letters from viewers asking to visit his studio, Disney decided to open a new business - an amusement park, which ultimately became the key to the company's financial stability and made Walt's heirs billionaires: by 1960, income from Disneyland exceeded income from the film studio. Today, the Walt Disney Productions company, which is the second (after Time Warner) media holding, owns several film and recording studios, 535 branded stores, several newspapers and magazines, its own TV network, hockey and baseball teams, parks in different countries of the world, and an annual turnover is 21 billion dollars. I wonder what baggage the Disney empire will bring to its centenary?
Guerlain, Givenchy, Hennesy, Bulgari, Marc Jacobs, Benefit, Don Peregnon and many, many other names of iconic luxury brands are all LVMH. The French concern, owned by Bernard Arnault's family and today the world's largest manufacturer of luxury goods, appeared in 1987 thanks to the merger of two key market players - Louis Vuitton and Moët Hennessy. This deal marked the beginning of numerous acquisitions and mergers, the largest of which would have been the failed acquisition of Gucci in 1999. The luxury empire, which has a turnover of more than 20 billion euros a year, includes companies producing clothing, watches, wine and spirits, leather goods, perfumes and cosmetics. LMHV also includes an auction firm, financial publications, an art magazine, hotels and a radio station. Declaring luxury as its passion, the company strives for perfectionism in everything and is actively working to find and develop talent. In addition to direct business development, LVHM pays attention to charity and responsible business conduct: the company supports a number of social projects and medical institutions, sponsors events in the arts, and is also involved in the preservation and restoration of cultural monuments.
It's even a little ridiculous to define Apple as a "personal computer manufacturer." I would like to talk about this business empire, which has created a real cult out of its products, only in superlatives: Created by the legendary Steve Jobs on April 1st (that's a joke) 1976, Apple is the most valuable company in the world today. She earns $300,000 every minute, the amount in her company bank account sometimes exceeds the amount held in the US Treasury account, and in the first quarter of 2014 alone, Yabloko earned more than Google, Facebook and Amazon combined. Setting record after record, in March 2014 the company sold its 500 millionth iPhone, and apparently, it is not going to stop there - founder Jobs’s pledge to “stay insatiable” seems to have become the unspoken motto of the corporation.
Giving up on his unfulfilled dream of becoming a banker, 31-year-old Conrad Hilton, who came from a family of grocers, decided to try his luck in the hotel business. With his first hotel, the Dallas Hilton, opened in 1925, he set out to make it the best hotel in Texas—and ended up creating a hotel empire. Even the Great Depression, which hit America powerfully in the 20s, did not stop Hilton: forced to cede his company to creditors, he bought it back five years later and resumed active work, and in 1954 he stunned all of America by making a major deal and buying his main competitor - Statler Hotels - for $111 million. By the end of the 60s, Hilton owned more than 40 hotels in the United States, plus the same number abroad. The success of Hilton's business empire consisted of numerous innovations that are today considered integral part hotel business. Thus, it was Hilton who came up with the “star” (by analogy with cognac) hotel rating system. He also proposed integrating hotels and casinos (which instantly increased the number of customers), opening hotels at the airport and putting quality of service at the forefront. In addition, Hilton liked to visit competitors' hotels, observing the atmosphere and behavior of clients. It was at the Hilton Corporation that a system of rewarding regular customers was introduced, an information and reference system for booking rooms together with air and train tickets, and even the Pina Colada cocktail was created at the Hilton Hotel. Today the corporation has 3,800 hotels of various levels in 88 countries. It is noteworthy, by the way, that after the death of Conrad Hilton, the empire he built became, in accordance with his will, the property of the Hilton Foundation. However, one of the businessman’s sons managed to challenge his father’s dying will in court, and a few years later the business empire returned to the Hilton “family.”
In 1967, the principal of the school where Richard Branson graduated said goodbye to his (far from the best) student with these words: “Congratulations, Richard! You'll either go to jail or become a millionaire." The prediction came true: Branson became one of the most famous - and most outrageous - rich people of our time, and his company became the greatest conglomerate of various business areas. It all started with an idea that was as bold as it was absurd: Branson, who suffered from dyslexia and, accordingly, had not read a single book, decided... to publish a magazine! He moved from a magazine to a music store, from stores to a record label, and away we go: a flight operator balloons, publishing, international air travel, bridal clothing, jewelry and cosmetics online, vodka production, comic book production, condoms... It is difficult to say what is more striking in this endless list - the scale or the spread. Even Branson himself is rumored to be unsure of exactly how many companies belong to his fantastic multi-brand, which now has combined revenues of $24 billion. It is obvious that the secret of the success of the Virgin corporation is courage, bordering on madness: it is not for nothing that Branson chose the name Virgin for his business as a designation of a “virgin pure” approach to business and the absence of any experience on the part of any of the employees. A non-standard approach is manifested in Branson’s company at all levels: there is absolutely no subordination here, informality and creativity are encouraged, and employees calmly drink beer during the working day. And Branson himself, currently preoccupied with the development of space tourism, no more or less, still loves adventure, shocking antics and his immortal sweater, which he does not refuse even at meetings with royalty.
