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This article was first published 12 years ago

Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs

Last updated on: March 29, 2012 08:48 IST

Image: Visitors stand on a balcony overlooking the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York.
Photographs: Andrew Burton/Reuters

It's not everyday that we see people turning their dreams into amazing ideas.

Here we take a look at 12 greatest entrepreneurs of our time, including an Indian, according to Fortune magazine.

Click NEXT to see which Indian has made it to the list...

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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs

Image: Narayana Murthy.
Photographs: Punit Paranjpe/Reuters

Narayana Murthy

Company: Infosys

Sales: $6.0 billion

Market Value: $32 billion

Employees: 145,088

Advice: Sacrifice today, cash in tomorrow

Global rank: 10

He and six other engineers co-founded Infosys in 1981. Murthy served as CEO from 1981 to 2002. From 2002 to 2011, he served as the Chairman. In 2011, he stepped down from the board and became Chairman Emeritus.

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Tags: , CEO , Infosys

Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs

Image: Murthy's first job position was at IIM Ahmedabad.
Photographs: Savita Kirloskar/Reuters

Murthy's first job position was at IIM Ahmedabad, where he worked as the chief systems programmer. After IIM Ahmedabad, he started a company named Softronics in 1976.

When that company failed, he joined Patni Computer Systems in Pune.

Click NEXT to see rest of the entrepreneurs...

Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs

Image: Steve Jobs.
Photographs: Beck Diefenbach/Reuters

Steve Jobs

Company: Apple

Sales: $108.2 billion

Market Value: $546 billion

Employees: 63,300

Advice: Say no to focus groups and market research.

Global rank: 1

Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman, designer and inventor. He is best known as the co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc.

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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs

Image: Jobs also co-founded and served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios.
Photographs: Beck Diefenbach/Reuters

Through Apple, he was widely recognised as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution and for his influential career in the computer and consumer electronics fields.

Jobs also co-founded and served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, when Disney acquired Pixar.

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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs

Image: Bill Gates.
Photographs: Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters

Bill Gates

Company: Microsoft

Sales: $69.9 billion

Market Value: $273.5 billion

Employees: 90,000

Advice: Find very smart people and create small teams.

Global rank: 2

William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen.

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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs

Image: He is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people.
Photographs: Christian Hartmann/Reuters

He is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people and was the wealthiest overall from 1995 to 2009, excluding 2008, when he was ranked third; in 2011 he was the wealthiest American and the second wealthiest person.

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Tags: , American

Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs

Image: Fred Smith with his wife, Diane
Photographs: Fred Prouser/Reuters

Fred Smith

Company: FedEx

Sales: $39.3 billion

Market Value: $30 billion

Employees: 255,573

Advice: Rely on "first-level" managers

Global rank: 3

"When people ask me what principles have guided me since I started FedEx Corp. years ago," he has said, "my answer often startles them: It's the leadership tenets that I learned in the US Marine Corps during my service in Vietnam."

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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs

Image: FedEx is a logistics services company.
Photographs: Benoit Tessier/Reuters

FedEx Corporation, originally known as FDX Corporation, is a logistics services company, based in the United States with headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee.

The name "FedEx" is a syllabic abbreviation of the name of the company's original air division, Federal Express, which was used from 1973 until 2000.

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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs

Image: Jeff Bezos.
Photographs: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

Jeff Bezos

Company: Amazon

Sales: $84.0 billion

Market Value: $48.1 billion

Employees: 56,200

Advice: Take regular mini-retreats

Global rank: 4

Jeffrey Preston "Jeff" Bezos is the founder, president, chief executive officer, and chairman of the board of Amazon.com.

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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs

Image: Bezos often showed intense scientific interests.
Photographs: Kim White/Reuters

Bezos often showed intense scientific interests. He rigged an electric alarm to keep his younger siblings out of his room. He converted his parents' garage into a laboratory for science projects.

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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs

Image: Larry Page.
Photographs: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

Larry Page and Sergey Brin

Company: Google

Sales: $37.9 billion

Market Value: $203.2 billion

Employees: 32,500

Advice: Spare no expense on innovation

Global rank: 5

Lawrence "Larry" Page is an American computer scientist and internet entrepreneur who, with Sergey Brin, is best known as the co-founder of Google.

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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs

Image: Sergey Brin.
Photographs: Robert Galbraith/Reuters

Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin is an American computer scientist and Internet entrepreneur who, with Larry Page, co-founded Google, one of the most profitable Internet companies.

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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs

Image: Howard Schultz.
Photographs: Anthony Bolante/Handout/Reuters

Howard Schultz

Company: Starbucks

Sales: $11.7 billion

Market Value: $40 billion

Employees: 149,000

Advice: Always challenge the old ways

Global rank: 6

Howard Schultz is an American business magnate. He is best known as the chairman and CEO of Starbucks and a former owner of the Seattle SuperSonics.

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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs

Image: After graduating, he worked as a salesperson for Xerox Corporation.
Photographs: Anthony Bolante/Reuters

After graduating, he worked as a salesperson for Xerox Corporation. In 1979 he became a general manager for Swedish drip coffee maker manufacturer, Hammarplast.

In 1981, Schultz visited a client of Hammarplast, a fledgling coffee-bean shop called Starbucks Coffee Company in Seattle which he joined as the Director of Marketing a year later.

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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs

Image: Mark Zuckerberg.
Photographs: Stringer/Reuters

Mark Zuckerberg

Company: Facebook

Sales: $3.71 billion

Market Value: $75 billion-$100 billion

Employees: 3,200

Advice: Embrace paranoia

Global rank: 7

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is an American computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur. He is best known for co-creating the social networking site Facebook, of which he is chief executive.

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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs

Image: It was co-founded as a private company in 2004.
Photographs: Norbert von der Groeben/Reuters

It was co-founded as a private company in 2004 by Zuckerberg and classmates Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, and Chris Hughes while they were students at Harvard University.

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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs

Image: John Mackey.
Photographs: Reuters

John Mackey

Company: Whole Foods

Sales: $10.1 billion

Market Value: $15.5 billion

Employees: 56,200

Advice: Purpose inspires people

Global rank: 8

John Mackey is an American businessman. He is the CEO of Whole Foods Market which he had co-founded in 1980.

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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs

Image: Mackey is a strong supporter of free market economics.
Photographs: Mike Blake/Reuters

Named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2003, Mackey is a strong supporter of free market economics.

He is one of the most influential advocates in the movement for organic food.

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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs

Image: Herb Kelleher, right, with former US president George W Bush.
Photographs: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Herb Kelleher

Company: Southwest Airlines

Sales: $15.6 billion

Market Value: $6.4 billion

Employees: 45,392

Advice: Make your customers No. 1

Global rank: 9

Herbert "Herb" Dwight Kelleher is the co-founder, Chairman Emeritus, and former CEO of Southwest Airlines (based in the United States).

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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs

Image: Kelleher was born in Trenton, New Jersey.
Photographs: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

Kelleher was born in Trenton, New Jersey on March 12, 1931 and raised in Audubon, New Jersey, where he graduated from Haddon Heights High School.

He has a bachelor's degree from Wesleyan University where he was an Olin Scholar and where his major was English and his minor Philosophy, and a Juris Doctor from New York University where he was a Root-Tilden Scholar.

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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs

Image: Sam Walton with his wife.
Photographs: Ira Schwarz/Reuters

Sam Walton

Company: Wal-Mart Stores

Sales: $446.9 billion

Market Value: $36.5 billion

Employees: 2.0 million

Advice: Give the people what they want

Global rank: 11

Samuel Moore "Sam" Walton was a businessman and entrepreneur born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, best known for founding the retailers Walmart and Sam's Club.

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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs

Image: Walton took over management of his first variety store at the age of 26.
Photographs: John Gress/Reuters

In 1945, after leaving the military, Walton took over management of his first variety store at the age of 26. With the help of a $20,000 loan from his father-in-law, plus $5,000 he had saved from his time in the Army, Walton purchased a Ben Franklin variety store in Newport, Arkansas.

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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs

Image: Muhammad Yunus.
Photographs: Noor Khamis/Reuters

Muhammad Yunus

Company: Grameen Bank

Advice: Small gifts can equal big impacts

Global rank: 12

Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi economist and founder of the Grameen Bank, an institution that provides microcredit (small loans to poor people possessing no collateral) to help its clients establish creditworthiness and financial self-sufficiency.

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Indian among 12 greatest entrepreneurs

Image: In 2006 Yunus and Grameen received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Photographs: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters

In 2006 Yunus and Grameen received the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts through microcredit to create economic and social development from below".

Yunus himself has received several other national and international honours.

Tags: Grameen