The Groundbreakers- They are individuals who have left indelible marks on their markets and industries. Here we feature 10 such entrepreneurs who have experienced remarkable success, and in the process, changed how we live and how we do business.

Read : http://www.inc.com/slideshow_INC/slideviewer.cgi?list=groundbreakers&refresh=8?partner=rediff

Seven Sisters & Standard Oil

The original Seven Sisters were
Exxon (or Esso, Humble, Standard of NJ), was Rockefeller's Standard Oil Co
Shell,
BP (British Petroleum, originally Burmah Oil + Anglo-Iranian), privatized since 1979
Gulf (was owned by Mellons until sold to Chevron),
Texaco,
Mobil (Standard of NY, or Socony-Vacuum), and
Chevron (Standard of California).


Since Gulf Oil no longer exists (acquired by Chevron in 1984) except as Gulf Canada and a marketing company in the northeast US, Amoco (Standard of Indiana) was often added to the list of six; but in 1998, Amoco was acquired by BP to form BP Amoco, while Exxon was acquiring Mobil; and Chevron and Texaco merged in 2001-2002.

What Is TheRe In NaMe


We all know the importance of branding in today's world. A brand is the proprietary visual, emotional, rational and cultural image that we associate with a company or a product. In short, a brand is a commodity with a personality.

A good brand name gives a good first impression and evokes positive associations with the brand. A name is the shortest condensation of your brand message - it should ideally rise above the clutter in the marketplace and resonate in the minds of your entire audience.
But the few types of names employed most often by companies are:

Arbitrary names such as Apple, Eagle Star and Ivory. They are real words that evoke good thoughts but do not relate directly to a product.

Suggestive names such as Gateway. They are real words and have an indirect relevance to the company - they are used to imply something about product quality. In the case of Gateway, its computers are supposed to be a gateway to the digital world.

Descriptive names, arguably the weakest of all, such as International Business Machines. These explain in general terms a company's business. By definition, the product name invites contention, and more importantly, limits possibilities. In the 1970s, with relatively few firms competing, it made sense to go for straightforward descriptive names. E.g.: Animal Crackers, People magazine, Lean Cuisine ... Now they're not only difficult to obtain, they are impossible to protect!

Coined company names today, such as Motorola and Intel, are made up and most often derived from words that describe its business or values. With Motorola, which originally produced radios for automobiles, the name brought together the ideas of motion and radio. With Intel, the word `intelligent' obviously is the foundation. Coined names are more popular today with technology companies because arbitrary names don't explain enough and descriptive names explain too much (and can get boring).

Brand names are derived in a variety of ways. Nametrade.com has compiled an excellent summary of many popular practices.

Abbreviation: FedEx, Microsoft, Unisys, Telco
Acronym: Qantas, UPS, KFC, IBM, UB, ICICI, Amul
Alliteration: Dunkin' Donuts, Yankee Doodle Strudle, Intel Inside, Hero Honda
Allusion/Evocative/Suggestive: Reliance, 7-Eleven, Pampers, Dove , Thums-Up
Appropriation: Soap (for software), Bloody Mary's (for a restaurant),
Arbitrary: Apple, Orange, Tamariind (shirts)
Classical Roots: Pentium, Quattro, Avis, Atlas, Maruti
Combination/Semantic: Nutrasweet, Qualcomm, Victorinox, PowerBook, PageMaker, ImageWriter

Composition: LaserJet, PowerBook, PageMaker, ImageWriter
Descriptive: Bed, Bath and Beyond, Bath & Body Works, Airbus, Volkswagen, Caterpillar, Pudin Hara, Hajmola
Foreign Language: Häagen Dazs, Quattro, Montero, Samurai, Sansui, Akai
Founders: Godrej, Bajaj, Ranbaxy, Gillette, Braun, Hewlett Packard, TATA
Humour: Please Go Away (a travel agency), Sir Lamps A lot, Snakebite Salsa, Grape Britain (for ice-cream).
Metonymy (use of name or concept for related one): Silicon Alley, Silicon Gulch, Starbucks
Mimetics (alternative spelling): Krazy Glue, Kwik Kopy, Kleenex, One-der Drop (for a dish cleaning liquid), Forget Me Knot (for a tangle-free shampoo)
Morpheme construction: Amtrak, Victorinox, Qualcomm, Compuserve, Granola, Accuvue, Sanka, Bisquick, NyQuil
(A morpheme is the smallest meaningful morphological unit of the language, one that cannot be analysed into smaller forms. E.g.: `van' in advantage. There are some six lakh morphemes.)
Onomatopoeia: ZapMail, Sizzler Steakhouse, Kookooroo, Kisses
Oxymoron: Lowe Alpine, True Lies, Steel Magnolias, Intimate Strangers, Poetics Rockin' Tacos

Poetics: Rockin’ Tacos, El Pollo Loco, Domino’s
Real Words: Apple, Adobe, Domino's
Rhyme: Shake ’n Bake, Lean Cuisine, OshKosh B’Gosh
Song and Story Origins: Chimney with Care, Orient Express, Almost Heaven Hot Tubs, Aladdin Thermos
Symbolism: Tahoe, Yukon, Ford Explorer, Mustang
Themes: Apple Macintosh, Mercedes, Boeing 707, 727, ... 777
Truncation: Intel, Intuit, Cisco Systems

Names to Avoid
Copycat names or names that sound like a competitor or some other big brand are not worth much. Neither are names that are hard to spell or pronounce. Great brand names are:
Emotional (they make you feel good and generate curiosity)
Memorable (either because they include a compelling sound or have eye appeal; in essence, they offer crisp and distinct qualities)
Personable (they express a set of human-like traits and exude attitude and style)
Deep (they can be leveraged in promotional, ad, PR, and communication programs)

( Taken from : Brain Tattoos Creating Unique Brands That Stick in Your Customers Minds)

Book Quest !

In his book, he describes the fall of a great British financial institution, and lists three major reasons for the collapse - Panic, Ignorance and Greed - the so-called “PIG Factor”. Name him and the book
Stephen Fay - “The Collapse of Barings”

He progressed from a mere trainee to a Triumphal Big Swinging Dick (in bond trading) through the dealing rooms of Salomon Brothers in NYC and London. His book is named after a game similar to the card game called `I doubt it’. He has also written another book - The New New Thing. Name him.
Michael Lewis - “Liars Poker”

It was first published in Korean (in ’89) as It’s a Big World and There’s Lots to be Done and sold 1.3 million copies within the first 20 months. It is an expression of this entrepreneur’s desire to share his personal experiences with younger Koreans, and is his autobiography. What is the book better known as (in its English translation)?
“Every Street is Paved With Gold” - Kim Woo Chong (chairman of Daewoo)

This book begins with the words “Business is going to change more in the next ten years than it has in the last fifty” and ends with “I strongly believe that if companies empower their employees to solve problems and give them potent tools to do this with, they will always be amazed at how much creativity and initiative will blossom forth.” Which book is this?
Business @ The Speed Of Thought - Bill Gates

His works include “Culture Consumers” and “Eco-Spasm Report”. He is best known for a book, which deals with man’s inability to cope with the rapid growth of technology. Name him.
Alvin Toffler, “Future Shock”

Which functional detective wrote the Practical Handbook of Bee Culture after he retired?Sherlock Holmes

This English multi millionaire composed “On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation”, which became the basic text of the classical school of English political economy. He is most famous for his “Iron Law of Wages”. Name him.
David Ricardo

Brand Quest !

This Madras based rubber Products Company was founded by KM Mammeen Mappilai & his family. When they decided to get a logo for their range of tyres, they conducted a survey among truck drivers & motorists, asking them what they wanted most in a tyres. One truck driver, at a small roadside dhaba, commented that a good tyre should be as tough & rugged as a wrestler - thus giving them their famous muscleman logo. Name the company.

MRF

Why did this Australian telecom service provider give its brand this name? The company's Web site explains: "We decided on the name—for many reasons. Not just because it's simple and easy to remember but also because it's a name, a number and a logo… ( the brand name) not only stands for the marriage of the services that the group has brought together but a commitment to become a truly distinctive and global brand." If the name still eludes you, think Australian cricket!
The Hutchison group brand was the sponsor of the Australian cricket team.The brand name, as the company quote says, stands for the “marriage of the three services that the Hutchison group has brought together — communication, information and entertainment.)

In 1884, a Bengali doctor set up a small mail order business, selling three cheap Ayurvedic medicines. Two of these were Juri Tap, for Fever, and Plaguin, for the Plague. The third brand is still one of the most popular brands owned by this company, which is one of India's largest manufacturers of Ayurvedic remedies. Name the brand and the company.

The brand was Pudin Hara, and the company was Dabur (from Doctor S.K.Burman, who was generally called Daktar Burman)

Which music company was founded by two brothers, Ramesh Taurani and Kumar Taurani, in the late 1970s when they were dealers in LPs for leading music companies?

Tips

This company started as a lumber mill in 1865 & gets its name from the river on whose bank the mill stood. Till some time back, rubber products & diapers formed a major chunk of its turnover. Now it is known for a completely different line of business. Name the company.

Nokia.

Why did Marcus Samuel choose 'Shell' as the business name, while setting up Shell Transport & Trading Company Ltd in 1897? )

In honour of his father who imported ornamental sea shells from the orient.

The most successful retail branded drug in history according to the Guinness Book of Records, it recently celebrated the 100th year of its existence. Name this drug.

Aspirin

The first of the great information brands, it was set up in 1850 and used carrier pigeons to forward stock market and commodity prices from Brussels to Germany. The company adopted the name of its founder. Name it-

Reuter

This famous company bought the consumer durables brand Braun (West Germany), which manufactured electric razors, in 1967 and later bought the Parker pen brand, in 1993. In 1996 it merged with Duracell. And recently bought by another MNC. Name it.

Gillette

Which successful US business was bought by Howard Schultz in 1987 from the original founders Gerald Baldwin, Gordon Bowker and Zev Siegl who set it up in 1971

Starbuck ( Starbucks Coffee, Tea and Spice, as it was first known, roasted its first coffee in 1971. The small coffeehouse in Seattle was the vision of three men -- Jerry , Zev and Gordon. In 1981, Schultz was a vice president at Hammarplast -- a Swedish maker of stylish kitchen equipment and housewares. Schultz later left Starbucks to open a string of specialty coffee stores in Seattle modeled after the typical Italian espresso bar. Schultz quickly raised $400,000 in seed capital and by the end of 1986 he had $1.25 million in equity (including backing by his former Starbucks partners). While Schultz’s stores took off, only a year later in 1987, Schultz bought the original Starbucks franchise.

The first brand introduced by this company was Vassar(named after the New England woman's college) , followed by Lotta and Sweet Sixteen Orange. Name the co.

Wrigleys Chewing Gum ( Wrigley’s Spearmint and Juicy Fruit followed in 1893).

In an all time classic advertisement, this product billed itself as The only school that encourages copying. Name the brand.

Xerox

This famous movie industry brand (and fictional character) was first created by author Ian Fleming, and later given prominence through a series of movies by producer Albert Brocolli. Name this brand/character.

Bond

What is the famous icon of MGM( Metro Goldwyn Mayer) which appears before all its movies, and what is it called?

Leo the Lion

Which famous camera brand derives its name from an ancient Greek mountain and abode of the Gods?

Olympus

Which company owns the famous international brand of sunglasses, Ray-Ban?

Luxottica, which had taken over this brand from Bausch & Lomb