Business magnate

{{Short description|Entrepreneur who has achieved wealth and prominence from a particular industry}}

A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or services are widely consumed.

Etymology and history

The term magnate derives from the Latin word {{Lang|la|magnates}} (plural of {{Lang|la|magnas}}), meaning 'great man' or 'great nobleman'.

The term mogul is an English corruption of {{transliteration|fa|mughal}}, Persian or Arabic for 'Mongol'. It alludes to emperors of the Mughal Empire in Early Modern India, who possessed great power and storied riches capable of producing wonders of opulence, such as the Taj Mahal.

The term tycoon derives from the Japanese word {{Nihongo||大君|taikun}}, which means 'great lord', used as a title for the {{transliteration|ja|shōgun}}.{{cite book |title=American English Spelling: An Informal Description |last=Cummings |first= Donald Wayne |year=1988 |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=978-0-8018-3443-1 |page=277 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1OVIqCV57pYC |access-date=22 May 2012}}{{cite web |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tycoon |title=tycoon |work=Merriam-Webster |access-date=22 May 2012 |quote=Origin of TYCOON Japanese taikun}} The word entered the English language in 1857{{cite web |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tycoon |title=tycoon |work=Merriam-Webster |access-date=22 May 2012 |quote=First Known Use: 1857}} with the return of Commodore Perry to the United States. US President Abraham Lincoln was humorously referred to as the Tycoon by his aides John Nicolay and John Hay.{{cite news |title=Return of the Samurai |first=Adam |last=Goodheart |url=http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/10/return-of-the-samurai/ |newspaper=The New York Times |date=10 November 2010 |access-date=22 May 2012}} The term spread to the business community, where it has been used ever since.

Usage

Modern business magnates are entrepreneurs that amass on their own or wield substantial family fortunes in the process of building or running their own businesses. Some are widely known in connection with these entrepreneurial activities, others through highly-visible secondary pursuits such as philanthropy, political fundraising and campaign financing, and sports team ownership or sponsorship.

The terms mogul, tycoon, and baron were often applied to late-19th- and early-20th-century North American business magnates in extractive industries such as mining, logging and petroleum, transportation fields such as shipping and railroads, manufacturing such as automaking and steelmaking, in banking, as well as newspaper publishing. Their dominance was known as the Second Industrial Revolution, the Gilded Age, or the Robber Baron Era.

Examples of business magnates in the western world include historical figures such as pottery entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood, oilmen John D. Rockefeller and Fred C. Koch, automobile pioneer Henry Ford, aviation pioneer Howard Hughes, shipping and railroad veterans Aristotle Onassis, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Leland Stanford, Jay Gould and James J. Hill, steel innovator Andrew Carnegie, newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, poultry entrepreneur Arthur Perdue, retail merchant Sam Walton, and bankers J. P. Morgan and Mayer Amschel Rothschild. Contemporary industrial tycoons include e-commerce entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, investor Warren Buffett, computer programmers Bill Gates and Paul Allen, technology innovator Steve Jobs, vacuum cleaner retailer Sir James Dyson, media proprietors Sumner Redstone, Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch, industrial entrepreneur Elon Musk, steel investor Lakshmi Mittal, telecommunications investor Carlos Slim, Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson, Formula 1 executive Bernie Ecclestone, and internet entrepreneurs Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Business magnates

File:Portrait of Josiah Wedgwood gupjg13 4 ics8nad.tiff|Josiah Wedgwood

File:Samuel Slater industrialist.jpg|Samuel Slater

File:James Finlayson (1771-1852).jpg|James Finlayson

File:Cornelius Vanderbilt Daguerrotype2.jpg|Cornelius Vanderbilt

File:JNTata.jpg|Jamsetji Tata

File:Henry John Heinz by the Pach Brothers Studio, c. 1914, gelatin silver print, from the National Portrait Gallery - NPG-NPG 93 388 14.jpg|Henry J. Heinz

File:Portrait of 49-year-old John D. Rockefeller.jpg|John D. Rockefeller

File:JohnPierpontMorgan.png|J. P. Morgan

File:HearstAbout1910.jpg|William Randolph Hearst

File:Asa G. C..jpg|Asa Griggs Candler

File:Andrew-carnegie-portrait-pd.png|Andrew Carnegie

File:Henry ford 1919.jpg|Henry Ford

File:Kreuger ca1920.jpg|Ivar Kreuger

File:Howard Hughes.jpg|Howard Hughes

File:Dhirubhai Ambani 2002 stamp of India.jpg|alt=Dhirubhai Ambani|Dhirubhai Ambani

File:Sam-Walton.jpg|Sam Walton

File:Warren Buffett at the 2015 SelectUSA Investment Summit (cropped).jpg|Warren Buffett

File:Ted Turner at the LBJ Foundation.jpg|Ted Turner

File:Rupert Murdoch - Flickr - Eva Rinaldi Celebrity and Live Music Photographer.jpg|Rupert Murdoch

File:Richard Branson March 2015 (cropped).jpg|Richard Branson

File:Li Ka Shing.jpg|Li Ka-shing

File:Bill Gates 2018.jpg|Bill Gates

File:Paul G. Allen (cropped).jpg|Paul Allen

File:Steve Jobs Headshot 2010-CROP (cropped 2).jpg|Steve Jobs

File:Lakshmi Mittal LM.jpg|Lakshmi Mittal

File:Larry Ellison picture.png|Larry Ellison

File:Carlos Slim (45680472234) (cropped).jpg|Carlos Slim

File:Mike Bloomberg Headshot (cropped).jpg|Michael Bloomberg

File:Bernard Arnault (2) - 2017 (cropped).jpg|Bernard Arnault

File:Jeff Bezos at Amazon Spheres Grand Opening in Seattle - 2018 (39074799225) (cropped).jpg|Jeff Bezos

File:Elon Musk 2015.jpg|alt=Elon Musk|Elon Musk

File:Larry Page in the European Parliament, 17.06.2009 (cropped).jpg|Larry Page

File:Sergey Brin cropped.jpg|Sergey Brin

File:Mark Zuckerberg F8 2019 Keynote (32830578717) (cropped).jpg|Mark Zuckerberg

References

External links

{{cite web |url= https://www.forbes.com/2001/12/13/1213top15.html |title= The Famous 15: America's Most Fascinating Tycoons |work= Forbes |date= December 13, 2001 |last= Lewis |first= Mark}}
{{cite web |url= http://www.businesspundit.com/25-tycoons-who-run-the-world/ |publisher= Business Pundit |title= 25 Tycoons Who Run the World |date= October 6, 2010}}
{{cite web |url=http://www.mtv3.fi/koti/ajankohtaista.shtml?1035944 |title=Finlayson juhlii klassikkokuosien merkeissä |date=January 18, 2010 |work=MTV3.fi - Koti |publisher=Bonnier AB |language=Finnish |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100123213556/http://www.mtv3.fi/koti/ajankohtaista.shtml?1035944 |archive-date=2010-01-23 |url-status=dead }}

Magnate

Category:Business terms

Category:Management occupations

Category:Social classes