Donald Trump may be the last of a breed - the businessman as brand. When Warren Buffett formed his investing company he did not follow the lead of E.F. Hutton or Merrill Lynch and name the enterprise after himself. Bill Gates did not name his software publishing business after himself like Little, Brown or Simon and Shuster. Sergey Brin and Larry Page did not become Hewlett-Packard. Elon Musk named his car company after a real person, but it was not himself.
It has not always been that way. In fact, the business history of America has been mostly that of people who became brands. We all know the names. Pillsbury, Kraft, Maytag, Hertz, Kellogg, Gerber, McDonalds. Yet, open a copy of the Information Please Almanac and turn to the chapter on famous people. You won't find these names. Over 4000 names are listed from every walk of life, most of whom no one knows.
We can't blame the Almanac. While the names of America's best-known companies live on the founders are forgotten. We all know what a Dodge is, what a Schick is, what a Boeing is but no one remembers who Horace Dodge was, who Jacob Schick was, who William Boeing was. Howard Johnson, Milton Bradley, Oscar Mayer, Russell Stover, John Deere. Real people all. Here are the stories of 250 men and women whose products became household names. Many are inspiring, some are dispiriting (David Buick, raise your hand) but may none be forgotten…
