What kind of manager are you? Let’s take look at a selection of entrepreneurs and their management style.

Running a business is not an exact science. There are many ways to do it and each of them unveils an aspect of the entrepreneur’s personality, some of his strengths and some of his weaknesses as well. However, some businessmen do make a big difference in the field of management. They display special qualities, trademark qualities that make their achievement unique. These entrepreneurs are a source of inspiration for managers around the world. Here are a few portraits of such exceptional businessmen.


The Insightful

Does the name of Fred Wallace Smith sound any familiar? May be not, but you have heard of FedEx, that is for sure. Fred Smith, FedEx’s founder, is what you would call slugger. When he launched Federal Express in 1971, Fred Smith wanted to create a business that had never been done before. Hence he developed an integrated air-ground delivery system. FedEx soon delivered packages all around the U.S.A. and the world within shorter and shorter periods of time. Within 20 years, FedEx became a global business owning hubs all around in Asia, Europe, and Northern America.

Before he had his big idea, Fred Smith had been a chairman in major public companies in the U.S.A. He also served as a chairman for the International Air Transport Association’s board of governors. During these strategic years, Fred Smith gathered the knowledge and the information he needed to create one of the biggest business success of the century. “It was hard to sell in certain ways […]. I knew the idea was profound. […] But I don’t know if I foresaw the way things evolved” FedEx boss said to Business Week when telling his story. Looking at what FedEx became, the least we can say is that Fred Smith is a man with instinct.


The Star

Micheal O’Leary’s main quality is unquestionably his charisma. The CEO of Ryanair shortened his stay at University to become a consultant for Stokes Kennedy Crowley (later known as KPMG). He became an adviser for Tony Ryan, founder of Ryanair and client of Stokes Kennedy Crowley. Getting close to Tony Ryan, Michael O’Leary was appointed deputy chief executive of Ryanair in 1991. He stayed so till 1994, when he eventually replaced Tony Ryan as chief executive. Under O’Leary’s management, Ryanair became the third airline in Europe in terms of revenue, and the first low-cost airline of the continent.

On his way to make Ryanair a successful challenger on a jammed-packed market, Michael O’Leary made an impression with his tongue-in-cheek attitude. Very critical, he frequently tackles his competitor on the market. “We’re predicting a bloodbath for our competitors” he said to Spiegel Online in 2004. When commenting on Air France’s attempt to get in the competition of low-cost airlines by launching the brand Hop! in 2013, Ryanair boss simply stated that all the name meant to him was “high ordinary prices”. Michael O’Leary is not afraid of overacting. And why should he stop anyway? It works so well.


The Artist

Creativity is Tim Schaffer life insurance in the professional world. Right after getting his computer science degree from UC Berkeley, Tim Schaffer answered a job offer in a very personal manner. “I did my cover letter in the form of a semi-graphic adventure” he explains on his website. “I drew the pictures on my Koala [graphic] pad, and printed the whole thing out on my Atari 800, dot-matrix printer”. Having designed a small video-game featuring himself getting recruited to follow the ideal career, Tim Schaffer sent his production to Lucas Film’s and became a Designer/Programmer for the company’s Game Division, later know as Lucas Arts.

His reputation as a creative mind was established when he founded his own studio, Double Fine, in 2000. His first very own games were remarkably successful. Confident in its notoriety, Double Fine experimented innovative way of financing projects in 2012, using the crowdfunding website Kickstarter. Within less than 24 hours, Tim Shaffer’s first crowdfunded project became the second most successful Kickstarter project and the first to gather a 3$ million funding. At the head of his own business, Tim Schaffer relies on his ideas as well as his staff’s. Creativity has remained his major concern and years of successful leadership at Double Fines seem to confirm he is indeed inspired.

The Captain

Well-known in the small world of security printing, Thomas Savare has a talent for bringing people together around a project. His skill comes from a passion, the passion of rugby. Being the President of Stade Français, a famous French Rugby Team, Thomas Savare knows quite a few things about team spirit and leadership. “Diversity is a challenge both for business and sports” he says, “the reciprocity of trust, the cohesion, the feeling of doing something special must always be kept up in the team … leadership and management are crucial part of achieving this”. And he puts that definition of leadership to good use at the head of his company Oberthur Fiduciaire, a leading banknotes and security printer.

In 2008, Thomas Savare was handed the reins of Oberthur Fiduciaire. He was then in charge of strengthening the firm’s leadership and had to get in the ambassador’s suit. “Part of intercultural business is understanding what makes your offers special, understanding why your customer would be more interested in your products rather than competition’s, closer by. […]. If you are going to travel halfway around the Earth, deliver something white-hot, not something tepid”, he says. Thereby, “a diplomatic sense is the most important skill in intercultural business.” In this way, within a couple of years, he managed to bring the company in the world top 3 of banknotes printers.


The Keen-Sighted

Reinold Geiger was destined to an engineering career but he preferred to become an entrepreneur. After he graduated, he launched many start-ups before he eventually fulfilled his goal and got his own business. Several failures made him willing to learn business management properly. Hence, he graduated from a MBA program and finally opened his first successful firm in the field of perfume and cosmetics. The choice proved to be good since he later sold the company and bought L’Occitane in 1994, and turned it into a famous international brand.

His sharp knowledge of the market led him to export L’Occitane in Asia and America. The firm therefore started opening shops in the streets of Hong Kong, Japan and across the whole Asian continent; thus brand actually soared and eventually reached the 1 billion dollars of yearly revenue. Within ten years the Austrian engineer became a world class entrepreneur for daring to go where others were afraid of going.

The Analyst

Some people are good at solving problems. For people like Gordon Moore, it’s both a hobby and a career. PhD in Physics, Gordon Moore teamed up with Robert Noyce to create Intel Corporation in 1968. Both Moore and Noyce already had a solid scientific reputation when they started Intel. The association of their very names were convincing enough for the investors to gather 2.5 million dollars to support Intel before the business even started. This early enthusiasm was rewarded since Intel engineer Marcian Hoff created the first microprocessor three years later in 1971 and opened the way to modern computing.

We all know how successful Intel has been since then. Intel Corp. is the biggest microprocessor seller in the world. Its products equip billions of computers. But inventing the microprocessor is not the only reason the company to succeed. Gordon Moore and Intel’s main achievement was to make that invention useful to a lot of other businesses. Gordon Moore, Bob Noyce and their team were looking for “a product that could be made in large volume and sold into all digital systems” Moore explained. They looked for it. And they found.


A quick glance at some of the world most original leaders is enough to conclude that a manager’s strength is either rational or emotional. Some managers will mostly rely on their ability to feel, on their instinct, whereas some others will be rather bent on using their ability to understand and deconstruct things around them. Of course most leaders use both of those skills, with a preference for one of them. We all do. But what makes them so successful is that they understood precisely which was their dominant quality, as well as how, where and when to use it.