Items25The creator’s order
  1. 1Miuccia PradaMiuccia PradaMiuccia inherited a leather-goods business founded by her grandfather Mario, then made industrial nylon part of luxury fashion's vocabulary. Her partnership with Patrizio Bertelli joined design experimentation to manufacturing and expansion. The useful distinction is between possessing an…0i
  2. 2Katharine GrahamKatharine GrahamBorn 16 Jun 1917Graham took charge of the Washington Post Company after her husband's death, within a business her father Eugene Meyer had bought. Her decision to publish the Pentagon Papers in 1971 put editorial independence ahead of a safer commercial course. The inheritance gave her authority; using it to…0i
  3. 3Azim PremjiAzim PremjiBorn 24 Jul 1945After his father's death in 1966, Premji left Stanford to run the family's vegetable-oil business. He later directed Wipro into computing and technology services, making this one of the clearest examples of a successor changing industries. Existing capital and an operating company mattered, but the…0i
  4. 4Tadashi YanaiTadashi YanaiBorn 7 Feb 1949Yanai joined his father's menswear shop before opening the first Uniqlo in 1984. The shift towards self-service casual clothing offered a different proposition from the original store, and eventually a repeatable format for expansion. His early management mistakes and difficult overseas openings…0i
  5. 5Abigail JohnsonAbigail JohnsonBorn 19 Dec 1961Johnson succeeded her father as Fidelity's chief executive in 2014. Among the changes during her leadership were removing account minimums and introducing zero-fee index funds in 2018, developed with colleagues including Kathleen Murphy. This is a case of changing the price and accessibility of an…0i
  6. 6Donatella VersaceDonatella VersaceBorn 2 May 1955After Gianni Versace's death, Donatella took creative leadership of the fashion house he founded and sustained its bold visual identity through her own collections and celebrity relationships. The green dress worn by Jennifer Lopez became a particularly visible moment. Her creative-director tenure…0i
  7. 7Caroline ScheufeleCaroline ScheufeleBorn 14 Dec 1961Scheufele helped move Chopard, acquired by her parents, beyond watchmaking into a broader jewellery business. Her early clown design and the later Happy Sport watch show how a successor can work from a firm's existing craft skills while changing its products and audience. The family workshop…0i
  8. 8Leonard LauderLeonard LauderLauder joined the cosmetics company built by his parents Estée and Joseph and helped turn it into a portfolio of brands. Clinique and later acquisitions widened the business beyond a single family name. His example rewards attention to colleagues and founders of the acquired labels: building a…0
  9. 9Henry Ford IIHenry Ford IIBorn 4 Sept 1917The founder's grandson became Ford president in 1945 and brought in professional managers to reorganise a struggling company. Moving away from the old concentration of authority was as significant as any new car. His biography offers a concrete succession question: which inherited habits need…0i
  10. 10William Clay Ford Jr.William Clay Ford Jr.Born 3 May 1957Bill Ford, Henry Ford's great-grandson, backed the redevelopment of the historic Rouge manufacturing complex with features including a living roof. It connected an inherited industrial site with a different approach to factory design. Read this alongside Ford's wider environmental challenges: a…0i