Interviewer: So what is it that makes a businessman or business woman influential?
DS: Well, first we ought to think about what we mean by influential. Lots of business people enjoy success but relatively few become influential, really have an influence, on the people around them, on society, on the world.
Interviewer: Ok, so who would you say were influential? What names come to mind? DS: Well, sometimes it isn’t the names that come to mind, sometimes it’s the product. Obviously we’ve got the big names - Bill Gates, Henry Ford, people like that. Sometimes the names are not familiar at all - like Sam Walton. Interviewer: Sam who?
DS: Exactly! Sam Walton was the man who perfected the idea of the discount store. The Wal-Mart stores are his. It’s the biggest chain of retailers in the world and in the States Wal-Mart employs more than 1.3 million people.
Interviewer: Wow! He’s a rich man! DS: He was. He died in 1992, but yes, his heirs are worth more than $100 billion - that’s more than Bill Gates. If he was alive today he’d probably - be the richest man in the world.