Archive for February, 2010

The Resurrection of CIT and John Thain

Friday, February 26th, 2010

It is official: the last CEO of Merrill Lynch before the company’s merger with Bank of America has once again proven his resiliency to take on challenges when he accepted the top post at the embattled lender CIT group as chief executive officer last February 7, 2010. John Thain was elected as the chairman and CEO of CIT, replacing interim CEO Peter Tobin.

The new position is a herculean task to tackle as CIT, a lender to small and medium market businesses, just recently emerged from bankruptcy after the recession. The company got out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which involved the restructuring of a corporation’s business affairs and assets, following a failed attempt to reorganize its debts that resulted in losses as more customers defaulted on repaying loans during the financial crisis.

The 54-year old American businessman and investment banker previously served as the president and co-chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs from 1999-2004 and as the CEO of the New York Stock Exchange from 2004-2007. After that, he became the chairman and chief executive officer of Merrill Lynch until he sold it to Bank of America last September 2008 for $24 billion. In the midst of the global economic recession, John Thain was trying to avoid the same fate as Lehman Brothers. On January 29 2009, he resigned from the newly-combined companies after being reportedly forced out of his position as the head of the merger’s banking and wealth management operations by Ken Lewis, CEO of Bank of America. Though he became the target of government criticism and public outrage, the former leader of Merrill Lynch was not charged with any misconduct.

However, after all of this, he became one of the first well-known chief executives who reemerged on the top of a company after losing his position during the global recession.

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Lawrence Ellison

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Lawrence Ellison is a 65-year old American businessman who is a co-founder of Oracle Corporation, currently one of the largest enterprise software companies in the world. He has been its chief executive officer since its establishment in 1977. Currently, he is the 4th richest person in the world, as declared by the Forbes list of billionaires, with a net worth of around $27 billion. He is also the 3rd richest American.

Ellison embarked on his humble beginnings in Manhattan, New York, where he was born on August 17, 1944 to an unwed Jewish mother. He was given away by his mother and was adopted by Lillian and Louis Ellison when he was only nine months old. He spent his early life in a middle-class neighborhood in Chicago, but moved to northern California when he was twenty years old to start his career in the computer software industry. He began his career in Ampex Corporation in the 1970s, where he created a database for the CIA as one of his projects. Ellison named it “Oracle.” Later on, he established his own company, Software Development Laboratories, in 1977. He renamed his company as “Oracle” after the Oracle database, the company’s flagship product.

In 1997, he became a director of Apple Computer after long-time friend Steve Jobs returned to the company. Edison left Apple in 2002 however, citing time constraints.

Lawrence Ellison has led Oracle to become one of the biggest software makers in the world today. He has earned millions in compensation packages from Oracle, including base salaries, bonuses, and stock options. In 2000, he actually became the richest man in the world, albeit briefly. In 2005, he was ranked as the ninth richest in the world, with an estimated net worth of US $18.4 billion. In 2006, he was declared as the richest Californian.

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Steve Jobs: World’s Top CEO

Friday, February 19th, 2010

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs charged to the top of a list of the world’s best-performing CEOs, to be published in an upcoming issue of the Harvard Business Review. By dramatically turning Apple’s fortunes around in the last 12 years, Jobs beat 49 others to the top spot.

Harvard Business Review positions Jobs as the no. 1 CEO in the world, way beyond the reach of five other Silicon Valley luminaries. Only Samsung Electronics’ former chief executive Yun Jong-Yong trailed closely behind him.

Since helming a badly rotting Apple in 1997, Steve Jobs has raised the company’s market value by as much as $150 billion. The report also said Jobs delivered “a whopping 3,188% industry-adjusted return” since taking over as CEO.

In the same way, Yun got his ranking by catalyzing Samsung’s rise as the world’s biggest electronics manufacturer. Having served as its CEO from 1996 to 2008, Yun made Samsung the world’s top maker of flat-screen televisions, and number two for cell phones.

Yun is the recipient of the 2002 Asia Business Leaders Award from CNBC. In 2000, Fortune magazine acclaimed him in “Asia’s Businessman of the Year.”

Fortune likewise feted Jobs. In November, the magazine named Jobs as “CEO of the Decade.” Moreover, Time magazine distinguished him as a nominee for Person of the Year in 2009.

Finishing third place to Jobs and Yun is Alexey Miller, chief exec of Russia’s Gazprom, the largest natural gas producer in the world. Mukesh Ambani, chairperson of India’s Reliance Industries, is ranked number five.

Five others from Silicon Valley deigned to Steve Jobs. Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers came in at number four; Gilead Sciences John Martin, number six; former eBay CEO Margaret Whitman, number eight; Google CEO Eric Schmidt at number nine; and Symantec chairman John Thompson, at number nineteen.

To qualify for HBR’s report, the CEOs must have led companies listed either in Standard & Poor’s Global 1200 or its BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) 40 list. In addition, the CEOs must have served as such anytime between January 1995 and December 2007.

As such, the ranking excluded otherwise deified executives like Bill Gates of Microsoft, Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway, Larry Ellison of Oracle, and Jack Welch of General Electric.

Published in HBR’s January 2010 issue, the ranking includes data on 2,000 CEOs the world over, representing 33 countries and 48 nationalities.

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Cydcor Helps Boosts Sales for Companies

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

No matter how advanced business models become during the Internet Age, there is still no replacement for face-to-face sales. Many companies still rely on this form of sales, but they do not have the staff and resources to initiate this labor-intensive program. That’s where California-based Cydcor comes in.

Cydcor has been cited by 26,000 C-level officers and senior executives as number one in such areas as sales team outsourcing, sales support service, client satisfaction, and several other performance categories. This extensive survey was conducted by Datamonitor, which publishes the “Black Book of Outsourcing.” With 200 offices and 3,000 representatives, Cydcor is positioned to cover every marketing niche.

Cydcor has served companies in the telecommunications, cable, Internet, office products, financial services, and energy industries. In 2008 alone, Cydcor has created $2 billion of value with 92,000 new customers per month. According to Cydcor Chief Executive Officer Gary Polson, Cydcor’s mission anticipates and fulfills an escalating market need, as organizations seek more scalable solutions to achieve top-line growth and bottom-line value in the post-recession environment.

Cydcor instills seven best behaviors the firm instills in its people: integrity, service, team member development, collaboration, respect, open communication, and execution. This code of conduct guides every company policy and initiative.

These best behaviors have driven Cydcor to be recognized by a California survey as one of the “Best Places to Work” for two years in a row, citing supportive work environment and culture, open communication, quality and commitment of management, and benefits.

“Delivering excellence at every level is not just lip service. It’s simply who we are and what we do,” says Jim Majeski, Cydcor’s president.

“We know that our business leaders and sales support staff are the face of Cydcor and it’s our goal to provide them with the tools they need to grow, change, and keep up-to-date about industry trends,” said Vera Quinn, senior vice president of operations at Cydcor. “Our independent sales offices make up our Cydcor Community, and this is something we’re very proud of. The Keys to Success event is our way of honoring everyone’s accomplishments and to let them know how much we appreciate their dedication to our business.”

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Jamie Egasti

Friday, February 12th, 2010

Jamie Egasti, a 30-year old native of Boston, is a Procter and Gamble (P&G) veteran. He joined the P&G Corporation’s Food and Beverage Sales right after his graduation from Harvard University in 1979. Jamie Egasti held certain levels of duties in the Food and Beverage business’ sales and marketing departments, with various assignments in Texas, Ohio, and New York.

After 10 years, Jamie Egasti moved to P&G’s corporate headquarters in Cincinnati, where he was reassigned to the Global Fabric & Home Care New Business Development Group’s General Management. One of his duties as a member of the development team was to lead the creation and launching of several businesses such as the household odor eliminator Febreze, Dryel, and Procter and Gamble’s line of cleaning products, Swiffer. So far, Febreze has branched out to include additional products such as fabric refreshers, air fresheners, odor eliminating candles, and other similar goods.

Jamie Egasti also served as the vice president of the Americas Snacks Business. After some time, he was promoted as the president of a $3.2 billion revenue business, Global Snacks & Coffee. He was recently named as the chief executive officer of the Folgers Coffee Company. As the CEO, he led Procter & Gamble’s coffee business split-off, as well as its transition to the J.M. Smucker Company.

His position at P&G’s coffee and juice businesses left him responsible for managing the company’s trade promotion structure and commodity pricing. In addition to these duties, Jamie Egasti also significantly shared some of his leadership to acquire both Hawaiian Punch and Sunny Delight.

Jamie Egasti is married and is a father of two boys, aged 15 and 13. Apart from his corporate duties, he also keeps himself busy by serving as a coach to the Lacrosse team at the Mariemont Jr. High School.

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US Teen Births on the Rise

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Teenagers gave birth to even more babies in 2007, according to a report by the Center for Disease Control’s National Center for Health Statistics. The increase marks the second time in a row for teen births since sliding into decline in 1991.

Teen births grew by one percent, equivalent to 42.5 live births for every thousand women aged 15 to 19. The figure represents a 5% jump from 2005, when teen births only began to overturn a 34% decrease since 1991.

Overall, America’s birth rate rose by one percent from 2006 to 2007. During that period, 69.5 babies were born to every one thousand childbearing women, 4.3 million babies in all.

CDC’s report, which was published in the Dec. 21, 2009 edition of Pediatrics, also indicated a hike in birth rate among unwed mothers. The demographic reported an increase of 39.7% in 2007, a percent higher than the previous year.

Stephanie Ventura, CDC chief of reproductive statistics, does not attribute the record-breaking increase to a baby boom, however. She remarked that the average American has only sired two children in the last few years.

CDC last saw the highest birth rate among teens in 1991, when nearly 62 births were reported for every one thousand youngsters. Since then, at least until 2003, teens have increasingly adopted contraceptive measures, if not avoided sex altogether, according to a nationwide CDC poll.

On the other hand, infant mortality rates still hover high: 6.77 deaths for every one thousand babies born. It is largely caused by the US’ lofty percentage in preterm births. While its percentage has decreased to 12.7 in 2007, US preterm births are still very high compared to Europe and other developed countries.

Nevertheless, life expectancy at birth broke 77.9 years in 2007, a record. In addition, the number of deaths among youngsters aged 1 and 19 shrank by 2.5%.

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Lakshmi Mittal – Leader in the Steel Industry

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

The UK-based Indian Industrialist Lakshmi Niwas Mittal was born on June 15, 1950. Hailing from the Churu district of Rajasthan, India, Lakshmi Mittal now maintains his residence in Kensington, London. The billionaire industrialist is the renowned founder of the Mittal Steel Company.

In addition to being a steel baron, Lakshmi Mittal also serves as a non-executive director of EADS, Goldman Sachs, and ICICI Bank. His personal wealth of US$19.3 billion has made him the richest man in UK and the 8th richest person in the world as of 2009.

He received his Bachelor of Commerce degree from St. Xavier’s College in Calcutta. A few years after his graduation, Lakshmi Mittal married Usha Mittal, who soon gave him a son and daughter. He started his 30 year-experience in the steel industry by working in the family’s steelmaking business in India. Eventually, in 1976, he successfully built his own company, Mittal Steel, formerly known as the LNM Group. Since then, Lakshmi Mittal slowly developed his business until it became an international steel producer with operations scattered in 14 countries.

By pioneering the use of DRI (or Direct Reduced Iron) as an alternative for steelmaking, Lakshmi Mittal led the global industry’s consolidation process. With profits of more than $22 billion and shipments of 42.1 million tons of steel, Mittal Steel stands as the largest steelmaker worldwide.

In 1996, Lakshmi Mittal was hailed by New Steel as “Steelmaker of the Year”. Due to his outstanding vision, leadership, entrepreneurship, and success in the international steel development arena, he became the recipient of the “Willy Korf Steel Vision Award” from the Paine Weber’s World Steel Dynamics and the American Metal Market in 1998. In addition to these honors, Lakshmi Mittal was also hailed by Fortune Magazine as the “European Businessman of the Year” in 2004.

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