Archive for the ‘BUSINESS’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

The Luxurious Empire of Bernard Arnault

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

Bernard Arnault has one of the largest fashion and luxury goods conglomerates in the world. The 61-year old business tycoon from France controls LVMH, maker of world famous brands Moet Chandon and Louis Vuitton. LVMH is a French holding company consisting of over 60 autonomous sub-companies that manage a number of luxury brands. Bernard Arnault is the richest European and the 7th wealthiest man in the world. As estimated by Forbes Magazine, he has a current net worth of $27.5 billion.

Bernard Arnault’s fashion and luxury goods empire makes and markets the world’s most well known brands. Aside from Louis Vuitton, it also markets Fendi, Dior, Hennessy, Marc Jacobs, Celine and TAG Heuer, among others. LVMH was created after the successive mergers of champagne manufacturers Moet et Chandon and Hennessy, and the prestigious fashion house Louis Vuitton. Bernard Arnault is the chairman and chief executive officer of LVMH.

The French mogul was born in a family of entrepreneurs in Roubaix, France on March 5, 1949. He inherited his business expertise from his father, Jean Leon Arnault. After finishing his high school education at Maxence Van Der Meersch and after completing his engineering degree at École Polytechnique in 1971, he immediately joined his father’s business. He eventually took over the company as president in 1979. He expanded his businesses when he migrated to the United States and established another company, Ferinel Inc, which developed condominiums in Florida.

Bernard Arnault’s big break did not happen until 1984, when he flew back to France and decided to pursue the luxury goods industry. He gained control over the textile company Boussac, which included the famous Christian Dior brand in its assets. His empire continued to expand when he took control of Louis Vuitton. He eventually became the chairman and CEO of LVMH in 1989.

Since then, Bernard Arnault constantly strived and this helped make the company become one of the largest luxury conglomerates in the world. His success inspired other luxury companies to follow the same path. Thus, LVMH now has its competitors in the industry, including the French conglomerate PPR, which owns Gucci and Sergio Rossi; and Richemont, which owns Cartier, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Montblanc.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in BUSINESS | Comments Off

Profiles in Business: Intelius

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

After resigning from his post as Chief Executive Officer of Infospace, former Microsoft executive Naveen Jain and several associates established Intelius Inc at the start of 2003. Naveen Jain is also Intelius’ current CEO.

Initially, Intelius’ array of services focused solely on information commerce, offering individuals and businesses access to information for purposes such as background checks, identity verification, and medical and health history.

Intelius Inc aims to give small and big companies access to relevant details that allow them to make intelligent business decisions and map out effective business strategies. The company does this by merging accessible information found in public records, telephone directories, and other sources of information.

However, Intelius’ services are not limited to business. They also give their clients access to the company’s database so they can scan for information about individuals. This way, Intelius helps their clients find out who among these people are dangerous and who are not.

Aside from giving their clients access to information relevant to their companies’ success, Intelius expanded its range of services by providing anti-identity theft services.

As a company committed to corporate social responsibility, Intelius is active in helping the community in every way possible. During the identity theft threat where the identities of millions of American military veterans were in danger, Intelius offered a huge discount on their anti-identity theft products and services. According to Intelius, it was the company’s means of saluting men and women who served the United States of America.

Last 2007, Intelius reached a notable milestone as the company celebrated its fourth anniversary by serving its four millionth unique customer. This achievement is a testament of the company’s contribution and significance to the business and corporate industries.

Today, Intelius continues to provide small businesses and mega corporations the information and details they need to propel forward. It also gives individuals a great sense of security.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in BUSINESS, TECHNOLOGY | Comments Off

Profiles in Business: Michael Dell

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

Michael S. Dell is a 45-year old American businessman who serves as the current chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer of Dell, Inc, a Texas-based multinational company that produces and sells personal computers and other related products and services. He has led Dell as its chairman and CEO since he established the information technology company in 1984. He is a self-made billionaire, with a net worth of $12.3 billion as estimated by Forbes Magazine in 2009.

Born on February 23, 1965 in Houston, Texas, Michael Dell attended the University of Texas at Austin for college, where he started his own company called PC’S Limited. The business became a huge success and he decided to drop out of school and continued to run his own business. Eventually, his small business evolved into Dell Computer Corporation, which later became Dell, Inc.

Michael Dell founded his own company, Dell, Inc, with roughly $1,000 and he slowly turned it into one of the largest information technology companies in the world. His IT empire became the largest manufacturer and seller of personal computers from the 1980s until the 1990s. Currently, Dell, Inc is the third largest computer manufacturer in terms of sales, only behind Hewlett-Packard and Acer. His corporation currently sells a variety of desktops, laptops, data storage devices, servers, software and other accessories made by separate manufacturers, such as digital cameras, portable music players and printers.

His enormous success led Michael Dell to become the youngest CEO ever to be included in the Fortune 500 rankings in 1992. Additionally, he was recognized and given various awards by different publications throughout his career, including “Entrepreneur of the Year,” “Man of the Year,” “Top CEO in American Business,” and “CEO of the Year.”

Aside from his chief post in Dell, Inc, Michael Dell has served other roles in various organizations. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Foundation Board and a part of the International Business Council’s executive committee. He also plays an active role in the U.S. Business Council. Likewise, he is a philanthropist, establishing the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation with his wife in 1999.

Michael Dell currently lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and their four children.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in BUSINESS, TECHNOLOGY | Comments Off

Profiles in Business: Li Ka-shing

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Li Ka-shing is an 81-year old wealthy business tycoon from Hong Kong who is considered to be one of the most powerful people in Asia. He is the 16th richest person in the world, the richest person in Hong Kong, and the richest among people of East Asian roots in the world. He had an estimated net worth of about $16.2 billion as of 2008. He holds the position of Chairman of Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL) and Cheung Kong Holdings.

Li Ka-shing has established himself as the largest operator of container terminals, as well as being the largest retailer of health and beauty products in the world. His personal portfolio extends to being one of the major suppliers of electricity in Hong Kong and a successful real estate developer.

Li Ka-shing has achieved honors from different international publications. Asia Week named him as “Asia’s Most Powerful Man” in 2001, while Forbes Magazine honored him as a recipient of the first ever Malcolm S. Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. He has also received other recognition and awards such as the Grand Bauhinia Medal, position of Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, and a recognized Commander of the Légion d’honneur. His peers in the corporate world often call him “Superman” for his excellence in leadership and success in businesses. His portfolio of businesses involve a variety of industries in Hong Kong, including retail, real estate, electricity, telecommunications, shipping, and the Internet. His Cheung Kong Group’s assets reached $82.9 billion by the end of 2009 after operating in 55 countries while employing around 260,000 people worldwide.

Along with these lifetime achievements, no one can deny the generosity he has shown to others. He is a great philanthropist and has called a foundation he has established his “third son.” He pledged to give out one-third of his accumulated wealth to charity and other philanthropic endeavors across the world.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in BUSINESS, FINANCE, INTERNATIONAL, PHILANTHROPY | Comments Off

Profiles in Business: Ingvar Kamprad

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

Ingvar Feodor Kamprad is an 83-year old Swedish businessman who founded IKEA, a home furnishing retail chain. Born in March 30, 1926, he is currently the richest person in Europe and the 5th richest person in the world, as listed in Forbes magazine. He has amassed an accumulated wealth of around $22 billion.

Kamprad was born in Älmhult, Kronoberg County and spent his childhood on a farm called Elmtaryd in Småland, Sweden. The would-be tycoon started creating businesses at a young age. As a teenager, he sold matches, pens, cards, decorations, fish, and other items with his bicycle. At 17 years of age, he was given money by his father for becoming a successful student. He used that cash to startup a business that has since then grown into what we know today as IKEA.

The name IKEA comes from his initials, I.K. and the initials of the farm’s name where he was born, Elmtaryd, and the small nearby village of Agunnaryd. He opened his first IKEA store and began selling furniture in 1947.

In contrast to the wealth he has accumulated, Ingvar Kamprad has been known to live a private and frugal lifestyle. He has not owned any expensive luxury cars and has avoided eating lavish meals in expensive restaurants, mostly opting for the cheaper ones. He flies only economy class.

Ingvar Kamprad has been retired from IKEA since 1986, but has still been active as the company’s senior adviser. Despite personally retaining little ownership in the company, he has led the company in the right direction with utmost dedication. He has guided the company to growth and profitability over the years. IKEA sells around 9,500 products and has now expanded in 36 countries.

Tags: , ,
Posted in BUSINESS | Comments Off

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.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in BUSINESS | Comments Off

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.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in BUSINESS | Comments Off

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.”

Tags: , ,
Posted in BUSINESS | Comments Off

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.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in BUSINESS | Comments Off

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.

Tags: , ,
Posted in BUSINESS, INTERNATIONAL | Comments Off

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »