The Global Man

One thing about success is, it’s not birth-discriminate. You can be born rich, you can be born poor, you can even born blind and still be successful. There is one person who has been very successful with his career as a businessman. Unlike those rags to riches stories he wasn’t exactly born poor.

Born on June 15, 1950, in India Lakshmi Mittal came from a family in the steel business.  He headed the international division of the business in 1976, when he had falling out with his family.

He then decided to go on his own. While family conflict is not something we hope for in this case it set the course for Lakshmi to set out his own destiny.  Steel had been viewed by many as a dying industry particularly in the U.S. There were many manufacturers of steel and countries like South Korea also could produce them at a lesser cost

Lakshmi bet his fortune on steel though.  Through stringent management, a good dose of financing and with enough size and scale he has been able to make his business profitable. When we talk of scale it has to be in terms of global scale, thus Lakshmi has a large global operation, with steel mills and mines located all over the world. His company ArcelorMittal is the world’s largest steelmaker.

The size and money involved in the steel business sometimes include having to deal with governments and Lakshmi has had his share of bribery allegations but has managed to stay out of trouble. Lakshmi has actually received many awards and recognition for his accomplishment in the steel industry. Some of his awards are “Steelmaker of the Year” by New Steel in the U.S. in 1998; the Dwight D Eisenhower Global Leadership Award in 2007; and the “Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award” in 2008. He also sits in the boards of many prestigious institutions.

His net worth dropped by a staggering $6.9 billion dollars in 2011 due to a 40% fall in ArcelorMittal share prices. That amount would already make anyone one of the richest men in the world. Being the global man that he is, Lakshmi’s net worth was still $19.2 billion making him Forbes Magazine’s 6^th richest man in the world.

She Shouldn’t Have Made It

There are many who are born in poverty and broken homes and wind up living the same kind of life.  One woman broke through this vicious cycle and gained international prominence.

This woman is Oprah Winfrey; born in poverty to a single mother who unfortunately due to her own hardships was not able to provide her daughter with the security and comfort a child needed. Initially raised by her grandmother, Oprah learned to read and went to church.

Things turned for the worse when she started living with her mother in Milwaukee at the age of six.  Her mother had to work long hours and had her own personal difficulties.  Oprah experienced child sexual molestation and rape. At the tender age of 14 she became pregnant. Her child died at birth.

It was when she lived with her father who was a disciplinarian that her life got back on track. She landed a spot in a radio show that became popular because of her.  Over the years more openings finally led to the creation of The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1985, which only a year later became the number one talk show in national syndication.

She put up Harpo Productions that eventually allowed her to own and produce her own talk show, in 1988. This was a historical first for a woman.  Her talk show which promotes healthy living is widely viewed and very influential, like any book she recommends becomes a best seller.

She is credited with helping Barack Obama win the Democratic presidential nomination and the U.S. Presidential elections in 2008. She has her own Oprah Winfrey Network.  A billionaire and a generous philanthropist; against tremendous odds she made it.

For Women

It is a woman that best understands the need of women in general. This is why a top executive at Citigroup founded another line of business within the company to cater to the specific needs of women.

Women & Co. was started by Lisa Caputo knowing the role women played in society. She notes that women are the household caregivers, with many responsibilities to juggle. They are busy making everyone else a priority that they no longer have time to make themselves a priority.  Women should also prioritize their own financial welfare as a form of empowering themselves.  Women & Co. would help women with their financial needs and take them on a course to financial security. This enterprise has been very successful for Citibank since it accounts for over $30 billion in asset under management.

Lisa Caputo’s career path is far from the ordinary. She has worked at both the public and private sector and has held prominent positions in each of these sectors.  Born in 1965, she became the deputy press secretary of then First Lady Hillary Clinton when she was only in her late 20’s. She has served in other capacities with Democratic politicians through over a decade working in the public sector. She has also been an analyst on political issues appearing in many TV programs.

Her private corporate life is just as impressive. She was the vice president for global communications and synergy at Disney Publishing Worldwide from 1998 to 1999. She founded Women & Co. in Citigroup in 2000 and served as the CEO until 2010. This made her a prominent figure in women leadership. She has held other key positions at Citigroup as well.

While having made great accomplishments at Citigroup in 2011 she moved to The Travelers Companies, Inc.  which is into property casualty insurance. Her position there is as executive vice president for marketing and communications.

Not yet in her 50’s there’s still many productive years ahead of her. Judging by her past accomplishments this top executive seems destined to make more significant contributions in the world of business.

Proving A Point

John C. Bogle did his research and came with the conclusion that actively managed funds could not do better than the market. With this belief he established the first index mutual fund in 1975 known as the Vanguard 500 Index Fund.  Just the previous year he started The Vanguard Group, Inc.

To make a long story short he became very successful at what he did. Under his guidance The Vanguard Group became one of the largest mutual fund companies in the world. Today the Vanguard Group manages about $1.7 trillion in U.S. mutual fund assets. It has more than 170 funds to offer.

While others provide a more fast-paced approach to investing, Bogle’s philosophy was more of the buy and hold type. He has a very strong follower base that believes in his investing philosophy and actually calls themselves Bogleheads and have gone to the extent of having their own website.

Born in 1926 in Montclair, New Jersey he retired as CEO of his company in 1996 and gave up the Chairmanship in 2000. He now keeps himself busy with the Bogle Financial Markets Research Center (a think tank) and is also an active blogger.

There are some now doubting his philosophy and say that he did not have all the available data when he made his conclusion about index investing. His best rebuttal would be his achievement of having established a company now managing over a trillion dollars in assets.

Leaving His Own Legacy

Being compared to an accomplished father can sometimes be unfair especially if you don’t exactly achieve as much as your father did.  For Ned C. Johnson III he took over a company founded by his father and made it even bigger. Now in his 80’s his achievements helped propel Fidelity investment into one of the largest mutual fund institutions in the world.

Ned C. Johnson III joined Fidelity Investment in 1957. Learning the ropes he stared out as a research analyst.  Then the following year he was given charge of Fidelity Trend Fund until 1967. Another responsibility was added to his load when he became the pioneering portfolio manager of the well-known Magellan Fund in 1963, holding the position until 1971. The next year he finally headed the company his father founded.

By this time there was already $3.9 billion worth of assets under management. The son proved to be an able leader. What his father started would soon grow tremendously. Introducing new products and services the company became an even larger player in the financial services industry. One of his innovations was the direct marketing of mutual funds. He was a trend-setter in using technology to provide services to clients. He started funds for a variety of investment strategies gaining a larger portion of the mutual fund market.

Today Fidelity Investment is a diversified financial service company. It is huge, as of 2010 it had $3.5 trillion of assets under administration with $1.6 trillion of assets under management.  It is one of the leading companies in mutual trust funds and is the number one provider of IRA’s in the U.S.

The company is into asset management, personal investing, workplace investing, and provides institutional services like clearing and custody. Its contribution in the field of philanthropy is just as impressive with the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund being the country’s largest donor-advised fund program. It has given over $11 billion in charity since it started.

Ned Johnson III took over from his father and simply grew the company to soaring heights.

Staying The Family Course

Ratan Tata did not actually come from a poor family. Born in 1937, he went on to study at Cornell University earning an architecture degree in structural engineering. He had the advantage of being a member of the Tata family which owned the largest industrial business in India. 

While many members of prominent families have not made the most of their high status in life, Ratan stayed the course and made his own contributions to make the Tata group of companies grow even bigger. Joining the family business in 1962, he held key positions in many of the companies.  He then became Chairman of Tata Industries in 1981. There he changed the orientation of the holding company making it a group strategy think-tank, and also started ventures in the area of high technology. 

In 1991 he became the Chairman of Tata Sons the holding company that basically oversees the Tata businesses. Other chairmanships include Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Power, Tata Global Beverages, and others.  He has become over the years a well-respected businessman and a giant figure in Indian business and society. 

He guided the Tata group into a more outward looking company, with a good size of its profit now coming outside of India. One of his notable international business moves was acquiring Jaguar Land Rover from Ford Motors.  He is also behind the creation of the well-know Nano car, India’s answer to the fuel crisis. His skills and reputation cover the international arena, being advisory board member of such global companies as Mitsubishi and JP Morgan as well as the Monetary Authority of Singapore. 

Following the footsteps of other prominent Tata family members, he has made his own contributions that have impacted both India and the global market.

It Wasn’t Like This Before

A long time ago, there were two dominant sports shoe companies, Adidas and Puma. These companies were both German and both producing high quality products. Then a guy by the name of Phil Knight decided to start his own shoe company, everything changed.

Being a varsity runner himself at the University of Oregon, Knight knew quite a lot about shoes. His entrepreneurial bent did not begin in college. After a stint in the Army, he went to graduate school at Stanford University.  It was there where he got his desire to start his own business and naturally it had to deal with shoes.

A trip to Japan exposed him to a brand of shoes that were just as good in quality as the German shoes but made at a much lower cost. He was able to make a deal with the shoe company (Onitsuka the makers of Tiger shoes) and began selling these shoes in 1964 on the side while maintaining his day job.

In 1971 he finally decided to quit his job and strike out on his own.  Choosing the name Nike actually came from a friend, and someone was paid to design the now so famous “swoosh” logo.  In part due to the jogging boom Nike made great sales. Phil Knight’s company was also good in advertising. In one event it advertised that 4 of the top 7 finishers were wearing Nike shoes; not mentioning that the top 3 finishers were wearing Adidas.

Phil Knight’s formula of star athletes endorsing Nike was a resounding success. Michael Jordan in the 80’s boosted the company image and just as important helped increase sales. Michael Jordon also earned millions from Nike. So many athletes now have multi-million dollar endorsement contracts with Nike.

Nike was unheard of in golf until it signed up the then upcoming Tiger Woods.  Nike is now everywhere in the sports world, from the world’s most popular sports football to America football.  Maria Sharapova, Rafael Nadal, Lebron James, just a few of the sports celebrities with multi-million endorsement contracts with Nike.

Nike is not just into sport shoes, but sports equipment and apparel, and has other fashion brands not directly related to sports.  While Adidas and Puma are still there, Nike is on top of the hill. Out of nowhere Phil Knight forever changed the sports apparel market and has even influenced the sports industry itself.