Tuesday, October 23, 2007
For Carlos Slim
When an archer is shooting for nothing
He has all his skill
If he shoots for a brass buckle
He is already nervous
If he shoots for a prize of gold
He goes blind
Or sees two targets-
He is out of his mind!
His skill has not changed. But the prize
Divides him. He cares.
He thinks more of winning
Than of shooting-
And the need to win
Drains him of power.
Chuang Tzu
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Friday, October 5, 2007
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
ZHANG YIN
Will Hutton
Sunday October 15, 2006
The Observer
Last week it was reported that China's richest billionaire is now a woman - 49-year-old Zhang Yin is worth a cool $3.4bn (£1.8bn). It is capitalists such as her who are proof that paradoxically it is communist China that is home to the globe's most vigorous capitalism. And she is a woman.
As the daughter of an officer in the People's Liberation Army, Zhang Yin also understands the corrupt and controlling pathology of Chinese communism well - and has understood the imperative to keep ownership and direction of her company as distant as possible from Beijing. In China the party controls, or has the capacity to control, everything; almost every private businessperson in China is either a party member or applying to join.
Zhang has avoided much of that - courtesy of Hong Kong, a Taiwanese husband and managing to get out of China in the months after Tiananmen Square when repression was at its height and the prospects for any kind of private enterprise seemed nil. Her cleverest moves were her first; incorporating her company in Hong Kong in 1985 and then marrying a Taiwanese with a non Chinese passport.
Scrap paper is one of the few industries the party considers non-strategic and which it indulges - another smart choice for an ambitious woman.
It is true that Ms Zhang could not have made her money if China had not opened to the world. But nobody should believe that somehow her fortune means that China has made the full transition to capitalism. Rather she has exploited the system's fault lines.
Entrepreneurs such as Zhang Yin only succeed if they find ways around the system; they can only push the economy so far.
Sunday October 15, 2006
The Observer
Last week it was reported that China's richest billionaire is now a woman - 49-year-old Zhang Yin is worth a cool $3.4bn (£1.8bn). It is capitalists such as her who are proof that paradoxically it is communist China that is home to the globe's most vigorous capitalism. And she is a woman.
As the daughter of an officer in the People's Liberation Army, Zhang Yin also understands the corrupt and controlling pathology of Chinese communism well - and has understood the imperative to keep ownership and direction of her company as distant as possible from Beijing. In China the party controls, or has the capacity to control, everything; almost every private businessperson in China is either a party member or applying to join.
Zhang has avoided much of that - courtesy of Hong Kong, a Taiwanese husband and managing to get out of China in the months after Tiananmen Square when repression was at its height and the prospects for any kind of private enterprise seemed nil. Her cleverest moves were her first; incorporating her company in Hong Kong in 1985 and then marrying a Taiwanese with a non Chinese passport.
Scrap paper is one of the few industries the party considers non-strategic and which it indulges - another smart choice for an ambitious woman.
It is true that Ms Zhang could not have made her money if China had not opened to the world. But nobody should believe that somehow her fortune means that China has made the full transition to capitalism. Rather she has exploited the system's fault lines.
Entrepreneurs such as Zhang Yin only succeed if they find ways around the system; they can only push the economy so far.
RATAN TATA
How successful is Ratan Tata
Nandini Lakshman & Gouri Shukla | July 26, 2005
It was a ritual at Mumbai's Taj Mahal Hotel. Two months ago, Ratan Naval Tata, 67, non-executive chairman of the Rs 79,000 crore (Rs 790 billion) Tata group was presiding over the annual group management meeting for 200 of his senior managers, including Tata Sons' directors.
For the past six years, this has been Tata's way of reaching out to his people, telling them where the group is headed, what needs to be done and how they can do it. This year's theme was the global story. And the punch line? Be bold; think big; lead, never follow Such exhortations are heard more often these days at Bombay House, the Tata group headquarters. Tata's game plan, according to his managers, was simple -- rationalise the group's business portfolio; deliver a return on investment that exceeded the cost of capital; have a symbolically and emotionally unified brand; and grab new opportunities.
Today, Tata's empire is still unwieldy. With seven business sectors and an official list of 91 operating companies (a group insider put the total at 300), Tata still employs around 220,000 people. "We have too many companies and focus is necessary," says a senior Tata manager.
But what Tata has already done is hauled his heavy engineering-to-services conglomerate into newer businesses (telecom, passenger cars, retail, biotech); turned around and restructured flagships (Tata Steel, Tata Motors) that once operated in protected regimes; and shed some businesses that no longer fit into the corporate vision or failed to yield requisite results (Merind, Goodlass Nerolac, ACC, Lakmé, Tomco).
"The group is more aggressive today than it was a decade ago," says a merchant banker "there is a certain electricity in the group."
To hedge the cyclical nature of some of his flagships, most of the Tata companies are going global and acquiring businesses as if there's no tomorrow -- half its 14 acquisitions were in the past year. Apart from bagging orders from overseas, they are acquiring foreign companies. "Globalisation is the way to go for us," Tata said recently. "A global footprint is very important for the group to remain competitive,"
Nandini Lakshman & Gouri Shukla | July 26, 2005
It was a ritual at Mumbai's Taj Mahal Hotel. Two months ago, Ratan Naval Tata, 67, non-executive chairman of the Rs 79,000 crore (Rs 790 billion) Tata group was presiding over the annual group management meeting for 200 of his senior managers, including Tata Sons' directors.
For the past six years, this has been Tata's way of reaching out to his people, telling them where the group is headed, what needs to be done and how they can do it. This year's theme was the global story. And the punch line? Be bold; think big; lead, never follow Such exhortations are heard more often these days at Bombay House, the Tata group headquarters. Tata's game plan, according to his managers, was simple -- rationalise the group's business portfolio; deliver a return on investment that exceeded the cost of capital; have a symbolically and emotionally unified brand; and grab new opportunities.
Today, Tata's empire is still unwieldy. With seven business sectors and an official list of 91 operating companies (a group insider put the total at 300), Tata still employs around 220,000 people. "We have too many companies and focus is necessary," says a senior Tata manager.
But what Tata has already done is hauled his heavy engineering-to-services conglomerate into newer businesses (telecom, passenger cars, retail, biotech); turned around and restructured flagships (Tata Steel, Tata Motors) that once operated in protected regimes; and shed some businesses that no longer fit into the corporate vision or failed to yield requisite results (Merind, Goodlass Nerolac, ACC, Lakmé, Tomco).
"The group is more aggressive today than it was a decade ago," says a merchant banker "there is a certain electricity in the group."
To hedge the cyclical nature of some of his flagships, most of the Tata companies are going global and acquiring businesses as if there's no tomorrow -- half its 14 acquisitions were in the past year. Apart from bagging orders from overseas, they are acquiring foreign companies. "Globalisation is the way to go for us," Tata said recently. "A global footprint is very important for the group to remain competitive,"
CARLOS SLIM
NEWSMAKER-Carlos Slim, Mexican tycoon with long tentacles
Reuters, 04.30.04, 3:13 PM ET
By Chris Aspin
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - He could own a squadron of private jets and a fleet of yachts, but Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, Latin America's richest man, prefers to save his money -- and keep it in the family. Slim, 64, who passed the helm of Mexico's leading telephone company Telmex to his son Thursday, is an amateur history buff who is renowned for his Midas business touch. It is hard to spend a day in Mexico without putting peso's into Slim's pockets, so wide and varied are his holdings.
Handing the chairmanship of Telmex to his son is one element of a well thought out succession plan to hand over his business empire to his family. There is no hint that Slim is walking away as he will remain Telmex's owner.
In a typically shrewd move, Slim and his partners bought Telmex from the government for $1.7 billion in 1990. The purchase catapulted Slim into the big business league and he has never looked back. Telmex will ring up more than $10 billion in sales this year and, dauntingly for competitors, has just embarked on a rapid expansion in South America.
Notoriously frugal but also an avid collector of Auguste Rodin sculptures, Slim's businesses are an estimated treasure trove worth $14 billion. Besides most of Mexico's fixed and mobile phone lines, he owns cake shops, department stores, record stores, restaurants, a bank, and other companies that make everything from cigarettes and floor and kitchen tiles to car parts.
A son of a Lebanese immigrant, Slim began on the road to becoming the biggest business tycoon in Latin America when he was 10, selling soft drinks and candies to his own family. Slim studied engineering and entered the formal business world at 25, partnering with a university friend to form Carso real estate company. He also worked as a trader in the Mexican stock exchange, taking buy and sell orders on the floor.
Insiders say his business gameplan has always been simple: Buy a struggling company on the cheap and turn it around, a strategy he followed in the 1970s. More opportunities came in 1982 when Mexico was in a crisis, and companies were available at fire sale prices.
And then came his acquisition of the former state monopoly Telmex, his crowning moment. His Telmex acquisition was not so much a tale of buying a struggling company, but buying huge growth potential. Slim was allowed to run the former monopoly without competition for seven years. "He is a super saver, he always has the same suit. he's totally centered on business," said Celso Garrido, a professor at the UAM university who has studied the gray-bearded Slim and his business history.
In another typically astute move, Telmex has started to extend into South America. The company's growth potential in Mexico had started to wane, so Slim looked south to expand.
Reuters, 04.30.04, 3:13 PM ET
By Chris Aspin
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - He could own a squadron of private jets and a fleet of yachts, but Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, Latin America's richest man, prefers to save his money -- and keep it in the family. Slim, 64, who passed the helm of Mexico's leading telephone company Telmex to his son Thursday, is an amateur history buff who is renowned for his Midas business touch. It is hard to spend a day in Mexico without putting peso's into Slim's pockets, so wide and varied are his holdings.
Handing the chairmanship of Telmex to his son is one element of a well thought out succession plan to hand over his business empire to his family. There is no hint that Slim is walking away as he will remain Telmex's owner.
In a typically shrewd move, Slim and his partners bought Telmex from the government for $1.7 billion in 1990. The purchase catapulted Slim into the big business league and he has never looked back. Telmex will ring up more than $10 billion in sales this year and, dauntingly for competitors, has just embarked on a rapid expansion in South America.
Notoriously frugal but also an avid collector of Auguste Rodin sculptures, Slim's businesses are an estimated treasure trove worth $14 billion. Besides most of Mexico's fixed and mobile phone lines, he owns cake shops, department stores, record stores, restaurants, a bank, and other companies that make everything from cigarettes and floor and kitchen tiles to car parts.
A son of a Lebanese immigrant, Slim began on the road to becoming the biggest business tycoon in Latin America when he was 10, selling soft drinks and candies to his own family. Slim studied engineering and entered the formal business world at 25, partnering with a university friend to form Carso real estate company. He also worked as a trader in the Mexican stock exchange, taking buy and sell orders on the floor.
Insiders say his business gameplan has always been simple: Buy a struggling company on the cheap and turn it around, a strategy he followed in the 1970s. More opportunities came in 1982 when Mexico was in a crisis, and companies were available at fire sale prices.
And then came his acquisition of the former state monopoly Telmex, his crowning moment. His Telmex acquisition was not so much a tale of buying a struggling company, but buying huge growth potential. Slim was allowed to run the former monopoly without competition for seven years. "He is a super saver, he always has the same suit. he's totally centered on business," said Celso Garrido, a professor at the UAM university who has studied the gray-bearded Slim and his business history.
In another typically astute move, Telmex has started to extend into South America. The company's growth potential in Mexico had started to wane, so Slim looked south to expand.
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