Trading volume was disappointing as it only increased slightly in this last week when the market rallies after the rebound. The average daily trading volume last week was 750 million shares and the previous week’s average was 662 million. Average daily trading volume below 1billion shares are considered weak. The market was slightly bullish because of positive leads locally and internationally. Locally, industrial production and export numbers were growing on-month and jobless rate fell. World Bank confidence about having a positive GDP in year 2010 and increasing foreign participation in the local equity market boost confidence further.

Internationally, governments in developed nations are confident that the global economy is improving and Australia is the first G-20 nation to raise key interest rates since the start of the global financial crisis more than a year ago as the government believes that the emergency low rates are no longer needed. In the world’s largest economy, manufacturing increases and jobless claim declines.

Daily FBMKLCI Chart

The US Dollar continues to slide against major currencies, continuing its down trend. This again has pressured prices of commodities to increase. Price of Gold in COMEX continues to make historical highs and is currently at US$1,050 an ounce, increasing 5% in a month. Crude Oil in NYMEX continues to stay around US$70 a barrel. Rubber futures in TOCOM slightly rose month-to­-month but it jumps about 6% last week to JPY$214.80 a kg. However, Crude Palm Oil futures in Europe Store Exchange declined from EUR 2,200 per metric ton a month ago to EUR 2,030.

The FBMKLCI is well supported by the short term trend. The benchmark index continues to stay above the short to long term 30 to 90-day moving averages despite several pullbacks from the uptrend that started in April. A major correction is yet to be seen in this 6 months bullish trend. Momentum indicators are about to turn bullish again after mixed signals in the past few weeks.

The RSI and Momentum indicators are starting to move away from the middle level and the MACD indicator is about to cross above its trigger line or 9-day moving average. ADX indicator has just started to increase again, showing good strength in momentum last week.

The Bollinger Bands started to expand again with the FBMKLCI penetrating the top bands after testing the middle band two weeks ago. The same situation (the expansion) happened exactly a month ago and the FBMKLCI made new highs for the year. Therefore, we may expect the same to happen again and this time the projection is 1,280 points before it finds the next resistance. The average daily trading range is the same as the previous week.

Price Map - Direction Forecast

The immediate support and resistance levels are still at 1,196 points and 1,230 points respectively. The FBMKLCI is currently testing this resistance level for the second time in a month. The market is set to test newer highs because of the strong bullish reversal and breakout. The next resistance level is between 1,280 and 1,300 points. However, if the market fails to make new highs and the FBMKLI falls below the 1,196 points support level, then the next support level it is going to test is at 1,150 points.

Looking ahead, the leading Ichimoku Cloud indicator continues to contract last week and this indicates that the support for the uptrend is getting thinner. Being a leading technical indicator, a major trend reversal is not expected until the cloud bands cross. Therefore, there is still a chance for the market to maintain its uptrend at least for another month.

The market sentiment is still bullish and the FBMKLCI is expected to rise in the short term to the next resistance level between 1,280 and 1,300 points. This is only valid if the benchmark index stays above the immediate 1,196 points support level. In the longer term, a major correction is expected to take place once the index moves into the next resistance level. My price map/direction forecast chart for FBMKLCI remains the same as last month.

Therefore, current opportunity is only good for short term traders who trades short term profits because the market is expected to test new highs but with a limited upside. However, accumulating shares for the long term (3 to 5 years) may be too risky at current levels as prices are way above the long term average. Opportunity for long term accumulation only exists when the market pulls back to its long term average or below it (a 200-day moving average can be used as a benchmark).

So, longer term investors have to patiently wait for a major correction to happen. My longer term

forecast (1 year) for the FBMKLCI when it goes into a major correction is still at 900 points and therefore accumulating shares when the index moves to this level or slightly above provide a better low risk opportunity for longer term investors.

Education        : University of Texas, Austin, 1983–1984

Occupation      : CEO and founder, Dell, Inc.

Net Worth       : Above $12.3 Billion (2009)

Religious         : Judaism

Spouse(s)         : Susan Dell

He’s Michael Dell, the CEO of Dell Computers and one of the greatest entrepreneur of this generation. At 40 years old he’s built one of the most successful companies in the world and he’s one of the world’s youngest billionaires. The company has grown to $32 billion in 18 years. In fact, great leadership is what makes him so highly successful, not technical brain. He was at number 18 on the Forbes’s list of richest people in 2002 and 2004 respectively; while in 2003 he was on 24.

The PC business is full of rags-to-riches stories. But perhaps none is as dramatic as the rise of Dell Computer. He started off his company from his room at the University of Texas with less than $1,000. After being one year at University, he dropped out as his part-time computer business took off.

He was born on February 23, 1965. In 1984, the 19-year-old Michael Dell had a simple idea. Why not sell custom-made computers directly to customers? At the time, computer manufacturers sold their machines wholesale to retailers, who marked up the price for consumers. With about $1,000 and an unprecedented idea in the PC industry, Dell found a way to bypass the middleman and sell custom-built PCs directly to customers. Dell assembled computers from cheap surplus parts, and then created the machines to the specifications of his customers.

What makes Dell Computer unique is not what it sells, but rather how it sells it. Dell was first in the PC industry to pioneer the direct-selling model, a method that competitors such as Compaq and Apple Computer are only now starting to embrace. By cutting out the intermediary and creating a direct link between manufacturer and customer, Dell was able to provide customers with computers that cost less and that were more apt to meet customer needs. Prior to this there was absolutely no aspect of customization of the PC. Buying computer invariably involved the presence of a middleman. He also pioneered the industry’s first service and support programs.

Twenty-one years later, the simple idea is considered a revolution in the technology world, and it still working. Dell’s still doing essentially the same made-to-order computers directly to customers but on a scale that now brings in $18 billion a year and employs 25,000 people. Dell’s breathtaking success made him, at age 27 the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company in history, and Fortune magazine named his company one of the most admired firms in America, following General Electric, Coca-Cola, and Microsoft. Dell has offices in over 34 countries and a presence in more than 170 countries. The company’s business clientele includes almost all the companies in the Fortune 500.The company manufactures its PCs in six locations: Texas, Tennessee, Brazil, Ireland, Malaysia, and China.

The next frontier for Dell has been the Web and once again the computer giant seems to be holding its place as a leader in the PC industry. Dell is acknowledged as the largest online commercial seller of computer systems, with $50 million per day in online sales. The value of Dell’s stock is reported to have risen almost 70,000 per cent over the past decade.

It’s important to point out that Michael Dell’s parents wanted him to stop playing with computers in college and get into medical school. But Michael Dell followed a different path. He is today credited for inspiring millions of entrepreneurs to pursue their dream of creating new innovation and not simply do what you are told to do. It’s important that we listen to ourselves and follow the path that we desire. People around us have great intentions, but many times they don’t understand the life and goals of the entrepreneur. Believe in yourself.

There are two key reasons for his continuing success. Dell Corp. is renowned for its ability to drive down prices. The products are affordable because of the company’s hold over their vendors. The other reason is that Dell has been able to leverage the power of the Internet to great advantage. Dell is the largest supplier of PCs over the Internet. He is an IT governor of the World Economic Forum and is a member of the U.S. Business Council. He is also a member of the Computer Systems Policy Project, serves on the U.S. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Dell has been honored many times for his extraordinary leadership capabilities, earning the titles of “Entrepreneur of the Year” from Inc. magazine, and “Man of the Year” by PC magazine. He constantly heads the list of the world’s youngest billionaires.

Michael Dell can be painfully shy, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t charismatic. Rarely has a bad word been uttered about his personality. As ‘a visionary, leader, entrepreneur, boss, person, and manager, Michael gets nothing but praise. For good reason too; he proved that a college dropout can fulfill his dreams and succeed. Our advice though, is that unless you have visions of grandeur where you want to build a multi-billion dollar company, stay in school.

Michael Dell explained his secrets of success in an entrepreneurs’ conference in Texas, when he said “First of all, don’t start a business just because everybody else is doing it or it looks like it’s a way to make a lot of money. Start a business because you found something you really love doing and have a passion for Start a business because you found something unique that you can do betty’ than anyone else. And start a business because you really want to make a big contribution to society over a long period of time.”

Root beer is a beverage made from a combination of vanilla, cherry tree bark, licorice root, sarsaparilla root, sassafras root bark, nutmeg, anise, and molasses among other things. Each root beer has a unique recipe. Root beer constitutes about three percent of the American soft drink market. Many local brands of root beer exist and home-made root beer is made from concentrate or (rarely) from roots.

In fact, even prior to this period, root beer was served, and it was then called ‘Black Cow Mountain’ inspired by a moonlit view of Colorado’s Cow Mountain with snow on top. Kids later shortened the drink’s name to Black Cow. For those not on a diet, recipes add chocolate syrup, whipped cream and a cherry on top. But for those on a diet, ice cream can be partially replaced by skim milk and root beer with diet root beer. Root beer itself has a history that relates to the ancient practice of brewing native plants (twigs, bark, roots) as healing herbal teas.

However, that fateful drink put a delighted smile on Allen’s customers’ face and put him into business. But Allen’s drink or mix was unique – blended from the juices of 14 herbs, spices, barks and berries – and it proved very popular with the thirsty public and in 1922, Allen started a number of outlets to sell it. With the success of his first root beer stand in place called Lodi, Allen soon opened up a second stand in nearby Sacramento. It was there that what is thought to be United States‘ first ‘drive-in’ featuring ‘tray-boys’ for curb side service opened up.

Later, Allen teamed up with Frank Wright, one of his employees, and the name A & W was born. New items were added to the menu and A&W became well. Known as a fast food restaurant offering good food at low prices, and served up fast. Before long, the chain restaurant had spread out beyond the boundaries of California and soon, there wasn’t a state in America where you couldn’t find an A&W restaurant. It had become part of the American way of life.

In 1924, Allen bought Wright’s share of the business to actively pursue a franchise sales program. He had the name, A&W Root Beer and the A&W logo legally trademarked with the U.S. Patent. By 1933, the creamy beverage was such a success that Allen had over 170 franchised outlets operating in different places. To ensure uniform quality for the namesake beverage, Allen sold A&W Root Beer to concentrate exclusively to each franchise operator. His profits were derived from the sale of the concentrate and a nominal license fee.

During World War II no new restaurants were opened. Despite governmental sugar rationing (this affected supplies of bottler’s sugar, a necessary ingredient of root beer) and employee shortages (also a result of the war) most A&W units remained successful. After the war the number of A&W restaurants tripled as loans were available for private enterprise to flourish.

In 1950, with over 450 A&W’s operating nationwide, founder Roy Allen retired and sold the business to an aggressive Nebraskan named Gene Hurtz who formed the A&W Root Beer Company. The post war era – the rapidly recovering economy and popularity of the automobile provided the right environment for Hurtz’s company to prosper. Drive-in was becoming increasingly popular and A&W had the privilege of being one of the few nationally established drive-in restaurant chains. By 1960 the number of A&W’s had swelled to over 2000.

The popularity of A&W soon spread to other parts of the world and Asians had their first taste of it in 1963 when Malaysia opened its first outlet at Batu Road (now known as Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman) where it still does brisk business today. In Malaysia, there are more than 26 A&W restaurants and the company has plans to open more. The opening of new stories not only brings the great taste to more Malaysians but also provides employment as well as management opportunities to people. In fact, A&W has become a household name among Malaysians and its menu offers a wide variety of items to suit every member of the family, including the refreshing A&W Root Beer, the ever popular Coney Dog, Waffle, Curly Fries, Onion Ring and Mozza Burger which are unique products of A&W.

It was the first food chain to be opened in Malaysia. It has also gained a mention in the Malaysian Book of Record to that effect. A&W (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd was awarded the “Golden Mug Award” in recognition of its achievement for being the best managed franchisee in the world in 1996.The award was presented by A&W International President/CEO in Las Vegas, USA.

America loved the taste of A&W Root Beer. So, in 1971, United Brands formed a wholly-owned subsidiary, A&W Beverages, Inc., for the purpose of making A&W Root Beer available on the grocery shelf. First introduced in Arizona and California, the cans and bottles of A&W Root Beer was an instant success. Retailers nationwide were soon carrying the product.

Several ownership changes took place during the sixties and seventies. In 1971, United Brands formed a wholly owned subsidiary, A&W Distributing Co., for the purpose of making A&W Root Beer available on the grocery shelf. In 1974, A&W sugar-free was born along with “The Great Root Bear,” a mascot that served as a goodwill ambassador for the brand. Though the purchases and mergers plagued the expansion efforts of A&W restaurants, the root beer remained the category leader.

In October 1993, the A&W brands, excluding the restaurants, became part of Cadbury Beverages Inc. Today, the A&W brands continue under the ownership of Plano, Texas-based Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc., the largest non-cola soft drink enterprise in North America and the largest subsidiary of London-based Cadbury Schweppes plc.

Much has changed since Roy Allen first sold root beer from his roadside stand on that hot summer day in 1919. Yet, the one thing that hasn’t changed in 85 years is that people over the world love the rich, smooth, thick-headed taste of A&W Root Beer. Clearly, A&W Root Beer has stood the test of time. And, all the credit for that goes to the genius of Roy Allen.

Died    : April 5, 1992 (aged 74)in Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S.

Occupation      : Former Chairman, Wal-Mart

Net worth        : US$58.6 bn (1992 Forbes 400), $128.0 billion (2008), according to Wealthy historical figures 2008.

When a person from Berryville, Arkansas, began opening discount stores outside towns where Sam Walton ran variety stories, he saw what was coming. So, on July 2,1962, at age 44, he opened his first Wal-Mart store, in Rogers, Arkansas. Discounting had hit America in a big way.

Once committed to discounting, Walton began a fight that lasted for the rest of his life. That is to drive costs out of the merchandising system wherever they lay – in the stores, in the manufacturer’s profit margins and with the middleman – all with a view to reducing the prices down, down, and down. Using that formula, which reduced the prices drastically, Wal-Mart sales grew at a relentless pace. Walton hit the road to open stores wherever he saw opportunity. In fact, he would see the layout of the places in his low-flying airplane. When he found the right place in intersections he would touch down, buy a piece of farmland and order up another Wal-Mart store.

As the chain began to take off, Walton made major adjustments to manage the growth. Meanwhile, as early as 1966, when he had 20 stores, he attended the IBM Computer School in order to hire the smartest guy in the class who would computerize his operations. He understood the need for computerizing his merchandise control. Today, Wal-Mart’s computer database is second only to the Pentagon’s in capacity, and though he is rarely remembered that way, Walton may have been the first true information-age CEO.

To his great delight, Walton spent much of his career largely unnoticed by the public or the press. In fact, hardly anyone had ever heard of him when, in 1985, Forbes magazine determined that his 39 per cent ownership of Rd Mart’s stock made him the richest man in America. After that, the first wave 01 attention focused on Walton as a famous retailer. His extraordinary charisma had motivated hundreds of thousands of employees to believe in what Wal-Mart could accomplish, and many of them had traded the company’s stock to wealth. It was truly the American Dream.

Sam Walton was born on March 29,1918 to Thomas Gibson and Nancy Lee Walton near Kingfisher, Oklahoma. In Oklahoma, they owned and lived on a farm until 1923.The Walton family then decided that the farm was not profitable enough to raise a family on. So, Sam and James (Sam’s younger brother born in 1921) had decided they would go back to being a Farm Loan Appraisers. Once this job started the Walton family moved out of Oklahoma and moved from town to town in Missouri. This would traumatize most children but for the Walton boys, it was no big deal. This could be seen when Sam was in 8th grade at Shelbina he became the youngest boy in the state’s history to become an Eagle Scout and this was only a stepping stone to his journey of accomplishments.

As Sam Walton grew up he was always an ambitious boy. He had to help support his family, along with his father and brother because money was lacking due to the depression. Sam’s job was to milk the family cow, bottle the milk, and then deliver the surplus to customers. He would go off to deliver newspapers afterwards. When he graduated from high school he was voted the “Most Versatile Boy” in his class. During this time it would have been easy for Sam to just give up on school and go to work full time. Seeing how his family was struggling to make ends meet, he decided he was going to stay in school and attend the University of Missouri.

As Sam grew up and anyone could see how determined he was to succeed and as time passed he went from being a poor town boy to the richest man in the world. Sam Walton had instituted 10 rules for success, and the 10th rule explains how he achieved all this. It says, “Swim upstream. Go the other way. Ignore the conventional wisdom. If everybody is doing it one way, there is a good chance you can find your niche by going exactly the opposite direction.”

Watson did force a lot of people to change the way they made a living. His use of informational technology to cut costs quickly traveled to all kinds of companies; and his pioneering retailing concepts paved the way for a new breed of  “category killer” retailers like Barnes & Nobles.(Category killer is a term used in marketing to describe a product that has a distinct competitive advantage that competing firms find it almost impossible to operate profitably in that industry.) This wave of low- overhead selling continues to accelerate. The Internet, in fact, is its latest addition. One can only wonder what a young cyber Sam would set out to accomplish if he were just getting started now.

The company went public (1970), and thanks to a unique decentralized and Sam’s charismatic leadership and celebrated hands-on management style, it grew faster in the 1980s. In 1991 Wal-Mart became the nation’s largest retailer with 1700 stores, and he was reported by distribution system Forbes to be the richest man in the country. He was president and chief executive officer until 1988 and chairman until his death. The family business empire included Arkansas and Oklahoma banks and newspapers. He was awarded the Medal of Freedom shortly before his death in 1992. In 1999 Wal-Mart took over the ASDA group (the second largest super market chain) in the UK.

Occupation      : Group Chief Executive Officer / Director of AirAsia Berhad

Net worth        : US$230 million.

Though budget airline phenomenon has been around for two decades in the US and more than 10 years in Europe, it well goes to the credit of Tony Fernandes; who thought it worthwhile to try the concept in the South East Asian region.

He had an ambitious drive to realize his childhood dream of owning an airline, and set up Air Asia, Asia’s first budget airline. That very dream sometimes became a nightmare for the region’s more established full-service carriers, who have watched the no-frills airline’s rising popularity and ticket sales with a considerable degree of alarm.

When Air Asia took the first flight in 2001, many critics in the business community pooh-poohed the idea and said that it would not survive even two months. Some kinder souls said that the operations would be grounded within a period of six months. There were, after all, many barriers in the highly-regulated and competitive airline industry, and a budget airline was a totally new creature in the market. Few believed Fernandes, CEO and director of TuneAir Sdn Bhd, which owns AirAsia, would be able to get the low-cost carrier to take off properly, let alone pilot it to great heights.

When he was young, his parents wanted him to become a doctor, however they allowed him to pursue the field of studies of his choice, the moment he told them about his interest. After graduating from London School of Economics in 1987, he worked as an accountant for Richard Branson’s Virgin Records from 1987 to 1989. At 28, he became the youngest person in recording industry’s history to head Warner Music Malaysia and thereafter, moved up to serve as ASEAN Vice-President of Warner Music.

When he told his wife he was going to start an airline, his wife laughed and said, “why can’t you think of something simple?”Tony replied, “Life is short. If I fail, I fail. At least, I won’t be saying when I am 60 years old that I should have tried this!” Even before Sept. 11, the world’s airlines were in trouble, and his move was not universally hailed as a wise career choice. Most people thought he was crazy.

But Tony Fernandes looked at the brighter side. In fact, the timing was perfect: Since Sept.11, aircraft leasing costs were down by 40 per cent. He could get newer Boeing models than the sick airline had before at the same price. There were many airline layoffs that meant the staff was readily available.

In fact, he had virtually zero experience running an airline. It was the typical story of the underdog starting from nothing. Fernandes, now 40, had to mortgage his house, pour all his savings into the company and rope in several friends as investors. Drawing inspiration from the successes of Ryanair in Europe and Southwest Airlines in the US, he was convinced there was a ready market for budget flying in Malaysia and Asia just waiting to be tapped.

When TuneAir bought AirAsia in 2001 for the token price of RM1, it took over the ailing airline’s two aircraft and debts of RM40 million. After seven months in operation, the budget carrier managed to repay all its debts and make a profit of RM19.4 million. In June 2002, its profit had ballooned to RM30 million. By the end of that year, its fleet had expanded to 10 Boeing 737 aircraft and flown some three million passengers. In November, it formed a joint-venture airline with Thailand’s Shin Corp to operate flights to Thailand. The maiden flight from Kuala Lumpur to Phuket took off on Dec 8.

The Air Asia business model slashed fares on heavily traveled routes, turned around planes much faster than before and stopped serving complimentary food and drinks. Eliminating meals meant that the normal complement of cabin crew could be cut from six to three. And in order to keep the planes in the air more, the flights were expected to spend only 25 minutes on the ground at one time. If passengers are late, they will simply forfeit their tickets. Air Asia was not going to wait. Within a period of four years, the airline had a thriving business, had grown from a modest two planes to 28 in its current fleet, and operates over 100 domestic and international flights daily.

Air Asia’s growing popularity among travelers has compelled full-service carrier^,, to scramble for a slice of the budget-flying share themselves. Singapore Airlines (SIA) is setting up Tiger Airways, and Thai Airways International is in talks with potential partners for a similar venture. Australia’s Qantas Airways has announced Jetstar, an attempt to take on British entrepreneur Richard Branson’s Virgin Blue, which commands about a third of the domestic flight market in Australia. Meanwhile, Singapore-based ValueAir, set up by a former SIA executive, has started flying in 2004. All of a sudden, it seemed that a man’s childhood dream has shaken and changed the airline industry across the region.

People may hate him for he speaks his mind. But what he has done is to wake up everyone from their complacency. His low-cost carriers have also become a boon to tourism for destination countries. To consumers, Tony has reversed decades of brainwashing that air travel necessarily has to be costly. No wonder, Malaysian travelers welcomed its cheap tickets with open arms from day one. Two years after its inception, the new airline was laughing its way to the bank and spreading its wings across the region.

Air Asia was named Asia Pacific Low Cost Airline of the Year 2004 by Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) Air Asia. The airline also clinched the prestigious Euro money award for Asia Best Managed Company in the Airlines & Aviation Sector and Air Transport World’s Market Leadership Award at the recent 2005 Airline Achievement Awards.

If today, people complain that a $300 return ticket to Hong Kong is expensive, clearly, the bar for what constitutes value-for-money has been raised. And, all the credit for that goes to Tony. Since he started the Airline, he has received a lot of letters from people saying that he has inspired them, that they are going to try something different.“That is the biggest kick I get out of this whole thing,” says the high-flier.

Died    : January 26, 1932 (aged 70) in Phoenix, Arizona, United States

Occupation      : Confectionery Magnate

Spouse(s)         : Ada

Children          : Dorothy, Philip Knight Wrigley

Parents            : William and Mary A. Ladley

Chewing gum has been around for thousands of years. For a long time, gum was made from things like sap and wax. It did not always taste good. Today’s gum is sweet and comes in many flavors. William Wrigley Jr. is best known for his chewing gum, and his company today is the largest producer and distributor of chewing gum in the world. Wrigley single-handedly chewed up competition to remain on the top of the gum business, because as put it, “when two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary.”

While the first chewing gum to be widely advertised was Adams’ Tutti-Frutti, it took the father of the gum, William Wrigley, Jr., to elevate the marketing of gum to an art. In the year 1891, Wrigley arrived in Chicago from Philadelphia. His father had been a soap manufacturer, and the new, would-be businessman initially started that trade by selling a washing soap. Wrigley sought to increase the business by offering vendors baking powder as a free item, and when the baking powder became more popular than the soap, he made that his primary product.

Wrigley then decided to give away two packages of chewing gum free with each can of baking powder. Once again the free item was more popular than the original product sold, and Wrigley entered the gum business. He contacted the Zeno Gum Company to manufacture his product. Zeno made paraffin gum, but Wrigley directed a change to the product. The first gums produced were Lotta, Vassar, and Sweet Sixteen Orange. In 1893 he introduced Juicy Fruit and Spearmint.

Wrigley had entered a competitive held There were at least a dozen companies at the time, and in 1899 the six largest, including Thomas Adams’ firm, formed a powerful ” Chewing gum trust “Wrigley refused to join, preferring his independence. Though he was a stickler for quality, Wrigley’s great talent was his advertising ability. “Anybody can make gum,” he once said. “Selling it is the problem.” His placards appeared in streetcars and subways, and he constructed electric signs, one of them in Manhattan’s Times Square ran up an annual electric bill of more than $100,000. He also sent free samples to millions.

Wrigley’s most impressive selling venture was the “mile-long” sign consisting of 117 linked billboards lining the tracks of a railroad between Atlantic City and Trenton, New Jersey. In 1915 he developed a Mother Goose booklet and gave away some 14 million copies. The brightly-colored volume featured Mother Goose rhymes rewritten to praise Wrigley’s gum (“Jack be nimble/ Jack be quick/ Jack run get your/ Wrigley stick!”). The gum magnate eventually became the largest purchaser of advertising in the United States.

By 1910, Spearmint was the most popular gum in the nation, and in Canada, Wrigley constructed the first of his many factories outside the United States. To boost his company’s image, Wrigley had Chicago’s best architects design “the house that gum built,” a beautiful, white, terra-cotta skyscraper that became one of the city’s great landmarks, and the company’s corporate headquarters.

The company currently sells its products in more than 180 countries and maintains 14 factories in various countries, including Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, the Philippines, France, Kenya, Taiwan, China, India, Poland, and Russia.

Wrigley was a much beloved figure, celebrated for his fair dealings with employees, which included free laundering of work clothes, free manicures for women workers, free life insurance, and a guaranteed annual wage. He was also the first employer in the United States to give the two-day weekend.

In addition to his salesmanship and energy, Wrigley’s success was surely based on his sunny view of life. To him, fear was the great destroyer of dreams.”Thousands are ruled by it,” he once said.”I’ve been broke three times since I started business. Nobody knew it except myself and it didn’t cause me loss of a minute’s sleep. There’s nothing in life that can really hurt you except yourself.” William Wrigley,Jr., died in 1932, leaving the business in his family’s hands.

In 2004 Wrigley company purchased the Life Savers (A traditional American brand of ring shaped hard candy, which are packaged in rolls of about 15 pieces) and Altoids (a popular brand of breath mints that have been in existence since the turn of the 19th century) businesses from Kraft Food for US$1.48 billion.

The William Wrigley Jr. Company today is the world’s number one maker of chewing and bubble gum. Its products include such popular brands as Big Red, Double-mint, Eclipse, Extra, Freedent, Juicy Fruit, Orbit, Spearmint, and Winter- fresh, as well as novelty gums and candies.

The gum trade has been and remains highly competitive and creative. Gums have been used to administer aspirin, nicotine, laxatives, and airsickness medicine. They have been produced in flavors ranging from cinnamon and watermelon to clove and ginseng. Gum has been made sugarless and stick-less (so it won’t pull out dental fillings), spicy and icy, and fruity and minty While chewing gum never won a war or altered the course of history, the sticky substance’s development remains a clever example of American ingenuity and innovation. And, all the credit for that goes to William Wrigley Jr.

Occupation      : Executive Chairman of AIC Limited, National Commercial Bank of Jamaica

Net worth : Above US$1.0 billion (2009)

You can’t be an investor unless you think like a businessman. And you can’t be a good businessman unless you think like an investor. Thus says Michael Lee-Chin, Chairman and CEO of AIC Limited, the company he acquired in 1987, and has over the years taken the organization from $1 million to more than $9 billion in assets under his management. Under his stewardship, the AIC also purchased percent of the National Bank of Jamaica in 2002.

Michael Lee-Chin was born in Jamaica in 1951, and migrated to Canada in the 1970s where he studied civil engineering at McMaster University. Interestingly, Chin personally convinced Jamaica’s prime minister to pay for his college degree. Actually, as a young man, he worked three jobs; one of them was helping his parent’s family store. He has also worked as bar bouncer. As the eldest of nine children, he acquired a sense of responsibility early in his life. He learned to take the leader’s approach to every task and project that he took on. Since then, he has felt that he needed to take charge of whatever situation he comes across.

He entered the financial services industry in 1977 as a financial advisor. He has distinct beliefs regarding wealth creation, and a unique investment strategy. AIC’s goal is to create long-term wealth for investors. To achieve this objective, Lee-Chin looked for role models – those business people who created wealth in society by owning one or more businesses. For this reason, Lee-Chin established AIC’s investment philosophy of buying new excellent businesses in long-term growth sectors and holding these businesses for the long term in order to help AIC investors prosper by preserving and growing their capital and minimizing taxes.

Five Laws of Wealth Creation

He understood that successful business people manage their finances in a specific way. AIC has analyzed and distilled that format to create five specific principles – better known as The Five Laws of Wealth Creation.

1. Set a Goal

Work with your financial adviser for the answers to these questions: Where am I today financially? Where do I need to be? How will I get there?

2. Use Other People’s Expertise

Use the wealth of knowledge and experience of your financial advisor, accountant, lawyer or role model in your planning for financial security.

3. Use Other People’s Money

Home ownership works with borrowed money, and investing too. Paying one lump sum for a home is beyond our means; just as saving large sums every month for investing is unachievable for most people. But there is an alternative, and that’s borrowing to invest. At AIC, they call this Upvesting. Think of it this way: Rather than using a $100 pre-authorized chequing plan to invest in a mutual fund you could qualify for an Upvest loan of $14,000. You could invest that $14,000 now and get the full amount working for you years sooner. Speak to your financial adviser about the risks and rewards of Upvesting.

4. Pay Yourself First

Very few of us will get rich quick, so we must be disciplined and consistent in our wealth creation approach. Save 10 per cent of your gross income each month and pay yourself first. It’s not how much you earn that matters, but how much you keep.

5. Buy, Hold, And Prosper.

True investors are those who concentrate on buying businesses rather than stocks. Their three common goals are to: Preserve wealth, grow wealth at an above-average rate of return, and minimize the impact of taxes. To preserve and grow wealth, true investors strive to own the highest quality businesses in strong, long-term growth industries. By holding these excellent businesses for the long term and ignoring the daily market, their wealth grows free of the ravages of tax.

AIC’s success has accorded Lee-Chin a position among Canada’s richest citizens and Forbes ranks him among the wealthiest people in the world. AIC’s success has also allowed AIC’s long-term investor to prosper through the AIC Advantage Fund, the firm’s flagship fund, which has consistently outperformed its benchmark index over the past 15 years.

The company won the Dalbar Mutual Fund Service Award in 2000, 2003 and 2004. In 2001, the AIC American Balanced Fund was named best global balanced fund of the year. And Michael Lee-Chin himself was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 1997. In 2002, he earned the Harry Jerome Award for a decade of achievement. The July 5, 2004 issue of TIME magazine named Michael Lee-Chin one of  “Canada’s Heroes”- representing one of  “the country’s most intriguing and inspiring citizens.”

Lee-Chin is also the founder of the Berkshire Group – three companies known as Berkshire Investment Group, Berkshire Securities and Berkshire Insurance Services. The Berkshire Group has 300 branch offices across Canada, more than 1,100 advisors and assets under management exceeding $11 billion.

Talking of his success, he says he has confidence in his native thoughts.”Once I fully tested my ideas, I’m steadfast in my convictions. Second, my discipline and character have allowed me to become successful. As I said often, I perform tasks today with the same rigor as I did fifteen years ago. Also, I preserve a long term approach to managing a business.