Malaysia Export and Imports Chart

We previously warned that whilst there will be some sporadic spurts of stronger exports, they may not signal a meaningful recovery yet. Our view is that exports may not recover to levels seen in mid-2008 for another 2-3 years. For example, there are several good company like FOONG LI TRADING – premier supplier of good quality sawn timber, timber products, plywood products, doors & window frame, beadings, moulding.

The YoY fall in Aug-09 exports computed continued to be led by a collapse of manufactured goods exports, weakness in commodity prices and a lower volume of commodity exports.

US workers facing record periods of unemployment, negative personal income growth in 4 of the last 6 quarters, and a sharp fall in wealth, will cut spending on the so many discretionary spending items that have formed the core of Asian exports, cannot anchor a global recovery. Restocking by businesses and

public sector spending can only provide a temporary bounce in output that must be rejoined by a consumer spending revival. A revival with conviction of investment spending by businesses is also out of the picture at this juncture with low capacity utilization globally at this juncture.

Weakening of exports accelerated in major markets. ASEAN exports accounting for 25.7% of total, fell a steeper 24.4%YoY (Jul-09: -20.1%YoY) on lower exports of electronics products, refined petroleum products and transport equipment.

Asia Export Growth League Table

Exports to China rose +0.9% YoY (Jul-09: -16.9% MoM), the first increase YoY in 10 months on gains in exports of electronics and crude oil. Exports to China were also 10.3% higher MoM. The positive YoY growth was due to a lower statistical base in Aug-08, the month when severe drops in exports to China began to be recorded in 2008. Exports to the US dropped (-26.7% YoY vs -29.0%YoY in Jul-09), also falling 7.8%MoM on lower electronics exports. The pace of drop in exports to Japan slowed (-25.0% YoY in Aug-09 vs -32.7% YoY in Jul-09) on gains in LNG and crude oil exports. The pace of drop for exports to the EU at -25.9% YoY was however, steeper compared to Jul-09′s -23.9%YoY due to palm oil as well as chemicals and chemical products exports letting up as the recession in major Euro zone economies particularly Germany.

Exports of Electronics were a shade lower MoM at RM20.57b in Aug-09 after rising for the 6th month in a row to RM20.63b in Jul-09 from RM18.6b in Jun-09 and constituted 43% (Jul-09: 42.2%) of exports although still down -13.1%YoY vs -15.6% YoY in Jul-09. Palm Oil exports making up 6.2% of exports (Jul-09: 8.1%) were down a sharper -35.3%YoY (Jun-09: -33.5% YoY) after a major MoM drop. Oil and Gas exports making up 12.5% of exports (Jun-1 09: 12.0%) fell 50% YoY, still amongst the most affected of export categories.

Chemicals and Chemical Products which contributed 6.1% of exports (Jul-09: 6.2%) fell -19.0%YoY (Jul-09: -26.3% YoY). Machinery and Appliances which made up 3.1% of exports (Jul-09: 3.6%) fell at a faster clip of -12.3%YoY (Jul-09: 10.2%YoY) and Timber Products adding up to 2.6% of exports(Jul-09:2.6%) fell

15.1%YoY(Jun-09:-16.0% YoY).

Imports at RM38.26b (Ju-09: RM40.98b) dropped by 6.6%MoM and were sharply off by 18.6%YoY (Jul-09: -16.0%YoY). Jan-09′s -30.4%YoY remains the fastest pace of annual contractions ever on record. Imports of intermediate goods made up 69.4% (Jul-09: 68.7%) of imports, and its fall on a percentage change YoY basis dampens somewhat hopes of a strong recovery, thus continuing the strong trend in preceding months that reflect the recovery in imports of raw material needs for goods to be processed for re-export. On the other hand, capital goods imported amounted to 14.3% (Jun-09: 14.8%) of imports, reflecting weaker capacity-boosting investment plans by domestic corporations that support future growth. Consumption goods made up 7.1% of imports (Jul-09: 7.2%), reflecting lower consumer spending. Consumption accounted for 65.3% of Malaysia’s real GDP in 2Q-09.

The Trade Surplus expanded again to RM9.58b (Jul-09: RM7.8b), a 22.2% jump MoM despite the MoM drop in exports. The widening of the trade gap left Aug-09′s surplus at exactly the mean YTD monthly surplus of RM9.58b. whilst it is still sharply off a peak at RM15.5b achieved in Jun-08 it is a healthy level. Whilst the trade balance dropped in Jul-09, it was read as a sign of some strength rather than weakness.

The Aug-09 data thankfully continues to hint at a V-shaped rebound after the exports slump hit a trough (see charts below). The current scenario does not yet rule out an L-shaped recovery for Malaysia although the possibility of a W-shaped recovery or a double-dip recession in the West appears small. The anchor for Malaysia’s export recovery appears to be China, but the sustainability of this source of exports recovery is thought unreliable whilst it is rising under conditions of a massive stimulus. The global economic turmoil may continue to drive further deterioration in the domestic environment.

Domestic sources of demand remain the key and steady implementation of the Stimulus Spending package is key. Our chief worry is the possibility the economy will fail to respond in a sustained manner and dismal private sector growth is observed way past the phase of aggressive public sector stimulus spending at a time when US consumers appear to be veering towards permanent frugality and Asian consumers are not ready to fill the void.

The meltdown resulted in the collapse of several large banking and financial institutions in the United States and Europe due to weakness originating from the mortgage and mortgage backed securities markets.

However in Asia, many were not too worried about the property market due to the regulated control of the banking system by their country National Bank and the well-established and matured property developers.

As a result of planned developments and sale of property, the Asian property market has remained healthy, despite the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contraction of 6.2 % in the first quarter of 2009.

As an indication of the strength of the property sector, the National Property Information Centre (NAPIC) recorded higher transaction volume of some 4.0% compared with a decline of 17.8 percent in 4th quarter of 2008.

In its study, NAPIC also recorded 79,149 transactions valued at USD 4.701 billion in 1H 2009 with the Residential property sub-sector being the most dominant. Total transaction volumes were 63.8% while total transaction value was 55.1%.

The development of residential property remained promising with upward trends in the completion and starts category but dwindling numbers in new building plan approvals.

Currently, by 1H 2009, the residential property sector recorded an existing supply of 4,230,328 units with and incoming supply of 544,926 units. Planned residential supply is recorded at 669,554 units.

In the demand scenario for the residential sales performances there were lesser units that were launched into the market in the past quarters. However, sales performances during the nine months were between 70% and 85% since the first quarter of 2007.

There were also signs that the Asian property market was affected by global economic and financial crisis but the market has remained healthy overall.

This is an opportune time for business owners to seriously consider investing in commercial properties, most notably shop houses, office lots and factories, as a means of expanding their operations, utilizing surplus funds or simply to diversify their investment portfolios. Investment in private real estate such as houses for rent may also help positively diversify investment portfolios.

Commercial properties are a good buy at this juncture because business owners can capitalize on the significant drop in mortgage rates which was preceded by some national bank’s cutting of the overnight policy rate to an all-time low of 2% per- annum in February 2009. Borrowers will be able to enjoy the prevailing low rates and save substantially on interest payments by leveraging on the low mortgage rates and lock in at this level for the tenure of their loan.

For risk conscious investors, current alternative investment instruments may prove to be beyond their risk profile in this bearish environment. To mitigate risk, investors should balance their portfolio with a selection of differing investments. As such, some banker and investor believe that commercial properties offer a more stable rental yield. As the latest property induces have shown, demand for commercial spaces has remained relatively constant and unabated compared to other investment vehicles. Properties continue to be excellent assets to hedge against inflation when prices start to rise on the heels of an economic rebound.

While it is ideal for investors to buy at the right time, the right place, and at the right price, most of the time it is all about striking a balance. An estimated 3 million square feet of office space as well as another 3 million square feet of retail space will be added to the Kuala Lumpur landscape this year as a result of launches from the past couple of years. Investors will have ample opportunity to select from diverse locations and types of spaces, and also reap the benefit of numerous freebies offered by developers ranging from free legal costs to discounts in prices. They will also be privy to an array of financing schemes.

Business Mortgage One Account (BMOA) is specifically designed for SMEs and business owners who in the course of their operations will have periods of surplus funds. The BMOA provides a very smart solution for business owners to enjoy savings by using cash in their current account to shorten their loan principal amount, with the added benefit of redrawing with no penalties charges from their surplus payments.

In situations where the SME wishes to ensure his funds are fully optimized for the operating cycle of his business, our SMI One Account is the perfect business mortgage solution because he gets the best of both worlds — funds in his operating account can generate interest credits for the benefit of his business mortgage outstanding.

While we are mindful that property purchases are long-term investments and being fixed assets, are not as liquid as investments in equity; the return on property investment may not be lower than equity investments.

Every 5 hours somewhere in the world a new “McDonald’s” fast food franchise is opening. Can you imagine a business which opened its door in 1955 is still so strong today? Well, its founder Ray Kroc, sure did. Kroc, was no inventor. But he knew a great idea when he saw one. After all, Kroc’s entire life thrived on discovering just the right idea that would live on well after the man himself. From a paper cup salesman, to real estate broker, piano player, and finally, milk shake mixer salesman, he always had an incredible amount of faith in himself.

Finally, at the young age of 52 his biggest idea (McDonald’s) was about to emerge. However, Kroc had to muster enough courage in his new idea to once again mortgage his home and borrow lots of money to get it going. He wasn’t a picture of health either. He’d been plagued by years of arthritis, diabetes, lost his bladder and most of his thyroid gland. But, he never lost the courage to persevere and believe in himself. In fact, Ray Kroc was known to say:”The best is ahead of me,” according to those who knew him. The “McDonald’s” brand name is ill^, second most recognizable name in the world, next to “Coca Cola.” Not bad for 52 year old with health problems, huge debts, and tons of dogged determination! Ray Kroc was a simple man with a simple plan to achieve huge success.

Ray’s formula is:

1 Never give up. 2 Always persevere. 3 Don’t forget (No.1) .

Impressed by a small chain of hamburger restaurants based in San Bernardino, California that used the multi-mixers, Ray acquired franchising rights from the owners, the McDonald brothers. He then founded McDonald’s Corporation in 1955. In 1961, he bought out the McDonald brothers for $2.7 million and borrowed at interest rates that eventually made the cost $14 million. It turned out to be a bargain, as McDonald’s grew into the world’s largest quick-service restaurant organization.

In 1963, Kroc’s firm had sold 3 billion burgers, opened its 500th store, and, in a somewhat cynical attempt to target children, chosen Ronald McDonald as the icon of the firm. By 1965, the clown was more familiar to US children than the President.

Opening its 1000th restaurant in 1968, in 1971 Kroc moved the firm into Europe. Creating an enterprise of thousands of almost identical franchises throughout the globe, Kroc was respected in the business community for his high standards and effective leadership.

Under Ray Kroc’s leadership, McDonald’s set standards against which other chains were measured. He created an enterprise comprised of thousands of small businesses, run by independent franchisees that own and operate approximately 85 percent of McDonald’s restaurants. “If you work just for money, you’ll never make it,” Mr. Kroc often said, “but if you love what you’re doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours.”

Ray Kroc served as chairman of McDonald’s Corporation from its founding in 1955 until 1977, when he was named senior chairman of McDonald’s Corporation in 1977.”We take the hamburger business more seriously than anyone else,” tidy Kroc, said, explaining McDonald’s success. His dedication to strict standards hi’, diligence in providing customers with consistent quality, service, cleanliness and value – and his innovative use of cooking techniques prompted a Harvard Business School professor to describe him as “the service sector’s equivalent Henry Ford.”

Kroc has been the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the Horatio Alger Award (1972),The Presidential Star (1972) and American of the Year (1973) presented by Lions International. He was inducted into the Advertising Hall Fame in 1988. Ray Kroc died on January 14, 1984, in San Diego, California.

Whatever it is you’re trying to achieve in your precious and valuable life, we are convinced Ray Kroc’s traits must be present. Especially, belief! If you don’t believe, you won’t achieve.

What came as a surprise was the speed that the estate administration process kicked into motion. Here is the brief timeline: MJ passed away on 25 June and the first series of court hearings began four days later. On 1 July, MJ’s Will dated 7 July 2002 was filed with Los Angeles County Superior Court, which became a public document and almost instantly became of public interest. All these took place even before the memorial arrangements were finalized.

In summary, MJ, in his five-paged Will appointed three of his close aides to be his executors; his mother to be the first named guardian and failing which his close friend, singer Diana Ross, would be the substitute guardian. The Will also make mention of a living trust which he created prior to the Will which is known as Michael Jackson Family Trust (“MJFT”) whereby his mother, children and certain charities are the named beneficiaries. Pursuant to the Will, the executors will ultimately “shepherd” all the assets in the estate into. The MJFT, which details are of course, key private and confidential inheritance taxes are still in many countries and this often is the paramount reason why people consider creating trust(s) in addition to a Will.

For MJ’s case, his estate would be looking at Federal Inheritance Tax that could possibly be as high as 45% in addition to the probate fees (to be based on the gross value of the estate) which is value of the estate) which is also applicable in the state of California. Fortunately, neither of such taxes is applicable in Malaysia.

It seems that MJ was well advised in terms of his estate affairs. However many are skeptical of his actual net worth bearing in mind he has been entangled with numerous lawsuits in the past which was later settled out of court with massive sums being paid out as settlement. At the time of his death, it was reported that he has an existing USD300 million loan with Barclays Bank. No doubt, many observers belief that he may be heavily in debt but he certainly is not broke. It is estimated that his interests in Sony / ATV alone is worth approximately USD 1 billion on top of royalties which will be channeled into his estate or trust (which is yet to be determined) is also extremely significant.

The executors would now have to determine what are the assets belonging to the estate. There could be a possibility that the aforementioned valuable assets might have been settled into or assigned to the MJFT which means that there is a possibility that the estate’s assets are significantly less as compared to the existing debts in such circumstance. If the estate has insufficient assets to settle all the debts, the estate would be technically insolvent. In all likelihood when this happens, the creditors would embark on a hunting spree to claw back as many assets as possible. This would possibly include tracing the assets that was previously settled or assigned into the MJFT and if this materializes, the assets held by the MJFT may be vulnerable.

Translating the above into Malaysian context, the fundamental principles of estate planning are very much similar. Generally, a Will is where a testator bequeaths his/her assets to the selected beneficiaries, appoints guardian(s) for his/her minor children and appoints person(s) whom he/she trusts to be the executor(s) of the estate. The testator may also make provisions for testamentary trust(s) if certain assets are to be held on trust for a period of time, in accordance to the testator’s instructions. However, one need to be mindful that all debts and liabilities would have to be settled by the estate before any bequeaths can be fulfilled. In addition, a Will also becomes a public document the moment it is filed in the court for the application of probate. Therefore, if there are certain assets, which are to, given to selected individuals who details are to remain private, living trusts would be the available option to establish such arrangements.

Died    : November 22, 2001 in Dallas, Texas, USA

Occupation      : Founder of Mary Kay

Children          : Richard Rogers, Marilyn Rogers, and Ben Rogers

“You can do it, honey!” That’s what Mary Kay Ash heard “thousands of times” from her mother while growing up. Since Mary Kay was seven years-old, her father was an invalid, stricken with tuberculosis. Her mother was forced by circumstance to support the family, leaving the young girl with household responsibilities far beyond her years. Finally, Mary Kay grew up to be a woman who built the $1.2 billion cosmetics empire of her own name. She is fond of saying, “If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can’t, you are right.”

Mary Kay was born on May 12, 1918. As a young housewife and mother of three, she began selling books in order to make extra income for the household. Her husband worked, but yet there was not enough money for the family of five to live on. This woman was successful in her sales effort, and she was able to sell more than twenty-five thousand dollars worth of books within her first six months all the job.

In the year of 1938, this woman found herself divorced. She then changed her career to selling Stanley Home Products by conducting home parties. She sold for Stanley for the next twenty-five years even though it was a most unhappy and unfulfilling occupation. She enjoyed the selling part of her job as well as the meeting and dealing with customers, but she felt that she was underpaid and not promoted as far as the men who worked there. She also claimed that her ideas for changes in the company were ignored and joked at. Finally in 1963, wanting something better, she was able to retire from Stanley Home Products.

Undaunted by her negative experience in business, the same year, Mary Kay began to write a book for women who were part of the working world. This book, she decided, would help other women face the challenges and problems that she had already encountered in the ever-changing world of business. While working on the outline of her book, she made two lists. One list was made up of the positive things of the companies she had worked for, while the other list was made up of negatives. When she looked the lists over, she realized that she had the rough plans for the perfect company. This company would allow women to work hard and succeed in their goals.

At the age of 45, Mary Kay Ash and her remarried husband Mel put their savings to start a cosmetics company. With “the confidence my mother instilled in me,” Mary Kay wrote, “I developed a strategy and a philosophy for my dream company, and invested my life savings in it.” Salespeople had been recruited and hired. Boxes, bottles, and jars were printed with “Beauty By  Mary Kay.”The company’s original name was” Everything Was Set. “But then the dream nearly died. Exactly a month before the company was to open; her husband suffered a fatal heart attack and died. Believing work was the only way to get through the grief of her husband’s death, Mary Kay decided to go forward with Mary Kay Cosmetics – despite her trusted accountant telling her that it would be impossible and ultimately leave her penniless.

On September 13 through much labor, Mary Kay Cosmetics was born. With her life savings of only a few thousand dollars, and the help of one of her children, now-grown son named Richard Rogers, Mary Kay started the long process of making her dreams become a reality for her and the millions of women across American. Through the hard work, dedication, and the values of one woman, Mary Kay Ash’s company boasts an impressive list of having more than a half of a million independent beauty consultants hosting parties, giving demonstrations, and selling the company’s cosmetics and perfumes. In 1996, the company’s retail sales level hit the two billion dollar mark, and today, Mary Kay Ash’s dream company flourishes and continues to enjoy success.

For Mary Kay, her namesake company wasn’t a job or an ego trip. It was her way of passing the message of self-confidence her mother had instilled in her to a world of women who desperately need it. No wonder, more than 850,000 women in 37 countries, who sell Mary Kay Cosmetics, are becoming richer every day. She would refer to Mary Kay beauty consultants as her ‘daughters’ Forbes magazine recognized her pink magic, naming Mary Kay Cosmetics as one of the “100 Best Companies to work for in America.”

In 1963, she once said, “here is a company that would give women all the opportunities I never had. I don’t think God wanted a world in which a woman would have to work fourteen hours a day to support her family, as my mother had done. I believe He used this company as a vehicle to give women a chance. And I feel very humble and very fortunate to have had a part in showing other women the way.”

Mary Kay Ash died in 2001, but lives on as an inspiration to all. On attitude, she said, “Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve. Every failure, obstacle or hardship is an opportunity in disguise. Success in many cases is failure turned inside out. The greatest drawback we face today is negativity. Eliminate the negative attitude and believe you can do anything, Replace ‘if I can, I hope, maybe’ with ‘I can, I will, I must.”

Mary Kay Ash was included in the 1999 book Forbes Greatest Business Stories of All Time and was the only woman business leader profiled.

Always remember what Mary Kay Ash said, “We must have a theme, a goal, a purpose in our lives. If you don’t know you are aiming, you don’t have a goal. My goal is to live my life in such a way that when I die, someone can say, she cared Aerodynamically, the bumble bee should not be able to fly, but the bumble bee does not know it so it goes on flying anyway.”

Died    : August 5, 1991 (aged 84) in Japan

Occupation      :  Founder, Honda Motor Company Limited

Throughout his life, Soichiro Honda never forgot the day when he ran hopelessly after the first motor car he ever saw. Long before the car actually reached Yamahigashi, a small village in Japan’s Shizuoka province (now called Tenryu-shi), its own extraordinary noise announced its imminent arrival.The small boy who heard the rumble was at first astonished, then excited, and finally enthralled, by it.

Later he would describe that moment as one of those life-changing experiences. He began to tremble as the car came closer to him. Then, he turned and chased after that car as much as he could. “I could not understand how it could move under its own power. And when it had driven past me, without even thinking why I found myself chasing it down the road, as hard as I could run.”

He had no chance of catching it, and the experience became a symbol for his life: always he was chasing something that was just beyond his reach. He had always remembered a proverb that literally goes/raise the sail with your stronger hand,’ meaning you must go after the opportunities that arise in life that you are best equipped to do.” By the time the road was empty and the car long departed, the young boy continued to stand there breathing in its gasoline stench. When he came upon a drop of its precious lifeblood spilled on the dusty track, he dropped his knees and sniffed the oily stain like a man in a desert smelling water. This was a scene that later changed the course of world’s motor industry.

Honda’s spirit of adventure and determination to explore the development of new technology had its roots in his childhood. The family was not wealthy, but his father Gihei Honda instilled into his children the ethic of hard work, and a love of mechanical things. Soichiro soon learned how to whet the blades of farm machinery, and how to make his own toys. A nearby rice mill was powered by his small engine, and the noise fascinated him. He would demand daily that his grandfather took him to watch it in action. At school he got the nickname ‘black nose weasel, which is less derogatory in Japanese than it sounds in English, because his face was always dirty from helping his father in the workshop. Once he even forged his family’s seal using a bicycle pedal rubber on school report that were not up to the mark!

In 1917 a pilot called Art Smith flew into the Wachiyama military air field hr demonstrate his biplane’s aerobatic capabilities. Honda took the family’s poly cash box, borrowed one of his father’s bicycles and rode the 20 kilometer to a place he had never before visited. When he got there he soon realized the price of admission, let alone a flight, was far beyond his means, but after climbing a tree he watched the plane in motion, and that was enough. When Gihei learned what his son had done to get to the airfield, he was not angry with his son for taking the money and the bike. Rather he was more impressed will, initiative, determination and resilience.

Honda enjoyed racing, and set a speed record in 1936. At age 17, he won II, Chairman’s trophy riding alongside his boss under whom he worked as a mechanic. He suffered in a bad crash, breaking several bones including both wrists, and was persuaded by his wife to give up racing. Honda thereafter concentrated on his business, and in 1937 he moved into piston-ring manufacture, setting up Tokai Seiki Heavy Industry (TSHI). In 1948 Honda had sold TSHI to Toyota for 450,000 yen (worth about $1 million)

In 1948 Honda began producing motorcycles as president of the Hondo Corporation. Honda Motor Co. Ltd. initially built small capacity motorcycles to gel Japanese workers moving. While Honda focused his considerable energies on the engineering side, using all the experience he had painstakingly accumulated and left the running of the company in the hands of Takeo Fujisawa, his most trusted friend and urged him to look to the long-term.

They complemented one another perfectly. When the first fruits of their partnership hit the streets it was a 98 cc two-stroke motorcycle appropriately named “Dream”. Honda turned the company into a billion-dollar multinational that produced the best-selling motorcycle and resulted in Honda motorcycles out-selling other brands in the respective home markets. In 1959 Honda Motorcycles opened its first dealership in the United States.

Soichiro Honda was the prototypical F1 engineer. He was always probing new limits of technology, always seeking better and greater feedback from the men who rode or drove the machines that bore his name. He reasoned that ambition was no sin, and that success was the reward for hard work and investment. Honda was the first major manufacturer to understand that motor sport was the perfect miscible in which to develop not just superior machines, but superior engineers, aid today every global player in the Fl game rotates its engineers through its motor sport programs.

He followed the Japanese saying that said, “if you hire those people you understand, the company will never get people better than you are. Always remember that you often find outstanding people among ‘hose you don’t particularly like.” He is also the author of the famous quote, “success represents one per cent of your work which results from the 99 percent that is called failure. Success can only be achieved through repeated failure and introspection.”

He died in 1991 from liver failure. At the age of twenty, Mr. Honda was called up for military service but he was, medically examined and found to be color blind. Thanks to this diagnosis because he managed to avoid spending any time in the military. He was not just admired for his ability to repair machines, but gave free rein to his talent as an inventor, later earning the title “the Edison of Hamamatsu” and starting to do all kinds of work that went far beyond the narrow bounds of a repair workshop. Today, Honda Motor Company is one of the largest and most successful automobile manufacturers in the world. This evolution came about because of one man, Soichiro Honda. As he rightly put it “Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; Philosophy without action is worthless”: Needless to say, he had both in the right measure and in perfect balance.

With annual revenues of more than $10 billion, the company is ranked 195 on ill^, Fortune 500 and was added to the Global 500 at number 441.

In fact, the visionary entrepreneur was not able to attend college. In 2000, Ii’ presented the University of St.Thomas with a gift of $50 million – the largest gift to the school’s 115 – year history and largest donation ever reported by a Minnesota College or University. Schulze has a special liking for this university; because this is the university he wanted to go but could not!

Schulze, grew up in the St. Thomas neighborhood and attended Nativity of Our Lord School, about a mile from the campus. He had intended to enroll at St. Thomas after schooling, but service in the Minnesota Air National Guard and work for his father’s electronics distribution company derailed his plans. Schulze, an entrepreneur, used all his assets to follow his dream and opened a small audio – components store, Sound of Music, in 1966. It expanded and evolved into what we know as Best Buy that today employs more than 60,000 nationwide through 354 stores in 37 states. Meanwhile, St. Thomas University awarded him an honorary doctor of laws degree in December 1998. It is Minnesota’s largest private university, and enrolls some 10,000 students.

The company is spending an estimated $80 million a year on what it is calling “customer centricity,” a massive effort to identify and serve its most profitable shoppers by rebuilding stores, adding staff and upgrading wares. Best Buy has little choice. It also has some experience in navigating through the most treacherous storms.

lo 1966, Schulze opened the Sound of Music, an audio specialty store in St Paul, Minnesota. The company grew over the following years, expanding to nine locations by 1980. In 1981, Schulze’s most successful store was destroyed by a tornado. The tornado ripped through its largest store, in St. Paul, resulting in a $200,000 loss for the year and a near – brush with bankruptcy. “We’d forgotten to buy business – interruption insurance,” says Schulze. The water – damaged goods were sold at a “best buy” sale. Not only ‘BEST BUY’ became the company’s permanent name, similar ‘Tornado Sales’ became an annual Sound of Music event. Best Buy’s first superstore opened in 1984, a carbon copy of Circuit City Stores, which was then nearly 40 times its size. A year later Best Buy went public and began a climb that sent it past its chief rival in 1995; it has enjoyed the lead ever since.

Then came the next calamity – a 1989 price war with Highland Superstores, which hurt Best Buy’s bottom line and shoved Highland into bankruptcy. Emerging from this victorious, Best Buy remodeled its stories: open ceilings, concrete floors, fluorescent tube lighting. Staff on commission gave way to hourly employees who did their best to make themselves invisible to shoppers simply wanting cheap electronics. Best Buy grew rapidly from sales of $240 million in 1987 to $7.2 billion in 1996.Who knew the digital revolution could be such a rush? Best Buy did – and it’s selling more pricey gadgets and hook up services than anybody.

It operates retail stores and commercial Web sites under the various brand names, such as Best Buy, Future Shop, Magnolia Audio Video, and Geek Squad, as well as an outlet store on e-Bay. As of July 15, 2004, the company had 619 United States Best Buy stores, 22 Magnolia Audio Video stores in the United States, 109 Future Shop stores and 19 Canadian Best Buy stores internationally. The company is based in Richfield, Minnesota.

Alma Mater     : London School of Economics

Occupation      : Entrepreneur

Net Worth       : GBP £1.29 billion

Stelios is the man who introduced low-cost flying in Britain, and today he is a big guy with a personal fortune of $650 million. But he drives to his favorite casino in Monte Carlo in a tiny, orange (his favorite color) Smart car. He does not gamble, at least not in the casino.

Stelios single-handedly built the easy Jet, the orange-liveried airline from scratch and took on the mighty British airways head on. It might have seemed a surprise move, but the seed for starting a budget airline had germinated much earlier. When Stelios was a student he went to a conference where billionaire Branson was speaking, told him his easy Jet idea and asked him to back him.

Branson was wary not only of budget airlines, but he did not like Stelios’ plan to build a base at Luton, a small town in England located 50km north of central London. Branson said no.

In 1995 Stelios launched easy Jet on his own, from Luton, using two rented 737s with the reservations number in orange on the side, crew in orange sweatshirts, and £29 one-way fares to Glasgow. He advertised as ‘fly to Scotland for the price of a pair of jeans. Cynics thought it vulgar and said no one would fly from Luton. They were wrong. Vulgar orange, along with the brand name and prices that so undercut British Airways’ three-figure fares, proved alluring even to business travelers.

The young Stelios traveled in the mid-eighties to London to study at the London School of Economics. After obtaining a masters at the London Business School in 1988, he returned to Greece to join his father’s shipping empire and the opportunity for a life of opulence and hedonism. (“hedonism” subscribes to a theory that pleasure is the highest good, or whatever causes pleasure is right.)

But two events in the early nineties changed his life. In April 1991 when he is in aged 22, was the chief executive of his father’s business, their tanker, Haven, New up off Genoa, killing five crew members and disgorging up to 50,000 tons of (oil into the sea – arguably the Mediterranean’s worst-ever ecological disaster.

The Haven disaster shaped his attitude to safety, influencing him to buy brand new Boeings as soon as he could after setting up his airline. One of his favorite mottoes is still : “if you think safety is expensive, try an accident.”

Then, in 1992, with the events of the Haven disaster still making headlines in Italian media, Stelios began to wean himself from his father’s business. He set ill his own shipping company, Stelmar Tankers. However, there was a big reluctance from his father to let Stelios go his own way. They clashed over business style, Stelios saying things like “we need computers” and his father “sticking to a very traditional style.” It marked the beginning of his flight from the gilded cage, as he has described it. He was still maintaining good relationships with his father and consulted him on important issues. He finally persuaded his father to lend him 5 million and in 1995 came to London to start easy Jet. Today, easy Jet is flying to 44 European destinations, and carries eight million people annually.

He is known as a “serial entrepreneur”, who likes to create businesses, not manage them. He would like to build the business, but does not want to deal will, stockbrokers, market analysts and the administration of it all.

For instance, in 2003, he launched easyCinema in London. It is called the world’s first no-frills cinema. Seats are booked online or by phone. The earlier you book the less you pay. From their own computers, customers print a barcode which they scan at the turnstiles to get into the theatre. There are computers in the cinema itself so that customers can book online while they are there. So there is no need for box office. Another advantage is that the movie-goers can bring their own popcorn and other eatables that are much cheaper than the prices charged by regular cinemas, and movie tickets cost only 20 dollar each.

After turning various industries upside down by launching the likes of easy Jet, easy Car and easyCinema, the Stelios’s easyGroup has now set its sights on one of the missing links in its travel to Entertainment Empire, that is accommodation. With easy affordable prices, the scheme called, easy Dorm was launched in London last year, (New York and Paris could be next, according to USA Today).

EasyDorm will concentrate on providing accommodation only, and will not offer a restaurant or other services. Bedding and toiletries will be available for purchase for those customers who do not bring their own. Rooms will consist of pre-fabricated fiberglass units (nothing to break, no dirt accumulation), and come with a shower unit, a lavatory and floor mattresses inspired by Japanese style bedding. An extra charge applies for those who choose not to clean their own room. These budget hotels would cost only $5 a night.

Stelios visits Athens to see his aging mother and sick father frequently. After all, he has to prove to his proud father that he made $1.6 billion out of the $ 5m his father gave his son, albeit reluctantly, years ago.

Died     : April 7, 1947 (aged 83) in Fair Lane, Dearborn, Michigan, U.S.

Occupation      : Business, Engineering

Net Worth       : above $188.1 billion, according to Wealthy historical figures 2008, based on information from Forbes – February 2008.

Religious         : Protestant Episcopal

Spouse(s)         : Clara Jane Bryant

Children          : Edsel Ford

One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do. And, before everything else, getting toady is the secret of success. Driven by a vision of a new technology, rejecting Formal education, and instead trusting in his native brilliance, he built an empire that made him a folk hero of sorts. A popular symbol of the new era that his ingenuity had helped creates Henry Ford to revere more than Bill Gates.

Henry Ford was born in July 30, 1863 in Wayne County, Michigan. He was the son of Irish immigrants, William and Mary Ford, who had settled on a farm in Dearborn. In addition to helping his father with the harvest, Ford also attended school in a one-room schoolhouse. However, Ford disliked both school and farm life, and at age 16, he walked to Detroit in search of employment.

If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability. So, Ford was employed as an apprentice in a machine shop, where he learned about the internal combustion engine. After several years of learning his trade, Ford returned to the family farm and worked part-time for the Westinghouse Engine Company. Ford set up a small machine shop on the farm and began tinkering with engines and machines.

During this time, Ford fell in love with Clara Bryant, whom he married in 1888. Several years later in 1891, Ford and his wife moved back to Detroit when Ford was made chief engineer at the Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit. (Edison became close friend with Henry Ford and the two often vacationed together mid had adjoining winter homes in Florida.) The position required Ford to be on- tall 24 hours a day, but the irregular hours allowed him time to experiment. This event signified a conscious decision on Ford’s part to dedicate his life to industrial pursuits. His promotion to Chief Engineer in 1893 gave him enough time and money to devote attention to his personal experiments on internal combustion engines.

Ford knew a business that makes nothing but money is a poor business. These experiments culminated in 1896 with the completion of own self-propelled vehicle, the Quadricycle. The Quadricycle had four wire wheels that looked like heavy bicycle wheels, was steered with a tiller like a boat, and had only two forward speeds with no reverse.

Henry Ford realized his dream of producing an automobile that was reasonably priced, reliable, and efficient with the introduction of the Model T in 1908. This vehicle initiated a new era in personal transportation. It was easy to operate, maintain, and handle on rough roads, and it immediately became a huge success initially it took 14 hours to assemble a Model T car. By improving his mass production methods, Ford reduced this to 1 hour 33 minutes. This lowered the, overall cost of each car and enabled Ford to undercut the price of other cars in the market.

Between 1908 and 1916 the selling price of the Model T fell from $1,000 to $360.Through it all, the key to Ford’s success, was his right understanding that the health of his company rested on  consumers spending, not saving, their money. “Buy a Ford and Spend the Difference!” was the slogan Ford himself penned to sell the Model T.

In 1913, Ford began using standardized interchangeable parts and assembly line techniques in his plant. Although Ford neither originated nor was the first to employ such practices, he was chiefly responsible for their general adoption and for the consequent great expansion of American industry and the raising of the American standard of living. The introduction of the moving assembly line revolutionized automobile production by significantly reducing assembly time per vehicle, thus lowering costs. Ford’s production of Model Is made his company the largest automobile manufacturer in the world. Over the next 19 years, Ford built 15,000,000 automobiles with the Model “T” engine, the longest run of any single model apart from the Volkswagen Beetle.

During the next several years, Ford continued to fine-tune his passenger vehicles; In addition, he built racing cars and even drove them himself. However, Ford’s successes were not without problems. Soon after the incorporation of the Ford Motor Company, Ford was threatened by the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers. Ford often said that when everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. After years of legal battles, Ford won his case in 1911, which made it possible for more people to become automobile manufacturers.

Ford was able to market the Model T to the general public because of his advanced production technology. As a result, more automobiles were made available at a lower cost. Ford also instituted the $5.00 a day minimum wage, which he claimed increased productivity. The quote that “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success,” is attributed to Ford.

He handed over the presidency to his grandson, Henry Ford II. Ford died at his home on April 7, 1947. Although Ford was not the first to build a self-propelled vehicle with a gasoline engine, he was, however, one of several automotive pioneers who helped his country become a nation of motorists. Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.

Height : 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)

Weight: 185 lb (84 kg; 13.2 st)

Nationality      : United States Residence Windermere, Florida

Spouse             : Elin Nordegren

Children          : Sam Alexis (2007) & Charlie Axel (2009)

Eldrick “Tiger” Woods is considered one of the greatest golfers of all time. In 2005, at the age of 29, he reached the milestones of ten professional major gold championships, placing him third on the all time list behind Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen. On December 30, 2004, when he celebrated his 28t” birthday, he had accumulated 40 million dollars in his nine-year PGA career.

By comparison, Jack Nicklaus, also known as “The golden bear” and a major force in professional golf from the 1960s to the mid 1990s, won only 5.7 million dollars.

The PGA Championship is an annual golf tournament, conducted by the Professional Golf Association of America as part of the PGA tour. The PGA Championships is one of the four Major Championships in men’s golf, and it is the golf season’s final major, being played in August.

Tiger Woods was born on December 30,1975 in Cypress, California. His father, Earl Woods, is a Vietnam War veteran of mixed African American and Native American ancestry. He is now chairman of his son’s charitable Tiger Woods Foundation. Woods’ mother Kultida Woods is originally from Thailand, and has mixed Thai and Chinese ancestry. He was given the nickname Tiger at birth after a Vietnamese war comrade of his father’s and became generally known by that name. By the time he was achieving national prominence in amateur gold, he was always called Tiger Woods.

Woods was a child prodigy who began to play golf at a very young age. While still a small child, he demonstrated his golf skills in a television appearance with Mike Douglas, an American entertainer. He took an interest in golf, at age of six months, watching as his father hit golf balls into a net and imitating his swing. He shot 48 for nine holes at age 3 and was featured in Gold Digest at age 5. He won the Optimist International Junior tournament six times at ages 8, 9, 12, 13, 14 and 15.

In 1984, when he was only eight years, he won the 9-10 year-old boys’ event at the Junior Wolf Golf. He went on to win the U.S. Junior amateur title in 1991, 1992 and 1993. He remains the youngest ever winner and the only multiple winner.

He followed this with three consecutive U.S. Amateur win in 1994. It was the year he graduated high school and became the youngest man ever to win that event. Hi His five USGA championships before age 20 qualify him for consideration as the greatest golfer of all time under age 20.

He attended Stanford University and won one NCAA individual championship, Woods decided to leave Stanford after two years because he believed he was ready to succeed as a professional, and became one in 1996, playing his first found of professional golf at the Greater Milwaukee Open (GMO). He won two events in the three months of the 1996 season that he played as professional. I hi following April he won The Masters by a record margin of 12 shots, and he has been by far the highest profile golfer in the world since then. (The Masters is one of four major championships in men’s golf and the first to take place each pm Unlike the other major championships, the Masters is held every year at the same location, Augusta National Golf Club, a private golf club in Georgia, USA.)

In 1997, Woods went to number one in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time. Despite suggestions that the other players would only be competing for second place from now on, Woods’ form began to fade in the second half of 1997, and in 1998 he only won once on the PGA Tour. At this time he was working on modifications to his swing to adapt to the maturation of his physique. He won seven out of eleven major championships starting with the 1999 PGA championships and finishing with 2002 United States Open.

His 2001 Masters win marked the only time anyone had ever won four consecutive majors, a feat which became known as the Tiger Slam. He broke Old Tom Morris’ record for the largest victory margin ever in a major championship, which had stood since 1862, with his 15-shot win in the 2000 U.S. Open. His dominance was such that Woods won 52 percent of all the prize money he could have won. He won 81.7 percent more than the runner-up, the highest margin since Byron Nelson in 1945 (87.2 percent) and Hogan in 1946 (85 percent). He was the first to have as many as eight PGA TOUR victories in one year since Johnny Miller won eight in 1974.

Tiger always believed that he was the toughest golf player mentally.”A great way to improve your feel is to putt with your eyes closed. After each putt, (to hit a golf ball with a light stroke) try to guess how far the ball rolled. This is the best drill for distance control I know of,” he said. His mother said, Tiger would not be so good if he did not have the fire. I think I gave him the fire.”

Woods skills may have been encouraged by his golf-enthusiast father, but he believes much comes from his Thai side.”Buddhism has been a major role in my life,” he told journalists.”It has given me inner peace and calmness. I owe that to my mom.” What does being half-Thai means to him? “It means a lot, it is the other half of me,” he says. So, if you want to achieve fame in any game, you should always let the fire of ambition burn in you like Tiger Woods did.

He was the man who created one of the first global corporations. He saw long before his contemporaries that a shrinking world could present enormous opportunities for a company that could think beyond its own boundaries, both physically and psychologically. And he pursued that strategy with his relentless brand of energy in every market, particularly the United States. It is notable that in 1998, according to a survey, Sony was rated the No.1 brand name by American consumers, ahead of Coca-Cola and General Electric.

The best way to describe Morita’s extraordinary drive is to scan his schedule for the two-month period immediately preceding his stroke in November, 1994, while playing tennis. He took trips from his home base in Tokyo to New Jersey, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Dallas, Britain, Barcelona and Paris. During that time he met Queen Elizabeth II, General Electric chief Jack Welch, future French President Jacques Chirac, Isaac Stern and many other politicians, bureaucrats and business associates. He attended two concerts and a movie; took four trips within Japan; appeared at eight receptions; played nine rounds of golf; was guest of honor at a wedding ceremony; and went to work as usual for 17 days at Sony headquarters. Morita’s schedule had been decided on more than a year in advance. Whenever there was a small opening, Morita would immediately and strategically fill it by arranging a meeting with someone he wanted to become acquainted with or catch up with. Unlike so many executives who removed themselves from the rest of the corporate pyramid, he was always in the middle of the action.

Born on January 26, 1921, Morita had been groomed since the third grade to become successor of the family business; a prominent sake-brewing company in Nagoya.”Sake” is a Japanese alcoholic beverage brewed from rice. As a student, Akio often sat in company meetings with his father and he would help with the family business even on school holidays. From an early age, Akio was fond of playing with electronic appliances, and mathematics and physics were his favorite subjects during his elementary and junior high school days. After graduating from High School, he entered the Physics Department at Osaka Imperial University.

Morita was an officer in the Japanese navy during World War II. He met Masaru Ibuka, a Japanese electronics industrialist who had already earned a nickname “genius inventor” and co-founded Sony Corporation in 1946. Prior to 1958, the company was called Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation. At that time, Ibuka was 38 years-old, and the company was launched with 20 employees. While Ibuka devoted his energies to technological research and product development, Morita was instrumental in leading Sony in the areas of marketing, globalization, finance and human resources. Morita also spearheaded Sony’s entry into the software business, and he contributed to the overall management of the company.

In 1949 the company developed magnetic recording tape and in 1950 sold its first tape recorder in Japan. In 1957 the company produced a pocket-sized radio and a year later renamed itself Sony. (Sonus is a Latin word for sound, and Sonny- boys is Japanese slang for ‘whiz kids’) There was opposition within the company to change the name to Sony. Morita stressed that it was necessary to change the name to something easy to pronounce, (In Japanese, it was known as “Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo”) and obviously the move reflected the company’s drive to expand its business globally.

The Morita-Ibuka alliance’s focus was on brand identity, and the duo sought to provide the best available technology and quality to the customer or consumer. One of Sony’s first products was a transistor radio, produced in 1955. While the transistor was developed by Bell Labs and produced by Western Electric, it was Sony that first used it for a small pocket radio, in 1957, creating a new market in the bargain.

The radio’s success led to more firsts in transistorized products, such as a fl­inch television and a videotape recorder. Sony’s technological achievements in product design, production and marketing helped to change the image of MADE IN JAPAN from a notion of cheap imitations to one associated with superior quality. In Morita’s own words, they made Sony the Cadillac of Electronics.

In 1960 Sony produced the first transistor television in the world. It was also the year when Sony Corporation of America was established in the United States.

Morita decided to move to the U.S. with his family and took the lead in creating new sales channels for the company. He believed that Sony should develop its own direct sales channels, rather than relying on local dealers. In that way he would understand Americans, their market, customs and regulations, thereby increasing the chance of his company’s success. It was a brilliant decision. Not many businessmen in those days possessed such a passionate and determined business vision. In the United States, Morita settled into a large Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan. He built a solid and valuable network by continually socializing and giving parties during the week, a habit he maintained throughout his career.

Morita once watched his children and their friends playing music from morning until night. He noticed people listening to music in their cars and carrying large stereos to the beach and the park. He insisted on a product that sounded like a high-quality car stereo yet was portable and allowed the user to listen while doing something else – and this is how the “walkman” was born. Sony America considered walkman bad English and changed it to Sound about for the United States, Freestyle for Sweden and Stowaway for Britain. Morita did not like the idea of using a different name for each country, and when sales were less than rewarding, he changed the name universally to Sony Walkman. Subsequently, the Walkman became a worldwide hit and is now featured in renowned dictionaries.

In 1961 Sony Corporation of America was the first Japanese company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange and eventually in 1989 Sony bought Columbia pictures.

Morita was the first Japanese to be awarded the Albert Medal from the United Kingdom’s Royal Society of Arts in 1982. In 1984, he received the National Order of the Legion of Honor (Ordre National de la Legion d’Honneur), the highest and most prestigious French order, and in 1991, he was awarded the First Class Order of the Sacred Treasure from H. M. the Emperor of Japan. In addition, Morita received numerous awards from countries such as Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, and the United States, which indeed demonstrates the extent of his global recognition.

Died    : December 15, 1966 (aged 65) in Burbank, California, U.S.

Occupation      : Film producer, Co-founder of The Walt Disney Company, formerly known as Walt Disney Productions

Spouse(s)         : Lillian Bounds (1925-1966)

Walt Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, and animator. One of the most well-known motion picture producers in the world, Disney was also the cartoon artist of comic books and newspaper-comic strips, the creator of an American-based theme park called Disneyland, and is the co-founder with his brother Roy O.Disney of Walt Disney Company. He created the most famous Mickey Mouse, wearing red shorts and yellow shoes, and the mouse has evolved from being simply a character in cartoons to become one of the most recognizable symbols in the world.

He became interested in personalizing animal’s character after carelessly killing a small owl as a young boy. He felt deeply sorry and guilty and vowed never again to kill a living creature. Disney worked as a paperboy as a youth.

At age 16, during World War I, he lied about his age to join the American Red Cross. He soon returned home, where he won a scholarship to the Kansas City Art Institute. There, he met a fellow animator, Ub Iwerks. The two soon set up their own company. In the early 20s, they made a series of animated shorts for the Newman theater chain, entitled “Newman’s Laugh-O-Grams’.’ Their company soon went bankrupt, however. The two then went to Hollywood in 1923.

They started work on a new series, about a live-action little girl who journeys to a world of animated characters. Entitled the “Alice Comedies”  they were distributed by Margaret Winkler. Walt was backed up financially by Winkler and his brother Roy. Hundreds of “Alice Comedies” were produced between 1923 and 1927, before they lost popularity.

Walt then started work on a series around a new animated character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. This series was successful, but in 1928, Walt discovered that Margaret Winkler and her husband, Charles Mintz, had stolen the rights to the character away from him. They’d also stolen all his animators, except for Ub Iwerks. While taking the train home, Walt started scribbling on a piece of paper. The result of these scribbles was a mouse named Mickey. With only Walt and Ub to animate, and Walt’s wife Lilly and Roy’s wife Edna to ink in the animation cells, three Mickey Mouse cartoons were quickly produced. The first two didn’t sell, so Walt added synchronized sound to the last one, Steamboat Willie (1928), and it was immediately picked up. It became the first cartoon to use synchronize sound. With Walt as the voice of Mickey, it premiered to great success.

Many more cartoons followed. Walt was now in the big time, but he didn’t stop creating new ideas. In 1929, he created the ‘Silly Symphonies, a cartoon series that didn’t have a continuous character. They were another success. One of them, Flowers and Trees (1932), was the first cartoon to be produced in color and the first cartoon to win an Oscar; another, Three Little Pigs. The Silly Symphonies stopped coming out in 1939, but Mickey and friends, (including Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto, and plenty more), were still going strong and still very popular.

In 1934, Walt started work on another new idea: a cartoon that ran the length of a feature film. Everyone in Hollywood was calling it “Disney’s Folly; but Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) was anything but, winning critical raves, the adoration of the public, and one big and seven little special Oscars for Walt. Now Walt listed animated features among his ever-growing list of accomplishments.

While continuing to produce cartoon shorts, he also started producing more of the animated features. Pinnochio (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942) were all successes; In the mid-40s, he began producing “packaged features; essentially a group of shorts put together to run feature length, but by 1950 he was back with animated features that stuck to one story, with Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), and Peter Pan (1953). In 1950, he also started producing live-action films, with Treasure Island (1950). These began taking on greater importance throughout the 50s and 60s, but Walt continued to produce animated features, including Lady and the Tramp (1955), Sleeping Beauty (1959), and One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961). In 1955, he even opened a theme park in southern California: Disneyland. It was a place where children and their parents could take rides, just explore, and meet the familiar animated characters, all in a clean, safe environment. It was another great success.

Walt also became one of the first producers of films to venture into television, with his series “Disneyland” (1954) which he began in 1954 to promote his theme park. He also produced “The Mickey Mouse Club” (1955) and “Zorro” (1957).To top it all off, Walt came out with the lavish musical fantasy Mary Poppins (1964), which mixed live-action with animation. It is considered by many to be his magnum opus. Even after that, Walt continued to forge onward, with plans to build a new theme park and an experimental prototype city in Florida. He never did finish those plans, however; in 1966, he contracted lung cancer. He died in December at age 65. But not even his death, it seemed, could stop him. Roy carried on plans to build the Florida theme park, and it premiered in 1971 under the name Walt Disney World. What’s more, his company continues to flourish, still producing animated and live-action films and overseeing the still-growing empire started by one man: Walt Disney, who will never be forgotten.

President Jimmy Carter once said, “Mickey Mouse is the symbol of goodwill, surpassing all languages and cultures. When one sees Mickey Mouse, they see happiness.” When Disney was in the fifth grade, he memorized the Gettysburg address (Abraham Lincoln’s greatest speech in the American history during the American civil war in 1863) and surprised everyone by arriving at school dressed as Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of United States. His costume consisted of his father’s old hat and a homemade beard. Little wonder that years later when his studio created the first fully functioning audio-animatronics human figure for the 1964 New York World Fair, the figure looked like Abraham Lincoln.

Walt Disney holds the record of winning the most Academy (Oscar) Awards: 32, a feat that is impossible to beat. The Mickey Mouse logo now identifies an institution whose $22 billion in annual sales make it the world’s largest media company. But it is important to remember what Walt Disney said once, “I hope we will never lose sight of one thing that it was all started by a mouse.”

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.

Died    : July 17, 2001 (age 84) in Idaho

Education        : University of Chicago & Vassar College

Occupation      : Publisher

Spouse(s)         : Philip Graham (1940-1963)

Children          : Lally Weymouth, Donald E. Graham, William Welsh Graham, Stephen Meyer Graham

At Katherine Graham’s 70th birthday celebrations in 1987, the famous columnist Art Buchwald told a gathering of most powerful people in Washington:”There is one word that brings us all together here tonight; and that word is ‘fear’! The audience erupted in laughter, but everyone present there knew that the high and mighty feared this lady because she was fearless.

Katherine Graham was the head of The Washington Post newspaper for more than two decades during the paper’s most famous period, the sensational Watergate coverage that ultimately brought President Richard Nixon down, and the publication of Pentagon Papers. (The Pentagon Papers is a 7,000-page top-secret United States Department of Defense history of the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War from 1945 to 1971, and the Watergate scandal was an American political scandal and constitutional crisis that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.)

Even more important than the fact of her success was how she achieved it. She had courage. She took risks. Of course, many business people take risks. But they take risks for growth and profits. Katharine Graham’s greatest risks – the Pentagon Papers and Watergate – were taken for principle, putting in peril not just growth and profits but possibly the very existence of The Washington Post Co. Everyone knew that a prepublication phone call to Graham would be of no avail. No fear or favoritism would get in the way of her principle.

She wrote her autobiography at 79 and won the Pulitzer Prize for it. Pulitzer Prize is a United States award regarded as the highest honor in print journalism. So, when someone wins the Pulitzer Prize, it is common to greet them with, “Now you know how the first line in your obituary will read.” That is only for ordinary folk. For Graham, it hardly makes the first paragraph. Indeed, the Wall Street Journal front page news digest did not even mention it when she died in July, 2001 at age 84. Instead it said,” She helped guard the integrity of journalism in the Watergate era.” This honor she achieved in an era when women faced a lot of disabilities and prejudices in a male-dominated society.

Her mother, Agnes Meyer, was an educator and her father, Eugene Meyer, was a publisher. He purchased The Washington Post in 1933, and Katharine Meyer began working for the Post five years later. She married Philip Graham in 1940, and in 1945 left the Post to raise her family. In the next few years Philip Graham became publisher of the Post and bought out Eugene Meyer’s voting stock. During this time the Washington Post Company also acquired the Times-Herald and Newsweek magazine.

In 1963, Philip Graham committed suicide and Katharine Graham assumed control of the Washington Post Company. From 1969 to 1979 she was also publisher’ of the newspaper.From 1973-1991 Graham, known to many as “Kay,” was board chairman and chief executive officer of the Washington Post Company, and remained Chairman of the Executive Committee until her death.

In 1997, she published her memoirs as Personal History. The book was lauded for its honest portrayal of her husband’s mental illness. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1998 for this autobiography.

Under Katharine Graham’s leadership, The Washington Post became known for its hard-hitting investigations, including the publication of the secret Pentagon Papers against the advice of lawyers and against government directives, followed by the Woodward and Bernstein investigation of the Watergate scandal. For these reasons, she and the newspaper are sometimes credited with bringing about the fall of Richard Nixon.

Her remarkable ability to assume the publisher-ship of a major national newspaper, The Washington Post, and control of a Fortune 500 company, the Washington Post Co., was an incredible accomplishment for anyone, particularly a woman in the 1960s. She was injured in a fall in Idaho in June, 2001 and died July 17. She certainly was, in the words of an ABC newscast, “one of the twentieth century’s most powerful and interesting women.”

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.

Residence        :  London, England, UK

Nationality      :  British

Occupation      :  Chairman of Virgin Group

Net worth        :  above$2.5 billion

Spouse(s)         : Joan Templeman (1989–present), Kristen Tomassi (1972–1979), divorced

Children          : Holly Branson ,Sam Branson

Richard’s parents continually set him challenges, because they were determined to make him independent. When Richard was four years old, his mother would stop the car a few miles from their house and made him find his own way home across the fields. When he was 12 years of age, one early morning, his mom packed some sandwiches and an apple and told Richard to cycle to Bournemouth that was fifty miles away from his home. There was no water in the pack and his mother told him to find it along the way. Richard’s mother thought such exercises would teach her son the importance of stamina and a sense of direction. Richard says he had no idea how he passed the test, but he walked into the kitchen the next day like a conquering hero, feeling tremendously proud of his marathon bike ride and expecting a huge welcome.

‘Well done, Ricky,’ his mom greeted him in the kitchen, where she was chopping onions. ‘Was that fun? Now, could you run along to the vicar’s? He’s got some log to be chopped, and I told him that you’d be back any minute!’

When Richard was five, during a family holiday vacation, his Auntie Joyce, had bet him ten shillings that he couldn’t learn to swim by the end of the fortnight. He spent hours in the sea trying to swim against the freezing-cold waves, but by the last day he still couldn’t do it. He just splashed along with one foot hopping on the bottom. He’d lunge forward and crash beneath the waves before spluttering up to the surface trying not to swallow the sea water.

‘Never mind, Ricky,’ Auntie Joyce said. ‘There’s always next year.’ But he determined not to wait that long. He doubted if she would remember it the next year. On their last day, as they drove along he saw a river. ‘Daddy, can you stop the car, please?’ he said. This river was his last chance: he was sure that he could swim and win Auntie Joyce’s ten shillings.

He pulled off his clothes and ran down to the riverbank in his underpants. He didn’t dare to stop in case anyone changed their mind. He braced himself and jumped forward against the current, and came back above the surface taking a deep breath. He swam across the surface of the river successfully. After all, he had to win the ten shillings!

No wonder, Richard crossed the Pacific Ocean from Japan to Arctic Canada in January 1991 in a hot-air balloon, the furthest distance of 4,767 miles and he broke all existing records, with speeds of up to 245 miles per hour.

In 1970 he founded Virgin as a mail order record retailer, and not long after he opened a record shop in Oxford Street, London. During 1972 a recording studio was built in Oxfordshire, and the first Virgin artist, Mike Oldfield, recorded “Tubular Bells” which was released in 1973.This album went on to sell over 5 million copies! Since then many household names, including Belinda Carlisle, Genesis, Phil Collins, Janet Jackson and The Rolling Stones have helped to make Virgin Music one of the top six record companies in the world. The equity of Virgin Music Group – record labels, music publishing, and recording studios was sold to EMI in 1992 in a $1 billion deal.

The Virgin Group has now expanded into international music Mega stores, air travel, mobile, financial, retail, music, internet, drinks, rail, hotels and leisure, with around 200 companies in over 30 countries.

Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic Airways, formed in 1984, is now the second largest British long haul international airline and operates a fleet of Boeing 747 and Airbus A340 aircraft to New York, Miami, Boston, Los Angeles, Orlando, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Tokyo, Las Vegas, Delhi, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Shanghai and the Caribbean. The airline, which carries one million passengers annually, is based on the concept of offering a competitive and high quality Upper Class, Premium Economy and Economy service. The airline has won many major awards, including Airline of the Year Award several times.

In 1997 Virgin took over Britain’s two most run-down rail franchises, Cross-Country and the West Coast Main Line. In 2002, the combined sales of the different Virgin holding companies exceeded ELI-billion. In addition to his own business activity, Richard is a trustee of several charities including the Virgin Healthcare Foundation a leading healthcare charity which was responsible for the launch of a health education campaign relating to AIDS in 1987.

In December 1999, Richard Branson was awarded a knighthood in the Queen’s Millennium New Year’s Honors List for “Services To Entrepreneurship”

Residence        : Chicago, Illinois, United States

Occupation      : Talk show host, media mogul

Salary              : $385 million (2008)

Net Worth       : Above US$2.7 billion (Sept. 2008)

Partner             : Stedman Graham

While living in a small farming community, the girl had a troubled adolescence. She was sexually abused by a number of male relatives, and even the friends of her mother, Vernita. The poor black American girl then moved to live with her father Vernon in Nashville. But, something inside kept telling her that things would somehow change for the better. She would later say, “I remember thinking, my life won’t be like this, it will be better. And it wasn’t from a place of arrogance; it was just a place of knowing that things could be different for me somehow.”

Yes, Oprah Winfrey’s intuition proved correct. And in 2003, Oprah became the first African-American woman to reach billionaire status, according to Forbes Magazine. She has broken through cultural, geographical and gender barriers, letting the world know it’s not your circumstances, but your heart that determines how far you go in this world. In fact, Oprah’s influence on the world has been nothing short of amazing! She has redefined how the world sees women. One of the reasons she is such a great personality is because she listens. And through her ‘Oprah Winfrey’ show, she has taught the world how to listen and face some of the most important issues of our time.

Oprah was born on January 29, 1954. She entered Tennessee State University in 1971 and began working in radio and television broadcasting in Nashville. In 1976, Winfrey moved to Baltimore, where she hosted the TV chat show – People Are Talking. The show became a hit and Winfrey stayed with it for eight years, after which she was recruited by a Chicago TV station to host her own morning show – AM Chicago. Her major competitor in the time slot was Phil Donahue. Within several months, Winfrey’s open warm-hearted personal style had won her 100,006 more viewers than Donahue and had taken her show from last place to first in the ratings. Her success led to nationwide fame and a role in Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film – The Color Purple, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Winfrey launched the Oprah Winfrey Show in 1986 as a nationally syndicated^, program. With its placement on 120 channels and an audience of 10 million people, the show grossed $125 million by the end of its first year, of which Winfrey received $30 million. She soon gained ownership of the program from ABC, drawing it under the control of her new production company, Harpo Productions (“Oprah” spelled backwards) and making more and more money from syndication. Riding on her wave of fame and publicity, her personal chef, Rosie Daley, and trainer, Bob Greene, both published best-selling books and became very rich.

Since she herself had a troubled childhood, the famed Oprah became a dedicated active to support the children’s rights. It is no exaggeration to say that her early trauma in life gave Oprah the tools and the strength to become great. She even calls herself an ‘abuse survivor’ and many a times she suffered because, “I didn’t want to say “No” because I also didn’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings. I didn’t want to say “NO” because I didn’t want anybody angry with me.”

In 1991, this abuse survivor initiated a campaign to establish a national database of convicted child abusers. Then-President Clinton signed the “Oprah Bill” into law in 1993. In the aforementioned interview, Oprah stated:”A part of my mission in life now is to encourage every other child who has been abused to tell. You tell, and if they don’t believe you, you keep telling. You tell everybody until somebody listens to you. I don’t want another child to be afraid of saying, ‘This is what happened to me’.”

During the 2002 Christmas, her life changed when she traveled to South Africa to bring holiday cheer to the children. She calls those 21 days some of the most miraculous days of her life. “ I realized in those moments why I was born, why I am not married and do not have children of my own. These are my children. I made a decision to be a voice for those children, to empower them, to help educate them, so the spirit that burns alive inside each of them does not die,” she said. With the help of Nelson Mandela, Oprah launched Christmas-Kindness, giving the children of South Africa one day of pure joy, toys and hope, just as she received as a 12-year-old on welfare. According to the Chicago On Time , Oprah has donated more than $50 million to charity.

In 1999, she co-founded a company called Oxygen Media that is dedicated to producing cable and Internet programming for women. With this Oprah ensured her place in the forefront of the media industry and as one of the most powerful and wealthy people in show business.

In the words of Chicago Mayor Daley, “Oprah Winfrey is quite possibly the most successful woman we’ve seen in the last century. She is extremely disciplined and hardworking and has a natural ability to draw people to her.”

Perhaps the best compliment for her comes from Rev. Jesse Jackson who said, “She has handled success with grace and dignity. She has been mindful of people who represent the suffering that she has been through …She goes from the most humble people to the most celebrated without breaking her rhythm.”