The richest man in Italy

Everybody loves Nutella but not everybody knows it is Italian! And if Nutella is well-known worldwide it is because of Michele Ferrero. 

He is an Italian businessman who has a net worth of $26.5 billion dollars, making him the richest man in Italy. Michele Ferrero is the owner of the Ferrero Group maker of Kinder and Ferrero Rocher chocolates, Nutella and Tic Tac. He inherited the chocolate company from his father in 1950. Perhaps, his father Pietro Ferrero was the genius behind the creation of today's Nutella, but it was Michele's business acumen that turned the product into a global brand. Infact, he was the first Italian manufacturer after World War II in the confectionary sector who managed to turn the company into an international Group. 

He had and continues to have an innate intuition of how to sell internationally. His best intuition was to understand what children want. << Why do children want the chocolate Easter egg? Because they have a surprise inside: so, we have to give them a surprise everyday>> said Michele, and the "Kinder surprise" invention led him to overtake Mr Silvio Berlisconi in the "Top 100 Richest Men in the World" rank. Michele Ferrero lives in Monte Carlo and has a villa in exclusive Cap Ferrat. Ferrero adopts a philosophy based on privacy in both life and work. It's a philosophy of "better to speak through the products than show in public". He is very secretive and we don't know a lot about his life, but we are sure about a thing: we will rarely see him in public without sunglasses! 

Meet the richest man alive!

Whenever I personally think about someone founding a new company one name comes to my mind: Bill Gates. He showed everyone how rich you can get by starting something new out of nothing. As he was leading ‘Forbes list of the world’s wealthiest people’ for almost 15 years he is commonly seen as one of the most successful entrepreneurs ever.

To be fair, he was actually the co-founder Microsoft, nowadays the biggest personal-computer software producer worldwide. Born in 1955, William Henry ‘Bill’ Gates III, discovered his interest for computers together with some friends during his early years at high school. Working for several computer companies he was able to extend his knowledge rapidly. A few years later, Gates was studying at Harvard University at this time, he and his former classmate Paul Allen started working for an electronic company called MITS. Therefore they moved to Albuquerque and finally founded Microsoft as cooperation of Gates and Allen. While Gates was responsible for the business and his handful of employees he also continued writing codes for Microsoft’s software. Developing their original operating-system, and working in a partnership with IBM at the same time, they created what now has a market share of more than 90%. In 1985 the first version of Microsoft Windows was launched.

Bill Gate’s aggressiveness and involvement as executive of Microsoft followed a broad dominance of the company on the computer market. In 2006 he finally announced his retirement from the daily business. His job was henceforth done by two people, one for the day-to-day management and one for the product strategy. Until February 2014 Gates had been the chairman of the Microsoft Corporation and is now still Technology Advisor.

His position as chairman of one of the biggest companies of the world and his activities as an investor earned him a fortune of 76 billion U.S. dollars.

Amancio Ortega, the third richest man in the world

Hi there!

I am new in this blog and I want to start my contribution talking about a very relevant person from my city who had and has an important impact there. His name is Amancio Ortega and he is the co-founder of Inditex Group, which more famous brand is ZARA.

AMANCIO ORTEGA GAONA

Amancio Ortega Gaona is a Spanish businessman known for be the owner and founder of the textile imperium ZARA. He is the world’s richest retailer man and the third richest man in the world with a fortune estimated of $65,3 bn.

Amancio Ortega was born in Spain in a very humble family, his father was a railway worker and he started to work at the age of 14 to help economically his family.

He got married twice and has three children, one son and one daughter of his first marriage and one daughter with his currently wife.

His son was born with cerebral paralyse, for that reason he and Rosalia Mera (his first wife) created “Paideia Foundation” with the aim to help people with disability.

 Amancio and Rosalia were co-workers in a shirt’s store in A Coruña (Galicia, Spain) and decided to start a new business in the living room of their house with the help of Amancio’s brothers. This company produced and sold quilted bathrobes at low prices to be affordable to everybody.

In 1975 they expanded the business to men, women and kids clothes and opened the first Zara store in A Coruña, Spain.  After that, they started to open stores all over Spain and in all Europe.

Their philosophy is to be the designers, manufactures, delivers and sellers.

In the 90’s the company started to create new brands and they made Inditex Group which collect all the brands of the company such as Oysho, Pull&Bear, Zara Home, Stradivarius…

In 2011 he announced his retirement as Inditex CEO but he still owns aroun 60% of its shares.

Besides Inditex Group, he has wide real estate properties, for example Torre Picaso (Madrid) which is rented to Google and around 26 buildings in the most important cities in the world such as New York and London.

In 2001 Amancio Ortega Foundation is made, it is a non-profit organization which promotes activities in the cultural, educational and investigational fields.

Amancio Ortega has a very private life; he lives with his wife and daughter in A Coruña, in a normal house close to the headquarters of the company.

He eats in the company’s cafeteria with his employees every day and always goes to the same coffee shop. He works in the design department because he doesn’t want to have a private office and takes a very active part in the production and design process.

He always wear casual clothes and none of them are Zara clothes!

He has only granted three interviews ever and he doesn’t like to do public appearances. His employees say that he is a very competitive person, perfectionist and observant.

 I hope you enjoy knowing more about the life of this business man, who is studied in the Business Universities all over the world and he couldn't go to any one.

 

 

Latin American's media mogul

You have probably never heard of Gustavo Cisneros, Venezuelan business man and Latin America's media mogul and one of the richest men in the world with an estimated fortune of about $ 4 Billion US dollars according to Forbes magazine.

Gustavo Cisneros was born on the 20 of November 1945 in Caracas (capital of Venezuela). He is son of Venezuelan Business men Diego Cisneros. In 1940 Diego Cisneros received Pepsi concession for the Venezuelan market. Also the Cisneros group expanded and gain the concession for TV station Venevision in 1961.

Gustavo Cisneros graduated from Suffield Academy in 1963 and Badson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts in 1968 where he did Economic studies and graduated as Cum Laude.

In 1970 he married Patricia Phelps, Granddaughter of William Henry Phelp founder of the Business group 1BC in Venezuela and owner of RCTV (Radio Caracas Television) former TV station in Venezuela, the first TV broadcaster in the country.

After Gustavo Cisneros’s graduation from Badson Collage he returns to Venezuela ready to assume the command of the Cisneros organization (Cisneros Family business group), he managed to make their PepsiCo concession of bottling and distribution of Pepsi cola in Venezuela the number 1 cola drink in Venezuela with a 70% market share, they also managed to gain the commercialization of the product in Brazil becoming then the biggest bottling company for Pepsi Cola International.

Throughout the year 1974 Cisneros speeds up an aggressive expansion for the Cisneros group, he penetrates the liquor market by establishing O’ Caña distribuidores, he also establish his media empire even further by building a national radio group Radiovsion with radio broadcasting across Venezuela. He then will gain control of the supermarket chain CADA and undertakes an expansion making it the largest supermarket store chains in the country.

During the 1980’s Cisneros diversified the group’s operations even further, they started a Record label (Rodven), and gets the rights of the fast food change Burger King in Venezuela. They gain control of Miss Venezuela (Venezuela beauty contest). He gain the rights to represents American retailer SEARS in Venezuela and becomes the largest retail stores in Venezuela under the name Maxy’s. He gains exclusive rights to Pizza Hut and Apple in Venezuela.

The Cisneros group headed by Gustavo Cisneros gain control of Spalding and Evenflo in North America in 1984, many other companies were acquire by the Cisneros group during this decade anything from real estate developments in London to video producers and mining companies and food industries in Venezuela, diversification could be a great title for the Cisneros group during this decade.

Over the last two decades the Cisneros group started a brewing company (Cerveceria Regional), a Latin television network in North America (Univision), he also acquired other TV stations and music groups through Latin America, and satellite TV provider DIRECTV Latin America, started Telcel de Venezuela the first mobile telecommunications company in Venezuela to be sold later to American company Bellshouth and bought Venezuela’s third largest telecommunications company Digitel, just to name a few of the companies that Gustavo Cisnero acquired or started during the last two decades.

Gustavo Cisneros runs a philanthropic organization (The Cisneros Foundation) which has a wide range of social, educational and cultural programs across Latin America, helping children to achieve a greater education in Spanish speaking countries.

He currently lives in La Romana, Dominican Republic and has three nationalities, Venezuelan, Spanish and Dominican, and is presently developing a multi-billion dollar resort in Miches near Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.      

Profile

Hey: Guy

In business class this week we learn about  Writing a Profile for describe detail of a person’s life, including education, work, relationships, Let me give you an example. One of my favorite successful people is Richard Branson.

Roots: Branson was born in Blackheath, London on July 18, 1950. His father, Edward James Branson, worked as a barrister. His mother, Eve Branson, was employed as a flight attendant. His grandfather, the Right Honourable Sir George Arthur Harwin Branson,  was a judge of the High Court of Justice and a Privy Councillor.

Education: Branson was educated at Scaitcilffe school until he was thirteen. Then he was educated at Stowe school until he was sixteen.

Relationship: Branson is married to his second wife, Joan Templeman. He has two children, Holly and Sam Branson.

Work: Branson owned Virgin Group that holds more than 200 companies in more than 30 countries. He has expanded his businesses to include a train company, a luxury game preserve, a mobile phone company and a space-tourism company, Virgin Galactic.

Civic life: Branson hosted an environmental gathering at his private island in the ‘Caribbean with several business. They discussed global warming-related problems facing the world.

Beliefs: “I believe in benevolent dictatorship, provided I am the dictator.”

“Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.”

“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.”

-Richard Branson

Achievements, awards, honours:  Branson was delighted by success of spaceship first test, and that everything went so smoothly.

Crossroads: By 1992, Virgin was suddenly struggling to stay financially afloat. The company was sold later that year to EMI for $1 billion.

Psychology: He expects to be finishing testing the craft by the end of 2013. By April 2013, more than 500 people had bought their tickets for Virgin Galactic’s voyages.

Christine Lagarde, IMF Managing Director... and French ;)

Hi guys! 

We are a little bit late this week but we are always in! 

Let’s speak about personalities today, I mean celebrities or famous businessmen (or businesswomen, in my case). Effectively, I would like to introduce you one of the more powerful woman in the world, I mean Christine Lagarde. I guess some of you know this woman, but I am not pretty sure all of you guys!

 

Quickly, Christine Lagarde currently holds the 11^th Managing Director position of the IMF (International Monetary Fund), since July 2011. We will get back about her position in the last paragraph.

So, who’s she? I mean, where does she come from, when was she born, and what kind of studies did she follow?  Christine Madeleine Odette Lallouette (4 first names, as usually found in “great families”) was born on January 1^st 1956 (so, she is currently aged of… 58 years old, great guys!), in the City of Love (not the City of Sails…), in a beautiful and far away country named France. About her educational background, she just followed “regular classes” in France: High School at Le Havre city (in the north) till succeeding her A-level. Then, she went on an American Field Service scholarship where she spent a year studying English. Finally, she went back to France and succeeded for a Master’s Degrees at La Defense University, in English about Labour and social law, and graduated in the meantime at the “institute d’Administration des Entreprises” of Aix-en-Provence. She also prepared the famous ENA (Ecole Nationale d’Administration) – specific school in which you are following politics-related courses, in the aim to be politician – but failed at the entrance exam. Otherwise, she was promoted Order of Legion d’Honneur (highest French honour medal), and also, Commander of the Order of “Merite Agricole”.

Following to these studies, she went back in the USA for her first job, in the famous international law firm (Baker & McKenzie) in 1981 in Chicago. After 25 years in the USA, she went back in France, directly in the politics, named as France’s Trade Minister between 2007 and 2009. She changed positions twice (Minister of Agriculture, then Minister of Finance) before leaving the French politics for a new job in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), for a 5-year term. She assumes this important position since July 2011, and remains one of the more powerful women thanks to that. This last intervention, on beneath of the IMF, was on Wednesday 3^rd of April, warning about the slow global economic growth, and particularly warmed the Euro-zone about an imminent hazard of deflation without strong economic actions from the European Central Bank (see more on BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26861903).

The top money manager of the Twentieth Century

The top money manager of the Twentieth Century, Warren Buffet

In 2008 he was ranked by Forbes as the richest person in the world after his donating millions of dollars to charity he was ranked as the second richest man in the United States.

Warren Buffet was born in 1930 in Omaha, Nebraska, the second of three children.  Even as a child he showed an interest in making money. He worked in his grandfather’s grocery shop, he sold chewing gums and coca cola from door to door, and during high school he made money by delivering newspapers.

When he was 10 years old, he traveled to NYC and visited Stock Exchange, with 11 he bought his first shares.

In age of nineteen, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in business administration.

In 1962, W.B. started  buying stocks from Berkshire Hathaway. The company was originally operated as a textile manufacturing company and his headquarter is still in Omaha.  Today is  Berkshire Hathaway the ninth largest public company in the world.  He had an average annual growth up to 20% in the last 48 years. The company has a hand in different business areas. E.g. railroad, home furnishings, manufacturers of vacuum cleaners, jewelry.  

Did you know, they are involved in IBM, American Express and in the company  that I work for?  The re insurer Munich Re.

Buffet gave 99% of his fortune to philanthropic away and is still active against his high age.