Better-off alone...
...and that is what has propelled Cargill’s growth!

Going public is not its style, and with due respects it has reasons enough to prove its point! Being completely family owned, the parent entity - Cargill Incorporation – is not listed anywhere, which is the only reason why it is not listed in the Fortune 500 list! The company is present in 63 countries and is the world’s largest privately held corporation. With humble beginnings from a simple grain trading storage facility (in the US) in the year 1865, the company in 2006 alone earned $75.2 billion in revenues and $1.72 billion in profits. Cargill’s business activities include purchasing, processing, and distributing grain and other agricultural commodities, and the manufacturing and sale of livestock feed and ingredients for processed foods and pharmaceuticals. It has also made a successful foray into the financial sector which manages financial risks in the commodity markets. Warren Staley, the CEO, like many senior executives, he has been associated with it for over 30 years. He is also the third nonmember of the Cargill-MacMillan family. William Wallace Cargill – the founder set a rapid pace of growth for the company which also had its negatives as the company ran into high debts in the early 1990s. Then his son-in-law John MacMillan restructured its financial structure, which eventually saved it. He divested businesses unrelated to its profitable grain trading area and moved into food processing. In short, a company that has remained free of the vagaries of the stock scams and has done well to prove the logic behind being privately-held!

Smooth operators &engine accelerators
Automobile business has become its sole identity!

Hyundai means ‘modernity’ and what more successful in the modern times than marking an eye-popping $57.4 billion in sales and $2.2 billion in profits during 2005 alone? Started by a band of brothers, this huge car manufacturing titan was just a small part of a bigger Hyundai group. But just as growth has been with it from its inception, family feuds have not left it alone too! It all started with founding of the Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co. in 1947 and the subsequent introduction of the automotive division (named Hyundai Motor Co.) in 1967 by Chung Ju-yung and his seven brothers. In 1980 the brothers ended their bitter relationships with a division of assets and Chung Ju-yung was left with the automotive division. Since then the company has never looked back. The company’s first car model – Cortina – was released in co-operation with Ford Motors, but the first hit from its stable was ‘Pony’, that was designed on Mitsubishi’s technology platform in 1975. The year 1986 saw the chaebol successfully enter the US market and in 1988, it also became technologically independent. A father of eight sons, he appointed Chung Mongkoo as his successor in 1999. Luckily, despite there being no signs of love amongst the brother, the company never had to bear the brunt unlike many other business families. Sadly, despite displaying shrewdness in strategic decision-making, Chun Mong-koo was indicted on April 28, 2006 for charges of embezzling $106 million. He was bailed out in July 2006 and is currently carrying on his duties of leading the company. And despite Hyundai ensuring that the world enjoys a smoother ride, the question is, “will it?”

(Media) ‘Mughol’s had weak successors
Certainly, Murdoch will leave behind a tough task…

If you have been following the raging controversy around former American football star O. J. Simpson, accused of murdering his wife and her friend, you would get an idea of what media mogul Rupert Murdoch is all about. Ruthlessly milking opportunities to grab profits and market share – that’s his style. Simpson was commissioned by Murdoch owned Harper Collins to write a book where Simpson would ‘confess’ to how he would have hypothetically murdered his wife. Murdoch-owned Fox Networks was to air an ‘exclusive’ interview of the same & Murdoch-owned newspaper Herald Sun was slated to run the same story. However following a huge public outcry, Murdoch dropped the idea.

But this unpalatable episode revealed the buccaneering spirit that has enabled Murdoch to transform a small Australian newspaper group into a global behemoth called News Corp., with $23 billion in annual revenues with a global footprint (Star Network in India is a part of his group). He renounced his Australian citizenship to become a British subject and expanded his empire into the UK. A few years hence, he turned into a blue-blooded American. But the real question is whether the Murdoch legacy will live beyond the 75-year old tycoon passes on the baton? The current inheritor is his son James from his second wife while another son Lachlan has ‘retired’ from family business. Surely, the inheritors will find it hard to match their Murdoch’s ability to seek and conquer (a recent example being the manner in which News Corp. paid US$800 million to buy the portal MySpace.com). Perhaps they can never come close to being a shadow of his but being the only hope, James has no choice than to learn lessons quickly. Or does he?

A plastic start…
…proved a strong one for Victor(y) anyway!

To understand the true meaning of ‘success’, one doesn’t have to go far. A look at Li Ka-Shing, Chairman, Hutchison Whampoa Limited and the epitome of ‘success’ clears all doubts. From being just an owner of Cheung Kong Industries – a plastic company to becoming the wealthiest Chinese individual - Li’s journey has been studded with challenges & achievements. Li came into the picture in 1979, two years after Hutchison International & Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Company merged to form Hutchison Whampoa Ltd.. He purchased Hong Kong Bank’s stake in Hutchison Whampoa in a controversial transaction as the company was already doing well. Li has expanded the operations through both organic and inorganic mode and today, the company stands tall with a handsome turnover of $23 billion with operations in 56 nations and strong presence in sectors like ports, property & hotels, retail and telecom. Li Ka-Shing’s group is structured to retain disproportionate control through pyramid structure, dual-class equities and cross-holdings. His successor will in all likelihood be his eldest son Victor, a Stanford trained engineer and presently MD and Deputy Chairman of Hutchison Whampoa Limited. He is also the Chairman of Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Limited and CK Life Sciences International (Holdings). However, his younger son Richard, preferred to venture on his own - clearing all possibilities of a feud! At 78, Li is one Asian mogul who has carved a niche for himself. And whether it’s Hong Kong or any other nation, he is respected everywhere!

Live Like Levi’s...
...if toughness is in your ‘Jeans’

An era is dominated by public ownerships, Levi Strauss & Company still represents a small brigade of businesses that are completely owned and managed by family descendents. Incorporated in 1853 as a dry goods wholesale business by Levi Strauss along with his brother-in-law David Stern, the actual journey started in 1873, when Jacob Davis (a tailor by profession) and Levi received the patent to manufacture the famous Levi’s brand of jeans. Gradually, Levi along with his nephews (the Sterns) turned his enterprise into a family business and passed on the legacy of his thriving business to his nephews in 1902. In the year 1928, Levi’s became a trademark. Gradually, the company expanded its presence in the global market and finally got listed in 1971. But, the company started losing ground in the early eighties. Here, stepped in Robert Haas (the great-great grandnephew of Levi) taking over as the CEO in 1984. He focussed on the core products, streamlined the work-force and closed down many plants to increase productivity. In the mid-nineties, he again made Levi’s a private company by deploying a leveraged buyout worth $1.6 billion. Later, he handed over the mantle to Philip Marineau, a veteran from PepsiCo. Now, under Marineau’s new leadership, the company is undergoing a serious strategic makeover & operates as the world’s largest apparel marketer with best selling brands like Levi’s, Dockers & Levis Strauss Signature.

‘Mittal’ Steel proves its mettle, everytime
Changing the equation of the global steel industry

Recent successes might just obfuscate the amount of toil Mittals have persevered and endured to claim the helm. But then, there’s no reason to disbelieve the toil put in to achieve what the empire has become today. Born to not-so affluent parents in Sadulpur (Rajasthan) in 1950, L.N. Mittal graduated from St. Xavier’s College in Kolkata and within a decade managed to achieve what others were unable to do in a hundred years. After the Arcelor takeover (for a whopping $34 billion), it has become the first company in the world to exceed a production capacity of 100 metric million tonne. Surely, Arcelor board will not forget the pressure once the Mittals decided to buy them off. One should also not forget that it’s all an upshot of the ordeal that Laxmi Mittal has undergone in the past through acquiring sick companies (at a nominal prices) and transforming them into profitable entities. Till date, Mittal has been instrumental in reviving more than fifteen companies globally – no mean task by any standards.

Noticeably, it’s not only about turning around sick companies, with varied competencies and characteristics, but also about integrating them companies under a single banner and bringing out the best in them. To substantiate Mittal’s knack of spotting opportunities further, he has already spotted the changing balance of power from the west to the east. And it’s quite obvious in his recent bullishness towards India and China, that he will not tolerate any force which curbs his plans to expand in these countries. Although, L.N. Mittal started all alone in 1974, but today his family is all for him. His son Aditya Mittal, President & CFO of Mittal Steel Company, was amongst the key decision-makers in the company’s bid for Arcelor. After joining his father’s business in 1997, Aditya has helped Mittal Steel to get a strong foothold in Central Europe, Africa and US – and this has led to Mittal Steel becoming the world’s largest steel producer. These acquisitions include Polskie Huty Stali in Poland, Nova Hut in Czech Republic, Sidex in Romania, Annaba in Algeria, Iscor in South Africa and International Steel Group in the US. Certainly, at present, there seems no force capable of stopping the Mittals in their endeavor to alter the face of global steel industry!