Mark Chang: One of the Leading Young Entrepreneurs of Asia

Mark Chang Mun Kee, or popularly known as Mark Chang, CEO of Jobstreet.com, a leading online job placement website, is considered to be one of the leading young entrepreneurs of Asia. Not only does he hold the highest position in Jobstreet.com, he is also on the board of several other companies, such as, Vitrox Corporation, Innity Corporation, and 104 Corporation.

Raised and educated in the United States, Chang obtained his Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Texas and his Master of Science degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He later on worked as a process engineer at Kendall Corporation and was promoted to a Director of Sales and Marketing.

He then got interested in online businesses and established MOL Online, where Jobstreet was originally one of the sections of the portal. However, its profitability led to it becoming a company of its own.

Other than his business interests, Mark Chang also serves as an advisor for the Penang State.

Liang Wengen: Defying the Global Financial Crisis

China is a country known to be the home of entrepreneurs who have magnificently defied the odds to attain success in any given situation. Numerous Chinese businessmen were born into a life of poverty, but managed to become some of the richest people in the country and around the world.

One of these is Liang Wengen, Chairman of the Sany Group, one of the top construction machinery companies in the country. Liang is reported to be worth $11 billion and is the richest person in China, according to a research done by Hurun Research Institute.

Born in 1956 to a poor peasant family, Liang was once a lowly manager in an arms plant. However, he became involved in the construction equipment industry and this is where he was able to build his fortunes. He founded the Sany Group and despite the global financial crisis, he was able to build the company into a major force in China’s construction equipment industry.

Much of the company’s success was due to China’s resilient economy. When the world was undergoing a financial crisis, China’s real estate and retail industries were booming. The Sany Group happened to be at the right place at the right time to take advantage of this boom.

One of the interesting facts about Liang Wengen is that despite of him being a successful and extremely wealthy businessman, he publicly admits that his interests lie with the Chinese Communist Party. He once jokingly mentioned that he wanted to join the communist party to find a beautiful woman. Unfortunately, his ties as a businessman were the primary reason for his initial rejection.

Today, Liang Wengen is a force for the country’s private business sector. The Government owns many of the country’s industries, but Liang has recently urged the private sector to step up in developing the country’s economy.

Edward Lloyd: From a Small Coffee Shop Businessman to a World Renowned Maritime Insurance Provider

Edward Lloyd owned a coffee shop which became the namesake of an insurance and financial institution known worldwide – the Lloyd’s of London. Lloyd opened his coffee shop in 1688, which became the favorite meeting place for doing maritime business dealings. The popularity of the coffee shop led Lloyd to render other services like the Lloyd’s News, which became the ultimate source of business information at that time.

Lloyd opened his first coffee shop on Tower Street. However, when his shipping and insurance business grew larger, Lloyd has to move his business to Lombard Street in 1691. His business continued on Lombard Street until his death in 1713, and until his business evolved as a formal organization.

As Lloyd’s businesses grew in leaps and bounds, he would not be able to see Lloyd’s of London move from a coffee shop business to one entirely dedicated to maritime insurance. By 1900, Lloyd’s of London provides all types of insurance services, especially those that pertain to maritime interests.

William H. Lever: World Influence Beyond Just Soap

No person has influenced the industry of soap making as did the English industrialist, businessman, philanthropist and politician William H. Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme. Lever and his younger brother James established the company Lever Brothers in 1885. He built an empire out of his soap and cleaning products. He was credited for popular brands as Lifebuoy and Lux.

Born on September 19, 1851 in Lancashire, England, Lever was first exposed to business through his father’s grocery business. After acquiring sufficient knowledge in business, Lever founded Lever Brothers, which became the first soap manufacturer to use vegetable oils in producing soap. Lever had keen business acumen and great marketing practices.

Lever’s first business expansion project was the 56-acre land at Cheshire which he purchased in 1887. The site was known as Port Sunlight which became a model village. Port Sunlight became the community of Lever’s employees. Lever believed that when the workers are enjoying a decent living condition, they end up happy and healthy. While at Port Sunlight, employees are required to participate in all activities.

While his soap business was growing, Lever had to deal with competition. His closest rival was Andrew Pears’ A & F Pears. Pears bought John Everett Millais’ painting “Bubbles” to promote his soap. On his part, Lever also purchased William Powell Frith’s “The New Frock” to advertise Sunlight soap.

In 1906, Lever and other soap manufacturers formed a monopoly soap trust. For Lever, organizations such as this will benefit the manufacturers and the consumers through economies of scale in procurement and marketing. However, anti-trust protests threatened to boycott trust brands following the President Roosevelt’s trust-busting policies and the hostility of the press who are opposed to the scheme such as Britain’s Daily Mail. Because of the boycotts, Lever’s loss was estimated at more than half a million. Later, Lever abandoned the scheme.

Lever was labeled a racist after he enforced the system called “travail forcé” or forced labor in Belgian Congo in 1911. His paternalistic approaches were well documented by author Jules Marchal. Marchal stated in his book Lord Leverhulme’s Ghosts: Colonial Exploitation in the Congo that "Leverhulme set up a private kingdom reliant on the horrific Belgian system of forced labor, a program that reduced the population of Congo by half and accounted for more deaths than the Nazi holocaust." Forced labor continued in Congo until its independence in 1960.

In politics, Lever’s highest elective position was Mayor of his hometown, Bolton. Although he was not a councilor, the council voted to give him the position to honor a “Notable son of the Town.” In 1917, Lever was High Sheriff of Lancashire and was promoted to viscountcy in November 1922.

Reginald Lewis: Fifty Years of Successful Business Heritage

Reginald Lewis was arguably one of the most successful American businessmen in the 1980s. He had a degree in economics earned at Virginia State College. He studied law at Harvard Law School and graduated in 1968. His net worth was estimated at $40 million when Forbes listed him among America’s richest men in 1992.

Lewis was the founder of Beatrice Foods and became the first Afro-American to own a billion dollar company. After years of practicing the law profession, Lewis had the opportunity to acquire Beatrice International Foods from its mother company, Beatrice Companies. After paying $985 million, Lewis renamed the company TLC Beatrice International. In 1987, TLC Beatrice reported revenues amounting to $1.8 billion to become the first Afro-American owned company to hit the billion dollar level mark of annual sales. TLC Beatrice placed 512th in Fortune’s 1000 largest companies after earning $2.2 billion in revenues in 1996.

After years of success career in law practice and business, Lewis died on January 19, 1993. He was he was 50 years old.

Edwin H. Land: Did the Photography Industry Honor Him Enough?

Edwin Herbert Land was the inventor who founded Polaroid Corporation. Attached to his name are a number of inventions which are used in photography until today. Among them were inexpensive filters used for polarizing light, and his Polaroid instant camera which takes picture taking and developing in at least 60 seconds.

Land was born on May 7, 1909 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Land attended Harvard University to study chemistry but left Harvard after his first year to move to New York. While in New York, Land invented the Polaroid film, the first inexpensive filter that can polarize light. However, this endeavor was difficult for Land since he lacked the needed laboratory tools. He would often sneak into the Columbia University laboratory at late night to solve his problem. He scoured into the scientific literature in New York City Public Library for previous works that tackle polarizing substances. During his experiment, he produced the film that contained millions of micron-sized polarizing crystals.

Joined by his Harvard physics professor George Wheelwright, Land established Land –Wheelwright Laboratories for the commercialization of his Polaroid technology. Wheelwright’s family was financially well off so he decided to fund the company. The company’s early successes in developing polarizing filters used in photographic filters and sunglasses attracted a number of Wall Street investors who funded Land-Wheelwright Laboratories’ further expansions.

In 1937, Land renamed his company as Polaroid Corporation. Further development and production of sheet polarizers were registered as Polaroid trademark. During World War II, Polaroid was commissioned for a number of tasks which included production of target finders, dark-adaptation goggles, passively-guided smart bombs, and the Vectograph, a stereoscope that can spot camouflaged enemies from aerial photography.

At Polaroid, Land earned the reputation for marathon research sessions. Whenever he developed an idea, he would brainstorm and tirelessly conduct experiments until his problem is solved. Food was brought to him just to remind him to eat. It was said that once, he wore one set of clothes for eighteen days while experimenting on polarizing films. As Polaroid grew, Land had to hire teams that would shift assisting him in his research.

Through the last years of his life, Land continued to design optics, including the ones used in the revolutionary spy plane Lockheed U-2. Land also discovered the two-color system that can project the entire spectrum of hues using only two colors of projecting light. This theory was later incorporated in the Retinex theory of color vision.

Land died on March 1, 1991. He was 81 years old.

William J. Levitt: What Would the Suburban Be Like Without Him?

For his contributions to the new suburban growth, American real estate developer William J. Levitt earned the credit as the father of modern American suburbia. Levitt used mass production techniques for the construction on large housing development projects that sell under $10,000. This paved the way for the development of other relatively affordable suburban developments throughout the US.

Levitt was not the inventor of communities of single family homes. However, it was Levitt’s innovation that popularized the idea of planned communities of affordable houses after the World War II.

When Levitt was the height of his career, he is constructing one suburban house every sixteen minutes. This success was comparable to the automobile assembly line of Henry Ford. Levitt’s success in real estate is one of the most visible successes in business until today. Many real estate developers of the new era have catered to common racism of by developing “white only” neighborhoods. Environmentalists also used Levitt’s suburban lifestyle to address certain issues.

Thomas W. Lamont: From a Journalist to a Banker

Thomas W. Lamont Jr. was an American banker. He was born in Claverack, New York on September 30, 1870. His father, Thomas, was a Methodist minister. The demands of his father’s ministry caused the Lamont family to move around upstate New York a lot. The Lamont’s were not very wealthy.
Lamont studied high school in Phillips Exeter Academy where he was the editor of The Exonian, the school paper. He graduated from the Academy as the editor of the school yearbook and the school’s literary magazine.

Lamont went to college at Harvard College. He became The Harvard Crimson’s first freshman editor. This helped Lamont pay off his tuition fees. In 1892, Lamont finished his Bachelor of Arts degree. He graduated cum laude. Two days after his college graduation, Lamont landed his first job at New York Tribune where he worked under the city editor.

At the New York Tribune, Lamont has had a number of promotions. He became a night editor and helped the financial editor in many ways. These assignments exposed Lamont in the financial world. Because the journalism was not a good paying job, he left the Tribune and went into business.

Lamont joined Cushman Bros., an import and marketing company. Cushman Bros. was an advertising agency working among food corporations. Financial difficulties placed the company in an unstable condition. Lamont helped fix the problem. Cushman Bros. was renamed Lamont, Corliss and Company, where his brother-in-law Corliss joined him as a partner.

These events caught the attention of the famous banker Henry P. Davison. Davison invited Lamont to join the newly established Banker’s trust. Lamont heeded the invitation and became the bank’s secretary and treasurer. Slowly, Lamont climbed up to become the Vice President, then later as director. Later, Lamont became the Vice President of First National Bank.

Lamont became a partner of J.P. Morgan & Co. in January 1911. He was the US financial advisor abroad from the 1920s to the 1930s. He represented the Department of Treasury in the Treaty of Versailles. Lamont also worked alongside US Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt as unofficial mentor.

The Evolution of S. S. Kresge

Sebastian Spering “S. S.” Kresge was an American businessman who founded one of the largest retail organizations in the 20th century, S. S. Kresge Company. In 1977, the company was renamed Kmart Corporation and is known today as Sears Holding Corporation.

Kresge was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on July 31, 1867. After finishing college in 1889, Kresge worked for two years in a hardware store as clerk. Thereafter, he worked as a travelling salesman until 1897. Kresge worked with James McCrory at a five and ten cent store.

In 1899, two years after he started with McCrory, Kresge established his own company along with Charles Wilson. They started by investing $8,000 in two five and ten cent stores in Michigan. Kresge’s investment grew to 85 stores and in 1912, he incorporated his company and named it S. S. Kresge Corporation.

Kresge’s net worth was estimated at $375 million in 1924 (about $5 billion in 2009 dollars). His real estate properties were valued at $1 million. Kresge died on October 18, 1966 at 99 years old.