| Following a great success in my first article of The | | | | Kong Industries, after the Cheung Kong River-also |
| Billionaire Story, I feel motivated in writing a sequel. In | | | | known as the Yangtze-the longest river in China. The |
| this part two series of the billionaire story, I would like to | | | | name was reportedly an allusion to both the river's |
| share with you three most outstanding people that | | | | many tributaries and the need for business alliances. |
| have shaped the business world. | | | | By 1958, when his landlord raised its rent, Li had enough |
| The Apple Story | | | | cash to purchase his factory. This would be the first of |
| Steven Paul (Steve) Jobs was responsible for building | | | | many investments in real estate; by the 1960s Cheung |
| Apple Computer twice, as well as for rescuing Pixar | | | | Kong had transformed into a property development |
| Animation Studios and turning it into one of the world's | | | | and management company. Li's strategy was to avoid |
| most successful motion picture studios. He was a | | | | debt by raising capital before building, both through the |
| hands-on manager, who studied even the minutest | | | | formation of joint ventures with landowners and by |
| details of his products, with the heart and eye of an | | | | pre-selling apartments to friends and colleagues. As |
| artist. His insistence on high-quality, good-looking | | | | such Cheung Kong could incur fewer risks while still |
| products struck a chord with many people who | | | | earning profits for both Li and his co-investors, fueling |
| appreciated the beauty of Apple products, resulting in | | | | rapid growth. The company, renamed Cheung Kong |
| such fabulous successes as the Macintosh computer | | | | Holdings in 1971, had its initial public offering in 1972. By |
| and the iPod portable music system. These successes | | | | 1979 Li was Hong Kong's largest private landlord. |
| often reshaped how consumers viewed technology | | | | Once again success led Li to expand his corporate |
| and also reshaped the technology itself. | | | | efforts in a new direction, this time through the |
| Jobs was adopted in February 1955 by Paul and Clara | | | | acquisition of one of the oldest British "hongs," or |
| Jobs, who were indulgent parents. They were so | | | | trading companies. Hutchison Whampoa had been |
| focused on their son's needs that they even moved | | | | created in 1977 by a merger between the financially |
| from Mountain View, California, to Los Altos, California, | | | | troubled Hutchison International, founded in 1880, and |
| in 1968, to put Jobs in a new school because he said | | | | Hongkong and Whampoa Dock, which had been the |
| that he could not get along with the children in his old | | | | first registered company in Hong Kong when it was |
| school. He was an odd student, out of step with both | | | | founded in 1861. In 1979 Li bought 23 percent of |
| classmates and teachers, with a mind that looked at | | | | Hutchison Whampoa from Hongkong & Shanghai |
| science from unusual angles. He preferred to spend his | | | | Bank, becoming the first Chinese to control one of the |
| time with older students rather than ones his own age, | | | | old British companies that had long dominated Hong |
| including Stephen Wozniak, an electronics genius four | | | | Kong's economy. |
| years older than Jobs. | | | | Forbes magazine estimated his fortune at US$23 |
| In 1972 Jobs attended Reed College, in Portland, | | | | billion, making him the 9th richest man in the world. |
| Oregon, dropping out after one semester. He hung | | | | The Dell Story |
| around the school for about a year longer, before | | | | Michael Dell defied conventional wisdom-that |
| submitting a résumé that greatly inflated | | | | consumers would not purchase computer equipment |
| his electronics experience to Atari, a pioneer in video | | | | over the telephone-and built a billion-dollar company |
| gaming. After saving up enough money to pay his | | | | doing just that. Through his direct method of offering |
| way, he left Atari and journeyed with friends to India to | | | | low-cost, custom-configured personal computers direct |
| search for enlightenment. He shaved his head and | | | | to customers, Dell changed the competitive dynamic of |
| walked through what he saw to be appalling poverty. | | | | the computer industry. Notable for a natural business |
| He soon left India believing that Thomas Edison had | | | | talent coupled with a willingness to share power, Dell |
| done more for the betterment of humanity than all the | | | | carried the company through rapid growth and |
| gurus in the world. In 1975 he joined the Homebrew | | | | economic difficulties. He innovated operating |
| computer club, which included Wozniak among its | | | | processes, took risks, learned through his mistakes, and |
| members. Wozniak had discovered that a toy in Cap'n | | | | built Dell Inc. from a college dormitory operation to a |
| Crunch cereal boxes made the same tones that | | | | global corporation. Along the way Dell became one of |
| telephone companies used for long-distance switching. | | | | the wealthiest Americans and the youngest CEO of a |
| Soon, with Jobs's help, he was making small blue | | | | company on the Fortune 500 list of largest American |
| boxes that could be used with telephones to | | | | companies. |
| circumvent the safeguards of telephone companies | | | | Dell understood the meaning of "business opportunity" |
| and make free long-distance calls. It was Jobs who | | | | early in life, as his mother's profession, stockbroker, |
| turned this into a business venture by selling the boxes | | | | frequently raised discussions of business and |
| to college students. | | | | economic affairs at the family dinner table. So when |
| Wozniak was an electronics enthusiast. He enjoyed | | | | he began to collect stamps at age 12 and noticed |
| making gadgets and then sharing his inventions with | | | | prices rising, Dell recognized a business opportunity. He |
| anyone who was interested, without concern for | | | | determined the most profitable way to sell stamps |
| patents or profit. It was Jobs who soon saw the | | | | would be to bypass the auctioneer and sell direct to |
| potential marketability of Wozniak's circuit board | | | | collectors. He compiled a 12-page catalog of his and |
| combined with the microprocessor chips. In 1975 he | | | | his friends' stamps and advertised in a stamp |
| and Wozniak became partners, and Jobs gave their | | | | collectors' magazine. In this first business venture Dell |
| enterprise the name "Apple." They designed their | | | | earned $2000. |
| simple computer in Jobs's bedroom. When more | | | | Dell further developed his business acumen at the age |
| space was needed, Jobs's father cleared out his | | | | of 16, when he sold newspaper subscriptions for the |
| home's garage, where Jobs and Wozniak cobbled | | | | Houston Post. The inefficiency of cold-calling prompted |
| together their combination of a circuit board, a | | | | Dell to find better marketing methods. He determined |
| microprocessor, a video screen, and Jobs's most | | | | that the people most likely to subscribe were newly |
| important contribution, a typewriter-style keyboard. The | | | | married couples and people who had moved. He |
| inventors called it the Apple I. | | | | obtained lists of marriage license applicants and |
| Jobs had already discovered a local electronics | | | | mortgage applicants then used his Apple II computer to |
| storeowner who wanted 50 personal computers to | | | | address sales letters to people on these lists. The |
| sell to college students, who were the bulk of | | | | approach succeeded so well that Dell earned $18,000 |
| electronics enthusiasts. Jobs and Wozniak gave the | | | | the first year and had bought a BMW automobile by |
| Apple I the whimsical price of $666.66 and ended up | | | | the time he went to college. In the back seat of that |
| selling more than 600 of them, making $774,000. The | | | | BMW, Dell carried three personal computers, the |
| Apple I was a hobbyist's machine, a clumsy-looking | | | | seeds of PC's Limited and Dell Computer Corporation. |
| beast of wires and boards that invited tinkering. The | | | | Dell's fascination with computers began with exposure |
| partners wanted to build something more sophisticated | | | | to a data processor in junior high school then to |
| and easier to use-making technology easier to use | | | | computers at the local Radio Shack store. After much |
| would become essential to Jobs's views for building his | | | | persuasion, Dell's parents allowed him to use savings |
| companies. In 1977 the former Intel executive Mike | | | | to buy an Apple II computer at the age of 15. To the |
| Markkula, a venture capitalist, invested in Apple, | | | | fury of his parents, upon arriving home Dell dismantled |
| becoming its chairman of the board and bringing in | | | | the computer to see how it operated. The following |
| outsiders to help govern the company. Jobs | | | | year, in 1981, Dell bought an IBM desktop computer and |
| persuaded a successful publicist, Regis McKenna, to | | | | learned how to upgrade and add new components. |
| join Apple. That year the Apple II was introduced. It | | | | With insight that IBM-compatible computers would |
| took only about four hours for a purchaser to set it up | | | | become the choice of business, Dell began to buy, |
| and have it running, and it could run some business | | | | upgrade, and resell personal computers for friends and |
| programs, reducing to minutes from hours certain | | | | acquaintances, eventually purchasing components at |
| accounting tasks. With a canny sales campaign | | | | wholesale rates from distributors. Exposure to the |
| created by McKenna, and Jobs's own magnetic | | | | computer industry fostered Dell's desire to start a |
| personality helping persuade corporate buyers, the | | | | computer business. In June 1982 he skipped classes |
| Apple II became the first successful mass-market | | | | for most of a week to attend the National Computer |
| personal computer. | | | | Conference. After saving money to buy a hard disk |
| Jobs had to have been a concern for McKenna: Jobs | | | | drive (not standard equipment at the time), Dell |
| had long hair and a scruffy beard, and he usually wore | | | | communicated with other computer enthusiasts on a |
| jeans when meeting the conservatively dressed | | | | bulletin board system and learned how the industry |
| businessmen who had the power to order dozens of | | | | operated. He found dealers sold computers for $3,000 |
| Apple IIs at a time. But Jobs was charismatic. When he | | | | and made $1,000 gross profit, yet he could purchase |
| spoke of what his machines could do and of the | | | | components for less than $700. |
| future the machines would shape, he created what | | | | Dell determined that he could compete with retail |
| came to be known as his "reality distortion field." His | | | | computer dealers by selling direct to consumers at a |
| power to persuade was remarkable, and he often had | | | | lower price and offering better technical service, but his |
| potential customers vying for his attention. He was | | | | parents had another idea-that Dell should become a |
| soon perceived to be a visionary genius that foresaw | | | | physician. Dell went to the University of Texas at |
| how to marry high-technology electronics and | | | | Austin in fall 1983. While he attended to premed |
| everyday business. | | | | studies, Dell continued to upgrade and resell computers, |
| According to Forbes magazine, Steve jobs estimated | | | | finding customers among students and local |
| net worth is at US $4 billion in 2007. | | | | business-people through word-of-mouth. By the time |
| The Hutchinson Whampoa Story | | | | his parents made a surprise visit in November to |
| The wealthiest man in Asia, Li Ka-shing was | | | | address poor class attendance, Dell knew he wanted |
| nicknamed "Superman" in Hong Kong, where his global | | | | to compete with IBM. An attempt to be the good son |
| empire was based. His political and financial influence, | | | | and study premed lasted approximately three weeks, |
| as derived from his diverse holdings, which included | | | | then Dell returned to upgrading computers. In early |
| real estate, ports, telecommunications, finance, | | | | 1984 Dell registered PC's Limited with the state of |
| infrastructure, and biotechnology, led AsiaWeek to call | | | | Texas and moved to a two-bedroom condominium. |
| him "the most powerful man in Asia" in 2000. Born in | | | | Between word-of-mouth referrals and a small |
| mainland China, Li came to Hong Kong as a poor | | | | advertisement in the local newspaper, PC's Limited |
| immigrant in 1940 and launched his career making and | | | | sold between $50,000 and $80,000 per month in |
| exporting plastic flowers. | | | | computers, add-on components, and upgrade kits. The |
| Although his father was the head of a primary school | | | | week before final examinations in May 1983 Dell |
| in Guangdong province, Li had little opportunity for | | | | incorporated the company as Dell Computer |
| formal education. He was 12 years old in 1940 when | | | | Corporation with the state-required minimum of $1,000 |
| his family fled the Japanese invasion of China. Within | | | | capital. He never returned to college. |
| three years of their arrival in Hong Kong, his father had | | | | Today, Forbes estimated Michael Dell at US$15 billion |
| died, and the teenage Li was helping to support the | | | | dollars, remarkable achievement for a dropout. |
| family by selling plastic watchbands and belts. | | | | I believe everyone has a chance for success, whether |
| Li proved to be a capable salesman and started his | | | | you are high school dropout or a PHD graduate, you |
| own plastics factory in Hong Kong in 1950. By 1958 he | | | | can chose what kind of life you want to lead, you can |
| had a flourishing business manufacturing plastic flowers | | | | chose who you want to become. |
| and was ready to expand. He named the firm Cheung | | | | |