Page 341 - (DK) The Business Book

DIRECTORY 339

the Spanish portal, T1msn (now “planned obsolescence” was the An avid philanthropist, Wang is
ProdigyMSN.com). In March 2013, mission of industrial design, and renowned for her remarkable
Forbes magazine stated that Helú that design should make consumers insights into technology trends.
was the world’s richest person, want something “a litte newer, a See also: Creativity and invention
with a net worth of $73 billion. little better, a little sooner than is 72–73 ■ The right technology 314–15
See also: Effective leadership necessary.” Stevens was one of the
78–79 ■ Bill Gates 335 most influential industrial
designers of the 20th century. YANG YUANQING
See also: Planned obsolescence 1964–
ALFRED SLOAN 324–25
1875–1966 Yang Yuanqing was born in Anhui
province, China. While studying for
Alfred Sloan was a groundbreaking ALVIN TOFFLER a masters in computer science, he
industrialist who radically changed 1928– took a sales job at technology
the ways that companies were company Legend (now Lenovo).
organized in the early 20th century. American futurologist and writer By 29 years old he headed up the
He was born in New Haven, CT, Alvin Toffler was born in New York company’s personal computer
and studied electrical engineering City, where he grew up and went to business, and in 2009 he became
at MIT before joining a small university. He and his wife, Heidi, CEO. Yang transformed the
company that manufactured ball embarked on many collaborative traditional company into a
bearings. By the age of 24 he was research projects, identifying performance-oriented business with
its president, and within another current and future societal shifts. In a diverse staff, supplier network, and
four years had led it from near- Toffler’s best-known book, Future customer base. In 2012 and 2013 he
bankruptcy to an annual profit of Shock (1970), he envisaged a post- famously redistributed his bonus
$60 million. The company was industrial future in which companies among the company’s employees.
bought by General Motors, which outsource labor, technology See also: Effective leadership
went on to make Sloan its president displaces the worker, and change 78–79 ■ Changing the game 92–99
in 1923. He famously reorganized takes place so fast that people
GM into separate, autonomous cannot adapt fast enough to thrive.
divisions, in a decentralizing process See also: Reinventing and adapting ZHANG XIN
that was much copied. He was also 52–57 ■ Focus on the future market 1965–
the first to introduce a systematic 244–49 ■ Forecasting 278–79
approach to strategic planning. A Businesswoman Zhang Xin was
renowned philanthropist, he died raised in Hong Kong, and took on
aged 90 of a heart attack. CHER WANG factory work as a teenager to save
See also: Simplify processes 296– 1958– for an education in the UK. She
99 ■ Critical path analysis 328–29 received an MA from the University
Entrepreneurial thinker Cher Wang of Cambridge in 1992, then worked
was born in Taiwan and sent to the in investment banking. In 1995 she
BROOKS STEVENS US for school. She studied economics and her husband co-founded SOHO
1911–95 at University of California, Berkeley. China, a property development
After graduating, she worked for a company, offering prime properties
Industrial designer Brooks Stevens computer company, where the to Beijing’s new super-rich class.
was born in Milwaukee, WI. He heavy computer cases inspired her Success was not immediate, but
had polio as a child, and occupied to wonder if computing could be SOHO China is now the country’s
himself during long stays in bed made “smaller.” In 1997 she largest and most profitable property
by drawing. He later studied co-founded technology company company. In 2013 Zhang’s net
architecture at Cornell University, HTC based on this idea. By 2013 worth was $3.6 billion.
NY, before opening his own the company was making one in six See also: Beating the odds at
furnishings business. He said that of all smartphones used in the US. start-up 20–21