Word: greene
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With its dark furniture, high-tech gadgets and model jet plane, Philip Green's London office feels a lot like the work area of an investment banker or hedge fund manager. On the wall behind his enormous desk, there's even a photograph of Wall Street antihero Gordon Gekko. But on this May morning, a daytime-TV segment flickering on his sleek, flat-screened television betrays his role as a master of an entirely different universe: women's fashion...
...Green, the billionaire owner of the Arcadia Group, which controls a clutch of U.K. clothing chains like Miss Selfridge and Wallis, is watching a spot about the latest fashion collection to hit Topshop, the jewel in Arcadia's crown. The much-ballyhooed line inspired by Kate Moss - the supermodel's own wardrobe formed the basis of the designs - went on sale the previous night at the chain's flagship store in London. Basking in the nonstop Moss-fueled coverage, Green can't help but smile: "You couldn't dream for a better start," he says...
...reputation for tackiness and losing out to budget chains in the '90s, Topshop's managers decided to stop competing just on price. "The decision was made to create a fashion authority," says Mary Homer, a joint managing director of Topshop who's been at the retailer for 20 years. (Green, a retail entrepreneur with years of experience in various types of businesses, acquired Arcadia in 2002, and helped execute the strategy already under way.) The company now employs 22 of its own designers, up from around a dozen in 2002, and they aim to create new looks just as deftly...
...With 300 stores in the U.K and 100 international outlets (all of them franchises) in Asia, Europe and Latin America, Topshop is looking to expand its reach further overseas. "There's no lack of demand," Green says. Even after opening its biggest international store in Stockholm, he says, Scandinavia still holds tremendous potential. But to grow much larger, Topshop will have to make some radical changes. Today, no matter where its smock dresses or miniskirts are stitched together - or where they're destined - everything passes through the U.K. "The existing franchising model and supply chain would not work for significant...
...eradication of hookworm in the U.S. South, helping pave the way for the region's economic development. It supported the Nobel-prizewinning work that created the yellow-fever vaccine. It helped Brazil eliminate a malaria-transmitting strain of mosquito. And perhaps most stunningly, it funded the Asian Green Revolution, the transformative agricultural success that enabled India and other countries to escape endless cycles of famine and poverty...