Word: williams
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...family firm, there is that moment when parent and boss intersect. For Hong Kong billionaire William Fung, that moment has arrived, and with it comes his own special predicament. In 1972, as a brash 23-year-old fresh out of Harvard Business School, he reluctantly joined Li & Fung, a trading company co-founded by his grandfather. William's first move was "to get rid of the family deadwood," he says, by taking the company public. His son Terence, 25, recently joined the business, and William, a drafter of Hong Kong's mini-constitution who is famous for having a judicious...
...extended Fung family, which controls 42% of the company's equity, still plays an important part in the business. William's eldest brother Victor--a former Harvard Business School professor whose name is often raised as a possible future leader for Hong Kong--is chairman. At the family's weekly Sunday brunches at a mountainside luxury tower that houses three generations of Fungs, the brothers usually pair off to talk shop. But unlike many other Asian companies, which are treated as opaque clan fiefs, Li & Fung produces a straight-talking triennial three-year plan, and the brothers are regularly ranked...
...William Fung has a clear idea of where all this streamlining will lead. "In 10, 20 years, consumers will buy directly from the factory over the Internet," he says. "We want to be the people operating it." The new Fung recruit, meanwhile, already shows some attributes needed in the fast-paced global industry. He has a penchant for fast cars (he zips around in one of his two black souped-up BMW M5s) and air travel (he writes a private blog about his plane trips). "It's good to be here," Terence says. A techie who once...
...possibility that the U.S. might make a preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities can be measured by how frequently the Bush Administration trots a senior official out to insist that there are no plans to launch such an attack. On Nov. 12, it was Admiral William Fallon's turn. The head of the Pentagon's Central Command, which would execute a strike should the day ever come, dismissed the idea in an interview with the Financial Times. "It astounds me that so many pundits and others are spending so much time yakking about this topic," Fallon said...
...Stephen Johnson of Indigo Partners, an investment company based in Phoenix, Ariz., that owns 24% of Tiger. But for all those grandiose dreams, executives believe that not all the budget carriers can survive. "There is going to have to be a consolidation or shake-out," warns Tiger's chairman, William Franke, a former CEO of America West...