Exp3 - Client Articles on POWER

Client One --- Ratan Tata

'The Shy Architect,' Economist.

Relevent Extract:

"They might have expected Mr Tata, who had never held an executive position, to leave them alone. Instead, he retired them, improving their pensions to soften the blow. He sold stakes in some companies and used cash from the sales and revenue from Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest IT firm, to shore up control of those that remained. There are now a mere 96 companies in the group, and Tata Sons now owns at least 26% of each of them. That has made the portfolio a little easier to manage, but it leaves Mr Tata more isolated at the top.
Shortly after he became group chairman, Mr Tata also decided that Tata Motors would make its own cars, even though a joint venture with a foreign firm would have been easier. Critics grumbled that a good truck business was about to be destroyed for the sake of an ill-conceived vanity project. But after a difficult start, Tata Motors is now India's second-biggest carmaker by sales. "If he had listened to what everyone told him, he would never have done it," notes one of Mr Tata's friends."

Analysis: Power of Inner-Self

To me, this article on Ratan Tata highlights an interesting concept of power in terms of having enough inner power and strength to make an influential and precarious decision that is personally believed in, but may not be the general consensus.

Client Two --- Zhang Yin

'Move over Oprah, Zhang is new No.1,' Mary-Anne Toy from The Age.

Relevent Extract:

"Despite Mao Zedong's dictum that women "hold up half the sky", Communist China has remained by and large a boy's club and until recently, an old man's club at that.
The eldest of eight children born in southern China to a retired army officer who fought for the Communists during China's civil war, Zhang is the exception to the rule, turning $A5000 of savings into a $US3.4 billion fortune by exporting used American newspapers and magazines to China and recycling them to make the cardboard boxes needed to export China's torrent of manufactured goods to the world.
She arrived in Hong Kong in the mid-1980s to work for a trading company that had headhunted her for her industrial accounting experience. After a year she'd accumulated $HK500,000 in salary and profits, but then the company collapsed, leaving her with a crucial decision: to accept another salaried job or start her own business."

Analysis: Power of Dedication

I believe that the power of being dedicated and committed to achieving personal success despite hardships, difficult decisions is extremely valuable. This idea is clearly revealed through the article on Zhang Yin, highlighting how the concept of being powerful does not necessarily refer to wealth or influence.

Client Three --- Carlos Slim

'CARLOS SLIM THE RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD,' Stephanie N Mehta from Fortune.

Relevent Extract:

"The Slims' three main foundations have roughly $4 billion today, and they've pledged at least another $6 billion over the next several years. Among the causes: institutes for health and education, each seeded with $500 million to start. Slim has been a big backer of Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child initiative, and Bill Clinton recently convinced Slim to donate at least $100 million to his foundation's efforts to reduce poverty in Latin America. He also has invested heavily in refurbishing Mexico City's Centro histórico, or downtown. That said, the family tends to embrace economic development rather than donations as a way of eradicating poverty. "I think the best way to help people is not to give them money but to give them a job," says Marco Antonio. "We support education, health, and employment-that's what people need for a better life." Carlos Sr. caught a lot of flak from the Mexican press and U.S. commentators earlier this year when he was quoted as saying that he had no intention of "going around like Santa Claus" distributing his wealth.
Indeed, Slim seems to have a slightly different view of how he might give back. A few years ago he won an award from the World Education and Development Fund for his work on infrastructure in the developing world. His entire family accompanied him to the dinner in New York City. In his acceptance speech, Slim explained his life's work: "Many people want to leave a better world for their children," he told the crowd. "I'm trying to leave better children for my world."

Analysis: The Power of Making Money

The issue of power in this sense is relatively straightforward, with a huge and incomprehensible amount of money, one has dramatically increased possibility and power for achieving material desires, providing security for one's family and aiding the possible improval of society.