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