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UnitedHealth Group

UnitedHealth Group – An American-based Managed Healthcare and Insurance Company.

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The American multinational company UnitedHealth Group Incorporated is based in Minnesota, United States. It is founded in 1977 by Richard T. Burke is a for-profit healthcare company. UnitedHealth Group mainly provides healthcare products and insurance services to people in the US and beyond. The company has accomplished massive success within the last four decades and has become the second-largest healthcare company in the entire world. UnitedHealth is also the eighth largest company across all sectors in the world in terms of revenue. The current market capitalization of UnitedHealth Group is more than $400 billion. The company is currently under the leadership of Andrew Witty.

About the Company

UnitedHealth Group is a Fortune Global 500 company and is ranked 8th on the list this year. The company is also a part of both S&P 100 and S&P 500 components. UnitedHealth Group’s main goal is to give everyone a healthier life and make the working of the health system better for everyone. The company is striving to improve affordability and enhance the healthcare experience for every citizen which will build an overall healthier community. During the crisis of COVID-19, the company has funded more than 2,500 oxygen concentrators in India and supported the vulnerable population in the US and across the world. Recently, the company has been selected by the State of Nevada to serve its medical beneficiaries.

UnitedHealth Group
Image source: forwardtimes.com

History of UnitedHealth Group

In 1974, a private company called Charter Med Incorporated was founded by Richard Taylor Burke. After three years, in order to restructure and reorganize the company, another business was established, United Healthcare Corporation. And, the former company became a subsidiary of this bigger company. The company was established to play the role of a health management organization and its first goal was to manage the physician’s health plan of Minnesota.

Eventually, the company started opening a new business which includes launching its first pharmacy benefit management in 1988. This new solution was rolled out through one of its subsidiaries called Diversified Pharmaceutical Services. Later, this subsidiary was acquired by SmithKline Beecham for $2.3 billion.

Acquisition and Expansion

The company started making a significant number of acquisitions in the 1990s. In 1994, it acquired a company called Ramsey-HMO followed by The MetraHealth Companies Inc in 1995. An acquisition in 1996 helped the company expand to Arkansas, Maryland, Kentucky, and Tennessee through the operated HMOs of the acquired business. The United Healthcare Corporation was rebranded as UnitedHealth Group as the company was reorganized as holding many independent companies. Some of the companies are Ovations, Uniprise, UnitedHealthcare, etc. The same year, the company also acquired HealthPartners of Arizona.

In the early 2000s, a subsidiary of the UnitedHealth Group merged with LifeMark Health Plans. In 2002, the company acquired two brands, GeoAccess and AmeriChoice respectively. The next year, UnitedHealth Group expanded its business to West Virginia, Delaware, Washington D.C., and Maryland as it acquired Mid Atlantic Medical Services. The company also acquired Golden Rule Financial, Touchpoint Health Plan, Oxford Health Plans, PacifiCare Health Systems in due course of time. A lot of other companies were acquired by UnitedHealth Group but particularly the Optum unit of the company made some significant acquisitions and helped the company to expand further.

The Optum unit of UnitedHealth Group acquired companies like Rally Health in 2017 followed by Davita Medical Group in 2019 for $4.3 billion. The brand Optum was created by UnitedHealth Group in 2011 as the company’s health services business and currently it is the technology focussed brand of the parent company. In 2019, Andrew Witty who played his role as the CEO of the company’s Optum division became the President of the UnitedHealth Group.

About the Founder

Richard T Burke is a famous businessman who is currently on the board of the UnitedHealth Group. Apart from playing his role as the CEO of UnitedHealth, he was also the CEO of Arizona Coyotes for some time. He currently owns 7,000 units of UnitedHealth Inc stocks and his net worth is approximately $907 million as of July 2021. Richard is an alumnus of Georgia State University.

Honeywell

Honeywell – American Conglomerate Making Big in the World.

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Honeywell, officially known as Honeywell International Inc. is a Charlotte, North Carolina-based conglomerate. The company is over a century old and operated independently as Honeywell Inc. until its merger into AlliedSignal in 1999. Since Honeywell was already a recognized name, the merger was then called Honeywell International Inc. Mark C. Honeywell founded the company in 1906 in Wabash, Indiana, and since then, it has seen steady growth economically as well as client wise.

About the Honeywell

Honeywell is a century-old company and has its headquarters based in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is a publically traded technology company that mainly deals in aerospace, building technologies, performance materials, information technology, safety, and productivity solutions. Honeywell is a multinational conglomerate having 110,000 employees working for it, among which 44,000 people are working for the company in its US offices only. Honeywell is a renowned company having its name ranked 92nd among the Fortune 100 company in 2019.

Honeywell
Image source: prnewswire.com

The Back Story

Mark Honeywell founded Honeywell Inc. as Honeywell Heating Specialty Company in Wabash, Indiana, a company that manufactured and sold mercury seal generators. The product was invented by the founder itself. It was the time when everyone was trying to build and sell home heating systems. Since the competition was high, the company first acquired Jewell Manufacturing Company in 1922 and later merged with Minneapolis Heat Regulator Company in 1927, forming Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Company. Together both the companies started expanding to improve their control systems.

In 1934, Honeywell went international for the first time and entered the Japanese market after it partnered with a Japanese distributor Yamatake. The international expansion also led to the Canadian market, the market of the Netherlands as well as an office opening in Europe. Honeywell was also among the manufacturers who built and supplied products like superior tank periscope, camera stabilizers, C-1 autopilot, to the US military during World War II.

Working with the US army helped the company to grow other skills as well and make new products. After the world war ended, the company started to build parts for aircraft, like the automated control units. It also partnered with the USAF Wright-Air Development Center in 1953 for the same purpose. At the same time, the computer was an emerging industry, and the company also started a computer manufacturing division named Datamatic in partnership with Raytheon. The company launched DATAmatic 1000 as its first computer.

The 60s was the decade of growth and expansion, such that the company started to import the Pentax cameras and photographic equipment as well as acquired companies like Security Burglar Alarm Company.  

In the next decade, company had a joint venture with Groupe Bull and Control Data Corporation, named Magnetic Peripherals Inc. to enter the hard disk market. It also started to take interest in GE’s ongoing Multics operating system project. By the end of the 70s, the company was already a leader in the field of defense, aerospace, and computing.

In 1980, company acquired Incoterm Corporation to invest in the software market. The company was now selling airline reservations as well as bank teller software. By 2000, Honeywell was already valuing over $21 billion.

In the past twenty years, company has been acquiring big names in different industries. In 2015, it also stepped into the gas, electricity, and water meters business. The company has also started to work in the field of software, cyber-security, robotics, etc. As per the 2020 records, the company made revenues worth US$32.64 billion and owns assets worth US$64.586 billion.

Acquisitions

Honeywell’s acquisition policy has helped it grow rapidly. The major acquisitions of the company include Jewell Manufacturing Company (1922), Time-O-Stat Controls Company (1931), Brown Instrument Company (1934), Intervox Company (1950), Security Burglar Alarm Company (1969), GE’s process control business (1970), l’Informatique (1976), Xerox Data Systems (1975), Sperry Aerospace Group (1986), Duracraft (1996), AlliedSignal (1999), Pittway (2000), Ultrak (2002), GEM Microelectronics (2004), ActiveEye (2007), IAC (2008), Iris Systems (2011), Intermec (2013), Com Dev (2016) and Sparta Systems (2021), etc.

The Founder

Mark Charles Honeywell, a recognized electronics industrialist, founded Honeywell Inc. in 1906 and served the company as the first president and chairman for a period of 6 years. Honeywell was born and brought up in Wabash, Indiana. He went to Eastman Business College in Poughkeepsie, New York, and graduated in 1891. He founded Honeywell Inc. as a water heating system manufacturing company, and today, after about a hundred years, the company is known as a leading conglomerate operating worldwide in different fields.

KT Corporation

KT Corporation – Story Of The Largest Telecommunication Company Of South Korea.

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KT Corporation, being the first telecommunication company in South Korea has become a dominant entity in the country. The company grabbed the market when it had no competition and till now it is thriving with more than 23,000 employees. Joong-Soo Nam founded the company in 1981 in Seoul, South Korea. The largest shareholder of the company is the South Korean government’s National Pension Service which owns a 12.19 percent share of the company. Hyeon-Mo Koo is the current CEO of the KT Corporation.

About the Company

KT Corporation is the first and largest company in the telecommunication sector of South Korea, has multiple subsidiaries. The company also has a wide range of products which includes internet services, mobile telephony, credit card, digital television, etc. Though KT Corp offers several products, it mainly dominates the local landline and broadband internet market in South Korea. The company provides fixed-line services to around 90 percent of the total users of the country and 45 percent of the total internet users. In 1994, the company sold its wireless affiliate Korea Mobile Telecom but was again back in the wireless market in 1997 with the creation of personal communication service (PCS).

KT Corporation
Image source: www.koreatechtoday.com

History of the Company

Back in 1981, KT Corporation was founded as a public utility and it has made an immense contribution towards making the country a major IT hub. The foundation of the company changed the entire telecommunication scenario for South Korea. KT Corporation started growing so rapidly that after three years it became the tenth company in the world to develop an electric switch TDX-1. In 1987, the company successfully installed an automated nationwide long-distance network. The same year, the company also started a public video conferencing service, established a software and line technology research center, opened a new business division, and embarked on a joint partnership with AT&T.

In the upcoming years, the company rolled out a bunch of new services like telecommuting pilot service and international call coupon service. By 1993, the company installed nearly 20 million telephone lines which were big proof that South Korea was having a change of scenery and becoming a part of the IT society. The company launched two satellites in two consecutive years and also completed the construction of the 4th Boeun satellite earth station. From 1997, the company started acquiring many businesses including PCS and CT-2 business licenses, and founded KT Freetel.

In 1997, KT became a government-invested institution and started two new services. In 1998, KT was listed on the stock exchange and it also commercialized the telephone voting service. Next year, the company also got listed in the foreign stock exchange and it was the first company in Korea to announce that the Y2K problem was solved. At the beginning of the 21st century, there were several discussions and plans for the privatization of KT Corporation.

Privatization of KT Corporation

The privatization plans of the company were announced in May 2001 and the company also celebrated its 20th anniversary. The same year, the company changed its name from Korea Telecom to KT. In 2002, the privatization of the company was finalized. By 2005, KT had a total of 12 subsidiaries, and its total assets summed up to $29.315 trillion. In late 2005, the company established an inter-Korean telecommunication service as it opened a branch office in North Korea for the first time. In 2009, a big merger took place between KT Corporation and its wireless subsidiary KTF. The newly merged entity became the first company in South Korea to launch the iPhone in the Korean market. KT apart from the inter-Korean business has also expanded to other nations like Bangladesh, Brunei, Mongolia, South Africa, Poland, Rwanda, the US, and Uzbekistan.

Hyeon-Mo Koo – CEO of KT Corporation

Hyeon-Mo Koo joined KT Corporation in 2009 as the Senior Vice President of the management strategy department. In the past eleven years, he switched from various positions in other departments and became the CEO of the company in 2020. He studied industrial engineering from Seoul National University and also holds a Ph.D. in management engineering.

Doosan Corporation

Doosan Corporation – A South Korean Company Pioneering In Multiple Sectors Since 1896.

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Doosan, founded in South Korea in 1896 is more than just a corporate brand name. The company was founded to serve humanity and provide them with the basic amenities of life. The brand name Doosan is attached to multiple sectors of diversified business from construction to food and beverages. Park Seung-jik is the founder of Doosan Corporation and the company’s headquarters is currently based in Seoul, South Korea. Doosan has multiple subsidiaries which include Doosan Engineering and Construction, Doosan Infracore, Doosan Robotics, and many more. Once the company started as a retail store in South Korea is now leading in innovation and technology in various aspects of the digital era.

About Doosan Corporation

Doosan Corporation is famous around the world mostly for its diverse range of business and its core values to serve humanity. The applications of the technology of Doosan are widespread from providing electricity in India to clean water in the Middle East. In the North American market, Doosan is a leading provider of construction machines and the demand for its energy storage system and fuel cells is also growing exponentially. The technologies of Doosan, knowingly or unknowingly play an important part in our day-to-day life. Apart from providing clean water and light to make the life of every person better on this planet, Doosan is also preparing for the future and thus participating in making robots, energy storage systems, etc.

Doosan Corporation
Image source: www.doosan.com

The Founding Story of Doosan

Back in 1869, Park Seung-jik opened the first modern store in South Korea. The store was opened to make the daily life of the South Korean civilians easier. The store gained a good reputation very rapidly and became an instant trendsetter. Doosan’s story originally starts from this modern store that today has become a business with multiple subsidiaries trying to make our lives better. When this store was opened in 1869 its original name was Park Seung-jik Store Limited and it was rebranded as Doosan Store in 1925.

Various Business Sectors

After the store started gaining popularity, Doosan expanded its business not only into the overseas market but also in terms of the product range. In 1953, the company started producing and exporting OB beer under its new subsidiary Oriental Brewery. After a few years, the company entered into the construction business and it established Dongsan Construction and Engineering (now known as Doosan Construction and Engineering). In 1960, Doosan acquired Hapdong New Agency which today is known as Yonhap News. In 1966, Doosan introduced a food product line called Hanyang Food, and the next year it established a subsidiary for machinery called Doosan Mecatec.

In the upcoming years, the company founded a handful of new businesses which include Hankook Bottle and Glass, Doosan CCK Can Manufacturing, OB Seagram, OB Bears (currently known as Doosan Bears), etc. Doosan became Doosan Corporation in September 1998 when it relaunched after incorporating nine affiliates. In 2008, the company acquired Chung-Ang University which is one of the leading research universities in South Korea. The same year, Doosan sold its liquor business and now operated four main sectors, namely, fashion, global, information and communication, and electro-materials.

In 2009, Doosan became an operating holding company and in the next year, it opened a new business for fuel cells. Energy management is a smart business especially when our non-renewable resources have reached a critical stage. So, Doosan has also started developing energy management systems and it built Korea’s largest fuel cell factory. The IT services provided by Doosan are also new as compared to most of its other businesses. Apart from major IT services it also provides consulting and operation.

Jeongwon Park – CEO of Doosan Corporation

Jeongwon Park has been the CEO of Doosan Corp since 2016. His career started with Doosan Corporation in 1985 and eventually started leading the Oriental Brewery. In 1999, he became the Vice President and CEO of Doosan Corporation followed by Vice Chairman of Doosan E&C. He is attached to the company for more than 35 years making it stronger and sustainable with every passing day. Jeongwon graduated from Korea University followed by Boston University.

EchoStar

EchoStar – An American Telecommunication Company Famous For Providing Satellite Communication Across The Globe.

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Televisions, even after the digital era swooped in and everything started getting available on the internet, are still in demand. With advanced technology, we have found a way to give our television internet access and make our entertainment more profound. So, televisions, the internet, and satellite communication seem to play a very vital role in our everyday life. EchoStar is a leading company in the telecommunication sector which is famous for providing all these services globally. Founded in 1980 by Charles Ergen, the company gained popularity in a short period of time. The popular DISH network operated under EchoStar but it was spun off in 2008. Currently, the company has two subsidiaries, namely, Hughes Network System and EchoStar Satellite Services.

Founding History of EchoStar

Charles Ergen is the founder of EchoStar who is currently serving as the Chairman of the company as well. When the company was founded it acted as a distributor of C band TV systems. After doing business as a distributor for a few years, the company applied for a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) license. In 1992, the Federal Communications Commission approved the request and the company looked forward to launching its first satellite. After three years, the company successfully launched EchoStar I, the first satellite of EchoStar, and next year it launched its home satellite TV system. For rolling out this new product by EchoStar, the company settled for a new brand name which was Dish Network. And, now we know the origin of the famous Dish brand.

After operating for more than a decade, Dish Network was spun off as a separate entity from the rest of the EchoStar business. The total shares were split and the name of the newly independent company was changed from EchoStar Communications Corporation to DISH Network Corporation. The rest of the EchoStar business still has satellite technology, set-top box business, and Sling Media. Assets, infrastructure, and certain liabilities were distributed between these two companies and they started trading as two separate entities. Though the companies have been separated, a majority of the voting power of the shares of both DISH and EchoStar still lies with Charles Ergen and by a certain trust established by him.

EchoStar
Image source: sky-brokers.com

Present Days

Until 2010, the company was settling and reorganizing itself after the big spin-off. In 2011, the company decided to acquire Hughes Communications and the deal was closed at $3.1 billion. In 2017, EchoStar and DISH again struck a new deal and the former gave certain technologies back to DISH. These include digital set-top boxes, satellite uplinking and broadcast services, and streaming video technology. After these technologies were given back to DISH it once again acquired the status of the set-top box hardware manufacturer.

The year 2017 was very exciting for EchoStar as SpaceX delivered EchoStar XIII into orbit after a delay of a few days. This satellite was launched on the Falcon 9 Rocket and it currently provides broadcast services to Brazil. It was for the first time in space history that a pad that was used as a base for Apollo moon trips launched a purely commercial satellite. A couple of years back, the company transferred the broadcast satellite business to DISH as the company decided to focus more on broadband services.

Founder – Charles Ergen

Charles William Ergen is a famous American billionaire and a successful businessman. He is mainly famous as the co-founder of DISH and EchoStar. Before he founded the company, he worked as a financial analyst for Frito-Lay. He quit the company in 1978 and started working to establish a new company that has pioneered in communication and technology. Charles apart from being the current Chairman of EchoStar also played his part as the CEO of Dish Network which went on and off for some time. Currently, Charles Ergen owns 46 percent and 48 percent of the total shares of EchoStar and Dish respectively.

CEO – Michael Dugan

Michael Dugan was named the CEO and President of EchoStar in 2009. He is also been a member of the board of directors since 2007. Michael joined the company in 1990 and he witnessed the split of Dish and EchoStar and led the latter just after the spin-off. He joined the company as the Vice President of Engineering.

midea group

Midea Group – A Chinese Electrical Manufacturing Company Founded By The Famous Businessman He Xiangjian.

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He Xiangjian established the Midea Group in 1968. The company is a Chinese electrical appliance manufacturer and with time it has pioneered robotic and automation technology. Midea Group’s headquarters is based in the Shunde district of China. It is a publicly traded company that is listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. With time, that company has expanded to several foreign territories and established more than 60 overseas branches as of 2018.

Some of the main products manufactured by Midea Group are water appliances, small and big appliances for cooking purposes, laundry equipment, etc. So, the products manufactured by Midea Group are extensively used by people in day-to-day life. Once a brand especially for household appliances becomes popular, it gains the trust of the customers which helps it stay in the market for the long term.

About Midea Group

Midea Group is a Fortune 500 company and currently ranks 288th on the list. There are more than 150,000 working for the company from various parts of the world. The company currently entered 200 overseas markets and has established partnerships and collaborated with other brands to bring innovation into the products. Speaking of innovation, it is one of the core values of the Midea Group. Out of the total profit generated annually, Midea Group invests 3.5 percent in its R&D sector which consists of 20 research centers in 9 countries. The company has more than 56,000 authorized patents to date.

In terms of manufacturing, Midea Group is the biggest manufacturer for certain products on a global scale. With time, the company has improved production capacity and gained experience to produce a diverse range of products at a high rate. There are 16 countries where Midea Group has established production bases. The company’s goal is to deliver an order within 12 days after a customer orders it as per the T+3 business model.

midea group
Image source: www.gizchina.com

History of the company

He Xiangjian started the business in 1968 by opening a small workshop for producing bottle lids. The workshop was established in Beijiao, Shunde and Xiangjian had very little capital during this time. From a small workshop to turning Midea Group into one of the most successful companies in China, the journey is incredible. When He started manufacturing bottle lids, he eventually expanded the business and started producing car parts as well. During this time, Midea Group was a private company but Guangdong Midea Electric, a subsidiary that handled the core business of Midea Group filed for IPO. In 1973, it became a publicly traded company as it got listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

In the early 1980s, Midea Group started focusing on manufacturing fully finished goods like electric fans. In 1985, the company rolled out its first air conditioner which to date is one of the core products of the company. The last decade of the 20th century was all about expanding the horizon of products which included refrigerators, washing machines, microwaves, etc. Midea started building production units outside the country in the 21st century. Its first production facility was established in Vietnam in 2007 and this year marked the international expansion of Midea Group. The company’s next target was to enter into the CIS market and it did it in 2008 by partnering with Horizont. After a few years, the company entered into another joint partnership with Carrier Corporation and they opened branches in Egypt, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and India.

He Xiangjian served as the Chairman of the company from 1968 till 2012 when he decided to step down from his position. Xiangjian was replaced by Paul Fang who was the Chairman and President of Guangdong Midea Electric. In 2014, Xiaomi acquired a 1.2 percent share of the Midea Group and after a couple of years, Midea made three big acquisitions. They are Toshiba’s home appliance division, a German robotics company called KUKA, and a brand called Eureka.

About He Xiangjian

He Xiangjian is one of the eminent entrepreneurs hailing from China for building the world’s largest appliance maker company. Back in 1968, he with the help of 23 residents from the town of Beijiao formed the lid production workshop. His current net worth by Bloomberg Billionaires Index is $32.7 billion.