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SK Telecom

SK Telecom – A Subsidiary of SK Group Providing Wireless Telecommunication Services in South Korea.

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Based in South Korea, SK Telecom operates under the SK Group which is one of the largest industrial conglomerates of the nation. The company is famous for being the largest wireless carrier of South Korea and had a local market share of 50.5 percent as of 2008. SK Telecom was established in 1984 as Korea Mobile Telecommunications and in 1997 it was rebranded as SK Telecom. The company has evolved with time from using the analog cellular system to IMT-cellular systems. From the wireless market, SK has also entered the landline market with the acquisition of Hanaro Telecom in 2008. Currently, the company has more than 40,000 employees and has expanded overseas especially to other Asian countries.

History of the SK Telecom

Established in early 1984, Korea Mobile Telecommunications Corp was a subsidiary of Korea Telecom (now known as KT Corp). In 1993, KT Corp decided to sell the subsidiary and thus it came under the SK Group a year later when it decided to buy Korea Mobile Telecommunications Corp. The company, KMTC, officially became a part of the SK Group in 1997 and changed its name to SK Telecom. Under the new parent company, SK Telecom became the second company in the world to launch commercial 3G services using the W-CDMA technology. Eventually, SK Telecom’s services offered higher speed data transmission than the other existing 2G networks.

When the privatization of KMTC took place in 1994, SK Group became the largest shareholder of the company. And, after the privatization, KTMC reached it’s one million subscribers mark within a year. In 1996, it was listed in the NYSE and during that time it was the third Korean company to get listed there. After KMTC became fully a part of the SK Group and changed its name, the merger made it the world’s sixth company to cross the ten million subscriber mark. In 1997, SK Telecom launched NetsGo, a new online service. The company started entering the international market during this time through the construction of the Northeast Asian CDMA belt. The company also entered the Mongolian market in 1998 when it cofounded Skytel LLC with 30 percent ownership.

SK Telecom
Image source: wikimedia.org

Market in the 21st Century

During the time period between 2001 to 2007, SK Telecom was involved in welcoming the cross-platform era integrated mobile services. The company started exploring new models to diversify the business through m-commerce or satellite DMB service. SK acquired Shinsegi Telecomm Inc in 2002 and deployed the IMT-2000 facility which was the world’s first. The company was also trying to strike deals with the international market leveraging CDMA and GSM networks. This helped the company enter into several markets including Israel, China, and Vietnam. In 2004, SK Telecom started a joint venture with China Unicom and named it UNISK and a few years later signed an agreement with the Chinese government for building their 3G wireless broadband equivalent.

New Technologies

With time the company evolved and adapted new technologies to survive and thrive in the telecommunications market. In 2008, the company acquired a controlling stake of Hanaro Telecom and it helped SK to expand in the landline market. SK started offering commercial LTE-Advanced Network and it became the world’s first operator to successfully do so. Apple also made some discussions with SK Telecom back in 2013 as the former decided to launch the iPhone 5s model on the company’s advanced LTE network. In 2019, the company also announced the launch of the world’s first 5G roaming service in partnership with Swisscom. Recently, the company has also partnered with Uber Technologies. Company not only introduced some advanced networking technologies for the first time in South Korea but also in the entire world.

Jung Ho Park – CEO of SK Telecom

Jung Ho Park is the current CEO of SK Telecom. He is currently looking out for long-time growth opportunities and building a strong corporate culture in the company. Previously, he served as the CEO of SK Hynix and after that served as the director of SK C&C Co. Jung Ho Park completed his education from George Washington University.

Control Data Corporation

Control Data Corporation – The Story of One of the Pioneers of Mainframe and Supercomputers.

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There have been cases where companies do exceptionally well and stand as a tough competitor for their rivals at a time, and when the time changes, it becomes difficult for them to keep up with the changing trends, and they fall bad. The same thing happened with CDC (Control Data Corporation), a company founded in 1957, termed as one of the pioneers of the mainframe and the supercomputers. In the beginning years of the company, it easily became a part of the top ten leading computer manufacturing companies in the US. But the changing technologies made the company suffer huge losses, and it had to close most of its operations.

Foundation of Control Data Corporation

A couple of software engineers from a team (later became a company named Sperry) that worked for the US military in World War II established Control Data Corporation in September 1957. The company started its operations from an old warehouse in Minneapolis. William Norris became the first CEO, and Seymour Cray was the first chief designer of the company.
With enough experience, CDC started to build and ship the subsystems, including drum memory systems. The next year, the company built its flagship product, the CDC Little Character, one of the most successful products of CDC. In the following years, CDC also built products for the US Navy. The company is also allegedly credited for building one of the first minicomputers, i.e. the CDC 160A, a 12-bit version of 1604. The CDC 160A was the first computer to have an architecture of a standard office desk.
CDC 3000 series was CDC’s next famous series of the 60s. During the mid-60s, Seymour Cray, Jim Thornton, and Dean Roush were already working on a new computer design separately to improve the CDC 1604 and bring a more compact design computer to the market. The result was CDC 6600, a ten times faster machine that brought about $8 million to the company profits, and over 100 machines were sold. The CDC 6600 brought much-needed fame to CDC, and IBM started to consider the former as its rival.

Control Data Corporation
Image source: wikimedia.org

During the same time, to grow and compete with companies like IBM, CDC started to acquire other small companies. As a result, CDC was now also developing peripheral products like tape transport. The peripheral lineup of CDC was making cheaper yet faster peripheral devices as compared to its rivals. CDC became one of the leading companies to supply hard disk drives through its Magnetic Peripheral Inc (Imprimis Technology) division. CDC is one among the three developers of the universal Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) interface along with Compaq and Western Digital.
In the 70s, CDC also entered into the OCR system development business to replace the punched card technology and acquired Rabinow Engineering (one of the pioneers of OCR technology). But later, CDC had to close that business.
The next products from CDC were CDC 7600 and CDC 8600, which were even faster, but could not reach the expectation. In 1975, CDC introduced the STAR-100, a supercomputer that had its name registered in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the “most powerful and fastest computer”.
During the late 70s, CDC was selling CDC 6600 and 7600 under its CDC Cyber lineup. The company’s other ambitious and successful projects were Cyber 205, CYBER PLUS, Cyber 80, etc.

The ‘Fall’, and Formation of Ceridian

The 80s was the most challenging decade for CDC. It was selling the machines but was unable to produce competitive designs as per the requirements. With the rise in competition, the company started to sell some of its business bit-by-bit, starting with PathLab Laboratory Information System in 1987, followed by VTC, Ticketron, and CDC in 1992. CDC was then left with its service business, which is renamed Ceridian, a company that is still operational.
Ceridian, today, is following its legacy and is working as one of the leaders in the field of IT outsourcing, mainly as a human resource company. Ceridian is active in five major countries, i.e., the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, and Mauritius. It is a publicly traded company and has its headquarters based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

The Key People in the Formation of CDC

William Norris was the first CEO and one of the founders of CDC. He was born on 14 July 1911 in Red Cloud, Nebraska. He went to the University of Nebraska and started his career as an X-Ray equipment seller for the Westinghouse Corporation in Chicago.
Later, Norris joined the US Navy as a codebreaker and became the lieutenant commander in the next few years. After World War II ended, he along with Howard Engstrom and other US Navy cryptographers, formed the Engineering Research Associates (ERA) in January 1946, a division that worked for the US Navy. After multiple restructuring of ERA, Norris with a few other employees left the company and established Control Data Corporation in 1957. Norris was unanimously selected as the president and the first CEO of CDC.

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.