Carlos Slim
To kick off the first ever Annual Carlos Slim Week, here’s a short insight into the man.
After Carlos Slim had pretty much acquired everything that he could in Mexico without triggering a revolution by the populace, he had to start looking outside of the country for investment opportunities. On a trip to New York he went shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue the up-scale department store. While most shoppers would have been absorbed by the merchandise and what to buy, Carlos Slim’s mind was on bigger matters as is the case typically with tycoons. He looked up the company’s share price on the NYSE. Then he estimated the square footage of the store and asked a friend in real estate what the per sq. ft. price was for retail space in the area. These two numbers multiplied then gave him the market value of the Saks real estate.
The Ignored Growth Strategy
When people ask which tycoons best exemplify the Tycoon Playbook approach to building a business empire, Carlos Slim always comes to mind. If you scan the annual lists of billionaires you will see that most made their money either through wheeling and dealing in assets (i.e., businesses for the most part) the way Carlos Slim did. Some used it as their primary growth strategy while others used it as a secondary one. The billionaires who made their money by focusing on building one technology company are far and few between. Unfortunately, the media is currently obsessed with the Zuckerbergs, Brins, Pages, and Bezos.
My mission is to right this sorry state of affairs and swing the limelight back to the best role models for most entrepreneurs.
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