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Frank Lowy
Pushing the limits
Teachers and students seeking a relevant and in depth case study of a large Australian company will enjoy the Harper Collins biography entitled Frank Lowy Pushing the Limits.
The book recaps the life of Australia's second richest man Frank Lowy, founder and until mid 2000 the Chief Executive Officer of the Westfield Shopping Centre empire. Besides being quite a fascinating tale of Lowy's rise from one-time refugee to billionaire, the pages contain a significant amount of information relevant to the new Business Studies syllabus. The following are a few quotes along with their related content areas.
Cash flow management
"The television episode was a milestone. The family learned a big but very simple lesson: in a business more money has to come in than goes out. If more cash comes in than goes out over a defined period, you're okay. If that's not happening, you get out. It's as simple as that."
Adapting management and organisational approaches to circumstances
Frank, from his days as a soldier during the 1947-49 Israeli War of Independence describes the leadership style of his platoon leader. "He was a man who was both adventurous and careful. He never gave us a command without discussion. If he sent a group on a dangerous mission, the group talked about it first. We studied the map together and discussed how we could support one another. Our decisions were reached by consensus."
The importance of effective management
"But there was a general feeling around at the time that if Frank had made a real basic business mistake in his whole life, it was not necessarily that he bought into Channel Ten, but that he took an active role in it. If he had gone in and hired the best bloke who knew how to buy films, he could have made a success of it.
What happened is probably not a bad case study of how outstanding success in one direction does not guarantee success in a business that is fundamentally different to the one you work in."
Types of business entity
Key factors in establishing a business (Preliminary
Course)
"Forming productive partnerships is one of the keys to Lowy's success and it was behind the deli counter, in amongst the olives and salamis, that the seeds of a business giant, Westfield, were planted. With a shared disregard for conventional limitations, these two hardworking immigrants (Frank Lowy and John Saunders) quickly conquered their new frontier, turning Westfield into the leading shopping centre company in Australia."
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