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Hyundai

Chung Ju-Yung: Journey of Hyundai Motor’s founder who proves man’s potential is limitless!

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The global economy has witnessed major uncertainties, and this could be witnessed in the future as well. All know that the economy is depends hugely on the automobile industry. However, due to changing technology and rising competitions the automobile industry is facing a wave of rapid change. Which again somehow affecting the growth of the automobile sector and proportionally the economy of any country. But, there are some leading automobile companies out there that will make whatever changes as per the requirements of today’s world.

Hyundai Motor is one of the automobile firms that adapting new technologies and investing in new businesses. Nevertheless, without a strong foundation, it is difficult for a company to stand strong since its foundation. Especially, in the world where technology alters every year and competition intensifies per day. All credit goes to South Korean entrepreneur Chung Ju-Yung, who set up Hyundai Motors back in 1946. A person with great future insights and resolutions, and inspiration for young entrepreneurs.

Life Journey of Chung Ju-Yung

It’s fascinating to know how a boy that belongs to a poor Korean family became one of the richest men in the world. No doubt, it must be tough for him to climb the ladder of success, which he achieved with his indomitable efforts. Today, Chung Ju-Yung is one of the reputed names in the automobile industry and role model for many entrepreneurs. Let’s see, the journey from a common man to Hyundai Motors’ founder.

Early life

He was born on 25 November 1915 in Kangwon Province. In the period, when Japanese rule was all over Korea. Chung belongs to a peasant family and he was the eldest among his other siblings. At a young age, he wanted to be a teacher. Due to poverty, he also had to leave higher education. Also, Chung had to step back from his dream because of poor family conditions, where two times bread was hard to get. Fortunately, he got to attend a local Confucian school. Because his grandfather was running that school thus, Chung could attend the school after finishing farm work.

However, he discovered the businessman within him at the time he sold wood. Thereafter, some newspaper articles against poverty encouraged Chung who was tired of leaving in poverty.

Escape or Discovery of New Life?

That time, farmers were living a poor life, no matter how hard they worked the poverty was unending. Knowing farm life’s harsh realities, Chung decided to find other work. With his friend, he traveled to Kowon and they got their first job as construction workers. He worked there for two months until his father took his home. During that job, he understood his passion for civil engineering. So, he again escaped working in this field. But this time, he learned a life lesson. A stranger promised him to offer a job and took all the money and ran away. After that, he helped his father in farm work, but he was not ready to continue a farmer’s life. Sooner or later, he again managed to escape and enrolled a name in local bookkeeping school in the hope of becoming an accountant. All goes well until Chung’s father took him home again.

In the business

He again ran away and this time it was the wise Chung. Earlier, he took any job he could find. At that time, he worked as a laborer, construction worker, and a handyman. After several job roles, he found a better job as a deliveryman. This job at Seoul in the Bokheung rice store offered him many facilities. In a short period, he got appreciation and promotion as a rice store accountant. Apparently, it was the first job in his life that assisted to develop business skills. In 1937, the store owner died, and he left the store on Chung’s name. So, now he became the owner of the rice store. All goes well until the war, Japan forced the Korean business out of trading rice.

Chung Ju-Yung to start Hyundai

After a huge loss in the rice business, he returned home. He noticed that the Japanese Colonial government has restricted many businesses for Koreans. Studying all the scenarios, he decided to jump into an automobile repair business. Eventually, he started a-do service garage which offered him a good income in a short time. But in 1943, the Japanese colonial government forced to merge the garage with steel plant and this business shut down too.

In 1946, Korea liberated from the control of the Japanese Colonial government. Chung grabs the opportunity and established Hyundai. He was known to the fact that it’s a great chance to set the business in anticipation of the post-war reconstruction and industrialization.

Hyundai grabbed the contracts

Chung’s vision turned true; the company acquired major contracts from the government. In a short period, Hyundai builds most of the transportation infrastructure in South Korea. For example, Soyang Dam, Gyeongbu Expressway, Ulsan’s shipyard which is today largest in the world. Also, the company earned several contracts from the American Military.

Later life

At the age of 85, he died in Seoul on 21 March 2001. He builds the strong foundation of Hyundai and set his name as one of the most admired businessmen in the history of Korea. Whatever the company achieved is attributed to the future perspective and resolutions of Chung Ju-Yung.

Takeaway.com

Jitse Groen’s Start-Up Has Pioneered Britain’s Online Food Delivery Market

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It is just a myth that people have good food only on weekends. Though one doesn’t get the time to visit a posh restaurant every day, the craving for good food is a real struggle. Moreover, our everyday busy schedule doesn’t allow anyone of us to prepare good food and cherish a meal. But, that doesn’t mean we are going to be deprived of those robust mouth-watering meals from our favorite restaurants.

You already know the hack, don’t you? Indian population has already become a huge fan of online food delivery services like Zomato, Uber Eats, Swiggy, etc. Similarly, the English people have Takeaway.com to their rescue. Jitse Groen, a Dutch student, founded his online food delivery start-up in 2001 which has now become a billion-dollar business.

Education and Early Career of Jitse Groen

Jitse Groen went to the University of Twente for acquiring his bachelor’s degree in Business Information Technology. He founded Takeaway.com while he was a college student. Apart from founding his business, he served his role as the CEO of GRIB BV from 1998 to 2006. He also worked at HotelSpecial as an Advisory Board Member, worked at Funda as a Board Member, as the CEO of Thuisbezorgd.NL BV (which later became Takeaway.com), etc.

How Jitse founded Takeaway.com 

Back in 1999 when Jitse was a college student, the idea of making a website came into his mind. He was attending a party at Noord-Holland and wanted to order a pizza. But, unfortunately, the online service showed that it won’t be able to deliver his choice of food at the given address. And, that’s how this tech guy came up with the idea of founding his online company to serve his nation.

Most of the successful start-ups come from just an idea. Well, it is true that to make a business establish successfully one needs to have patience and proper planning. But, only a few have the guts to take a risk and step out of the boundaries. Jitse decided to create a website that will connect as many restaurants as possible to the people, and he did it.

He registered with the domain name Thuisbezorgd and embarked as a young entrepreneur in 2000.

Jitse’s opinions on online food service

Though the idea of founding a business came within twenty seconds, Jitse did a lot of market research before going international. Moreover, he worked for another nineteen years in different companies. And, after that Takeaway.com finally emerged as the top online food delivery company in Belgium. Jitse knew he needs proper funding and planning before he can place Takeaway on the firm ground.

But, once he established the business he succeeded rapidly. In 2003, he changed the domain name to Takeaway.com because he wanted to go international. He knew it would be tough for him to compete with the other billionaire companies. But, his strategies played the ace for him.

Jitse, in an interview, said that maximum customers look for restaurants that don’t take delivery charges. So, even if they find one out of three hotels charging zero delivery charge they will go for it. And, it happens even if the food is a bit expensive. So, a food outlet selling through the website of Takeaway.com made more profit as compared to any other websites.

Takeaway.com

When Jitse founded the company in 2000, he mainly opened it for delivering kebabs and pizza. Bit, eventually his business expanded and emerged as one of the top online food delivery companies in the Netherlands. Jitse continued working for other companies and didn’t devote all his time to Takeaway.com at the beginning. So, his first big fundraising happened in 2012.

In 2012, Jitse received funding of €13 million from Prime Ventures and started accepting bitcoins from next year. The company raised another round of €74 million in Series B funding from Macquarie Capital and Prime Ventures. By the end of 2016, the valuation of the company almost reached a billion. This year, the company stooped its business in the UK.

The acquisitions of Taleaway.com escalated from 2018. It acquired 10bis, an Israeli company for €135 million and also a Belgium company called BGmenu.com. The company made a major acquisition in July 2019 which is Just Eat. While doing business in the UK, it was one of its biggest competitors. To date, the company successfully delivers around 800,000 orders per month from 10,000 different restaurants.

Hawaiian-Airlines

Stanley Kennedy: Hawaiian Airlines Founder who dreams of expanding flights beyond the islands!

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Hawaiian Airlines is some of the best Airlines in the US that well-known as a tenth-largest commercial airline in the United States (US). As well, it is the largest airline of Hawaii that has the flag career throughout its journey. In fact, it’s the oldest airline that has never had a fatal accident since its foundation. Also, in the USA, Hawaiian airlines often top the on-time carrier list. The best part, it sets the example as the best airline that has fewest cancellations as well, minimal baggage handling issues.

Stanley Kennedy builds the foundation of airlines which took the first inter-island flight in 1929. Since then he ran Hawaiian Airlines however, he stepped down from daily operations back in 1955. After that, Kennedy served as chairman of the company until 1968. Presently, Hawaiian Holding Inc. owned the company. However, P. Ingram is handling the CEO and president’s position at one of the oldest operating airlines in the world.

Hawaiian Airlines Founder’s Life Journey – Stanley Kennedy

He was a US Naval Aviator during the first world war. As well, Kennedy was a silver star recipient who also holds the world record at that time. Most importantly, he is known as the Hawaiian Islands’ commercial aviation pioneer.

Early life

He was born on 7 July 1890 in Honolulu in Hawaii. Stanley’s father, James A. Kennedy was the president of the Inter-islands Steam Navigation company in Hawaiian island. However, the Kennedy family was an immigrant from Scotland. In 1908, Stanley completed his secondary education from Punahou School, Honolulu. After that, he went to Stanford University for graduation. Just after completing education, he joined his father at work.

Career

In 1917, the US entered World War I, thus many civilians had to join the US military force. He joined the US Navy and went for Naval Officer training at Massachusetts institute of technology. During the mission, Kennedy along the team set a world record for a sustained flight that fly for 7 hours, 59 minutes. For that, he earned a silver star.

After world war I, he returned and joined the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company. Kennedy’s experience flying seaplanes encouraged him to used seaplanes to connect Hawaii’s people. But his father was against his idea. However, he proposed this idea again after his father died.

The beginning- Inter-island Airways

The members on the company’s administration panel accepted his proposal and Inter-Island Airways started in 1929. Stanley appointed as a General manager and vice president of his dream company. However, he hired his navy companion Charles Elliot as the first chief pilot of the company. Kennedy always had a dream of starting scheduled airline service in Hawaiian Island. In 1921, on 11 November, the company scheduled the first flight that flew from Honolulu-Maui-Hilo.

Flights beyond the Hawaiian Islands

Expectation continues to rise, he aimed at expanding the flights beyond the island. With changing vision, the company changed the name as Hawaiian Airlines in 1941. To start flight beyond the islands Kennedy had to face many challenges and lots of money spent on it. For that, Kennedy teamed up with TWA which later on steps back from the deal.

In 1959, the airline route application process reattended, and it was flying DC-6s to the mainland. After that, Stanley handover the presidency of Hawaiian Airlines to Art Lewis. But the company still not got the chance to win the route for scheduled flights. However, the approval of the Airline Deregulation Act, 1978 end the wait of Hawaiian Airlines to start scheduled flights beyond the Islands.

Personal life

He married Martha, a lady he met during his return journey after completing education. At the age of 77, in 1968 Kennedy died due to cardiac arrest. Stanley served as a chairman of Hawaiian Airlines till he died.

Hawaiian Airlines other Successes

In 1966, the company started inter-island Jet service. Also, the company established inter-island passengers as well as the Air-Cargo business after the second world war. Today, it is the world’s one of the oldest and Hawaii’s largest Airlines that is operating successfully. Its main hub is at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport and a secondary hub at Maui’s Kahului Airport. The dream of Stanley Kennedy to start scheduled flights is achieved. An airline operates scheduled flights to American Samoa, Hawaii, and New Zealand. Also, to Asia and other islands beyond Hawaii.

George-Samuel-Hurst-Touchscreen-Founder

George Samuel Hurst- One Of The First Scientists To Come Up With Touchscreen Technology

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Though scientists conducted thorough experiments and research regarding touchscreen technology, the implementations took a very long time. Theoretically, the concept of touchscreen dates back to the 1940s but the application in the real world wasn’t possible until 1980. For a long time, the ability of touchscreen didn’t cross the boundaries of the laboratory, but today the scenario is different. We can’t imagine surviving one day without using our smartphone or a tablet. But, now we have said no to the annoying “qwerty” keypads. It is amusing how bewildered we use to be seeing the high-tech touchscreen technology in science fiction. And, today we are part of the society where most of us using the technology like a jigsaw puzzle. We should be grateful to this physicist for bringing our life to a whole other technological dimension.

The early life of George: Touchscreen Founder

Born on 13th October 1927, George belonged to a very rural area of Ponza, Bell County, Kentucky. Their family had a farm where he grew up with other siblings. From a very young age, he had a very keen interest in physics and Thomas Edison in particular. But, who knew this zeal to learn new things would make this farm boy so famous one day.

Education

George attended Bell County High School and went to Berea College to acquire his bachelor’s degree. He got admitted into college at the age of fifteen and received his degree in 1947. He graduated with a degree in physics and a minor in mathematics. For pursuing higher studies, he went to the University of Kentucky and completed his master’s in physics.

While pursuing his higher education, he made a friend called Rufus Ritchie with whom he worked on various physics projects. After graduation, both of them decided to go to ORNL (Oak Ridge National Laboratory). After George’s significant contribution to the field of Physics, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee. The name of his paper was “Attachment of Low-Energy Electrons in Mixtures Containing Oxygen”.

Area of Research

In the world of science, capacitive touchscreens were invented first followed by resistive touchscreens. E. A. Johnson is known for inventing the capacitive touchscreens in the early 1960s. He published an article, “Touch display- A novel input/output device for computers”. The features and technology of such touchscreens are incorporated in some of today’s smartphones.

But, eventually, the resistive touchscreens suppressed the concept of capacitive touchscreens. And, the inventor of this type of touchscreens is none other than George Samuel Hurst. The story of his invention is very interesting and took place at Berea College.

George and some other Ph.D. scholars were working on a project of atomic physics using an overworked Van de Graff accelerator. Rigorous analysis slowed down there pace. So, George thought of using electrically conductive paper to read a few two-dimensional coordinates. This saved time and gave a spark to the idea of touchscreens for computers.

His Big Invention

When George went to the University of Kentucky, he wanted to file a patent so that his work stays secure. But, the origin of this theory and his later laboratory works weren’t that convincing. So, the chapter was slightly closed then, but he had plans in his mind. After he went to ORNL, George along with his nine other friends researched his basement.

Since what happened in the laboratory of Berea College was completely sudden and accidental they wanted to take it further. The team called this technology “Elographics” and they started working on developing a proper interacting touchscreen for computers. He finally came up with what we call today’s resistive touchscreen technology. It is called so because the computer or smartphones respond because of the pressure we exert and no electrical conductivity. Moreover, resistive touchscreen and more cost-effective and hence widely used by mobile phone companies today.

Awards and Recognitions

George Samuel Hurst is the recipient of Union Carbide (Corporate fellow) and American Physical Society (fellow). He is also a part of the University of Kentucky (Alumni Association Hall of Distinguished Alumni), received an honorary degree from Berea College (D.Sc.), etc. He also bagged the Distinguished Alumni Award of 2005 from the University of Tennessee.

He is also well-known for founding Scientists and Engineers for Appalachia (SEA) and Institute of Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy. He was a professional health physicist.

Ispace

Takeshi Hakamada’s Ispace Dreams About Landing A Rover On The Moon

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Japanese are known for their highly ambitious nature. They are making significant growth in the field of technology, opening new start-ups and providing their services across the world. But, recent times have also witnessed their great enthusiasm in the space industry. For example, Astroscale, a Japanese start-up has aimed to clean out the space debris. Similarly, a Japanese start-up, ispace has shown keen interest in developing robotic spacecraft technologies. Robotic spacecraft is best defined as a spacecraft without a crew. The mission is under the surveillance of telerobotic control. Takeshi Hakamada, an aerospace engineer founded the company in 2013. Currently, the headquarters of the company is based in Tokyo, Japan.

The company has big dreams which might seem to be slipping off at times. The high expenditure is a very big factor that the company is still trying to overcome.

Takeshi Hakamada

Since his childhood, Takeshi was very much into learning about space. He watched all the Star Wars movies as well. But, the real thrill for making a big contribution to space passed his mind when a pilot form SpaceShipOne visited his university. He received inspiration and determination to build his career in the space industry.

Takeshi went to Nagoya University and acquired his bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering. He graduated in the year 2004 and went to Georgia Institute of Technology to complete his master’s in the same. While pursuing his master’s, Takeshi worked at the Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory as an Assistant.

In 2006, Takeshi joined Lowendal Group as a Consultant and got promoted to Project Leader in 2009. He worked for the company for more than six years. In 2010, he became the CEO of the company, White Label Space Japan, LLC. After three years, he founded his start-up in the space industry.

The Founding Story

ispace is a private space company that has now become an independent entity. White Label Space, a European organisation where Takeshi serves as the CEO is the predecessor of ispace. White Label Space was founded in 2008 with the purpose to compete in the Google Lunar X Prize. The company comprised of space engineers from across the world.

For the Google Lunar X Prize, mainly two teams were working among themselves in WLS. The European team was building the lunar lander while the Japanese team was developing a rover. The winning prize was $20 million and the winning team was given a chance to land a spacecraft on the Moon’s surface.

In 2010, Takeshi established White Label Space Japan to manage both technical and commercial aspects of the company in Japan. While the team was working for GLXP, the Europeans stepped out of it. So, Takeshi decided to continue the work and the entire project since then is continued by the Japanese members. After the Europeans sabotaged in 2013, Takeshi changed the company’s name to ispace and the team name for GLXP became “Hakuto”. Though the mission wasn’t successful, the project continues under the name of ispace.

The Journey

ispace is a team of experienced space engineers since they developed a lunar rover for the GLXP. From 2017, they started the development of lunar lander as well. In 2018, the company signed an agreement with Draper for the designing purpose of the team. This has brought a lot of changes in ispace which led to restructuring their lunar program and also renaming it as Hakuto-R.

After the partnership with Draper, the orbit mission of 2020 for demonstrating the landing capabilities has been called off. But, the companies have a lot of future plans which include Hakuto-R Mission 1. The launch is going to take place in October 2021 on a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket. The next mission, Hakuto-R Mission 2 will include a lunar lander and rover planning to take off in March 2023.

In the space industry, a small development also takes a very long time. Constant testings and failures are all part of the journey. Most of the time, finance also becomes a huge obstacle but to date ispace has been successful in raising $90 million.

The Big Plan

Researches and developments of ispace till today are just baby steps for the dream of living in space. Takeshi wants to expand the realm of the human empire where commercial transportation to space will relatively become cheaper. He also wants to start mining operations in space once he successfully establishes soft landing on the moon.

astroscale

Astroscale Is Cleaning Up The Orbital Debris For Future Generation

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Mankind has made many successful attempts of reaching into the vastness of space. And, after the first time, many new organizations have come up to serve the same purpose. Thousands of scientists have put their brains together to achieve bigger missions. Every year many nations launch spacecraft to take one more step towards broadening the human territory.

But, as unique as an idea of cleaning the orbital debris doesn’t come from any commoner. We don’t hear about this kind of idea every day which contributes to the well-being of the universe. Nobu Okada, founder of Astroscale made everyone realize why is it so important to remove trash from space and himself doing it.

What is Astroscale?

Astroscale is a worldwide famous company founded by Nobu Okada in 2013. It is a private company that serves the sole purpose of cleaning the spatial orbits. We know, every year a lot of spaceships are launched from earth. Some of which successfully land and the rest get lost in the way. The remaining parts of these gigantic machines can create problems in the future. When other spacecraft will be launched, these might come in its way and hamper the mission.

So, Nobu Okada came up with this idea and the company is going to launch its demonstration mission in 2020. The name of the program is End-Of-Life-Service and it’s determined to retrieve every piece of junk from the orbits.

Nobu Okada

Nobu went to the University of Tokyo and acquired his bachelor’s degree in Genetics. He also went to Stanford University for pre-MBA and in 1999 went to Purdue University Krannert School of Management for his MBA.

In 1997, Nobu joined the Japanese Ministry of Finance as a Government Office and continue his work for three years. While doing his MBA, he joined McKinsey & Company as an Engagement Manager and worked for four years. In August 2004, he became the CFO and Director of Turbolinux and then in 2006 became the Director of Kazaka Financial Group.

Nobu Okada
Image Source – Google Images

After serving as the Vice President of Brain Capital for a year he founded SUGAO PTE, an IT company. Currently, he is the CEO of his latest company, Astroscale.

The Beginning

Nobu Okada had no idea about aerospace engineering. This guy studied genetics, went for the finance industry, and established his career in the IT industry. No one but him came up with an idea mentioned nowhere earlier in the history of science. Nobu says he just wanted to do something meaningful in his life and a great contribution to society.

Nobu always had a soft corner for space and he also attended a space camp at the age of fifteen. There he received a message from Mamoru Mohri that space is a place where one can make great contributions. Nobu proved how much right he was.

Initially, when he thought of this idea, nobody supported him saying it wasn’t realistic enough. There was negativity everywhere, but he didn’t give in. Nobu thought when it is for the betterment of the world someone has got to do it. And, he became the knight in the shining armor.

Much Appreciation

Since Nobu has no idea about the study of space, he went through more than 700 research papers regarding space debris, contacted many academic institutions and people who are in an executive position in the space industry. He was too stubborn to give up!

Finally, a company called Yuki Precision Co. showed interest in this project idea. Another company called OSG Corp also showed interest. With their support, he finally launched the company. In 2015, the company raised the US $7.7 million and also established an R&D facility in Tokyo. The capital was invested to carry out researches for space debris removal missions and making small satellites.

In next year, the company raised another $35 million and in 2017 raised $25 million in Series C funding. This year, the company came into a partnership with JAXA permitting them to use JAXA’s testing facilities. In November 2017, the company launched its first rocket. The take-off was smooth but it didn’t reach the targeted orbit.

Currently, the company is busy working for the ELSA-d mission. The mission will consist of two spacecraft, namely, a Servicer and a Client. The mission will be operated from the National In-orbit Servicing Control Centre Facility in Harwell, Oxfordshire. Nobu wants to make a dynamic change as early as possible thinking about future space missions.