Stefan Persson (Business Magnate); Sweden’s Top Business Tycoon

 Stefan Persson (Business Magnate)

Sweden’s Top Business Tycoon

Among World Top 20 Richest

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Early Life

Stefan Persson is a citizen of Stockholm, Sweden, and was born in April 1947. This was the year when his father Erling Persson introduced the great merchandise business named “Hennes and Mauritz (H&M)”. He is a father of three children from his first wife. He took this business from his father in 1982 after completing his education and around 10 years of experience as a manager in his own family business He lives in Stockholm now with his second wife named Denise Persson.

Persson introduced the Mentor Foundation; A non-profit organization whose main and ambition is to abolish all those things and substances that are used among young people for their abuse of self-destruction. Moreover, he also supports other NGOs and foundations alike. Persson loves to play tennis, downhill skiing, and golf. He owns several properties in London, Stockholm, and Paris. Similarly, in 2009 he owned a 21 cottage village of Linkenholt in England, Hampshire.

Business Idea and background journey

Stefan Persson started his journey after completing his associate degree from Stockholm and Lund University. He started his career as a manager in his father’s company by 1976 and worked hard to achieve the milestones of success. After six years in the organization, in 1982 he took the responsibilities of the organization as CEO of H&M. He has expanded the business from the boundaries of the UK to all around the world, making his empire and Multi-National Brand in the world which resulted in making him a billionaire. Moreover, he owns the shares of businesses not associated with clothing only rather he has investments in Real Estate Businesses and Technology Industries. He has a huge level of stake in Hexagon AB; a technology-based firm.

In 1998, after 16 years of consistent work in his business, he became the chairman of H&M. He opened the first store in New York of H&M in Fifth Avenue and formed the first celebrity partnership with Karl Lagerfeld by 2004. Also, he put on sale the brand's underwear designed by David Beckham by the year 2012.

He has entrenched his business venture from the clothing industry towards Real Estate as well. He owns Ramsbury Property which has its branches not only in London, Oxford Street rather it is expanded in Paris as well. The value of his business as per the record of Financials 2019, has its shareholdings in two other trading industries named FastPartner and Platzer Fastigheter. The Real Estate venture as per the website has around 19,000 acres of property in the rural area in England only. However, the value of each acre is estimated above 11,400 pounds in the current market.

Success line of his Business

The most embracing point about his business comes from the point that he advertised this main principle in his business all around the world, by making his brand stay on providing quality and trendy clothes at a cheaper price which is referred to as “disposable chic”. The success of this vision can be found by looking towards its rate of acceptability all across the world. According to the research conducted by the Retail-Index, Since 2007 H&M as a brand has opened its stores in almost all the developed parts of the world. He has around 4,700 clothing stores from Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong to Mexico, Moscow, and Melbourne.

The secret behind all his success story lies in his vision of expanding the business from one land to another land which brings his resilient mindset and his strong vision for changing the world. The most enlightening point is that he supports Research and Development in the market areas where he finds the opportunity to increase the sales and business of his clothing brand. Most part of his income comes from the expansion and Real Estate Business which is also being expanding from the boundaries of the UK to Paris and other parts of the world. He is considered to be the richest person in Sweden and is counted as one of the top 20 richest people in the world after calculation came about his current retail business and shareholdings in the market. He is currently worth around $25.8 billion as per the Bloomberg index in May 2021.

Limitation

Business only finds its challenges and limitations when it does not run on the vision on which it stands. In May 2020 he was succeeded by his son to control all the affairs and business vision of H&M. In the times when Stefan joined the organization went through some missteps than that of his father notably the story of 1998 Fabian Mansson as he resigned when Stefan took the office. He misdirected some of the key principles of his father and as a result, Mansson resigned as a Managing Director from this business which created challenges. Now, after Stefan will this company stay on the right track with the new policies being introduced by Karl John as a CEO? This question will always embark a threat and a chance of sustainability of success in the business of H&M.

Suggestions for Sustainability of the Business

The business can never stay successful until it does not find a leadership that can strengthen its boundaries and vision for the long term. As we can see from the story of the Persson family, we find that the challenges they faced in enlarging the business from the local and national boundaries to the global world stand on the basic principle which is defined as helping the people stay trendy but in an affordable price. This again inherits the point that success in the business demands the basic idea that says “Customer First” and “Loyalty with Customers values and Traditions”. The clothing industry has never been the same in the UK and other parts of the world where different culture prefers different color and designs of clothing. So, if H&M touches the corner of the world today, it is basically from the underlying point that they promote Market Research and Innovation in the first place and win the heart of their customer in the later stage. All these examples of success from the quality education to the top leadership and the experience starting as a manager and learning from the bottom to reach the top with a better insight of decision making and vision.

 

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