Lazard

Lazard Company Background

Lazard dates back to 1848, when its founders, the Lazard brothers, formed Lazard FrÐ"Ёres and Company as a dry goods business in New Orleans, Louisiana. Shortly thereafter, the Lazard brothers moved to San Francisco, California, where they opened a business selling imported goods and exporting gold bullion. The business progressively became involved in financial transactions with its retail clients and increasingly with commercial clients. Over time, the business expanded into the banking and foreign exchange businesses.

Lazard chairman Michel David -Weill ruled out the possibility of selling the 150-year-old family-run investment bank or taking it public. Yet within seven years, Lazard was trading on the stock market, and David -Weill was gone, outmaneuvered by his handpicked replacement, Bruce Wasserstein, recipient of the Program on Negotiation's 2007 Great Negotiator Award.

Initial Public Offering and Leadership Strategy

David -Weill, a descendant of the firm's original founders, made Lazard's financial matters worse by doling out lavish payments to partners and to a shadowy group of nonworking stockholders known as "capitalists" who were primarily retired partners and partners' descendants. Though he'd promised to appoint his successor by 2005, David -Weill stalled, playing internal candidates against one another until they defected, taking clients with them.

Hoping to turn the firm's fortunes around, the Lazard chairman identified an outside candidate with impeccable credentials: Bruce Wasserstein, a graduate of Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School. In January 2002, after negotiating for almost total control over the firm, Wasserstein signed on as Lazard's CEO for five years. David -Weill, still chairman, held on to just one source of power: the right to veto any proposed initial public offering (IPO).

Lazard's Response

Wasserstein wasted no time improving Lazard's infrastructure and luring high-profile deal makers from rival firms, paying them with revenues siphoned away from David -Weill's capitalists. In 2004, Wasserstein unveiled his plan to transfer majority ownership from the capitalists to the working partners through an initial public offering (IPO). Protest from David-Weill and his cronies ultimately gave way to a deal; they would leave Lazard for $1.6 billion.

Outcome

The New York Times initially called the May 5, 2005, Lazard IPO an "unmitigated fiasco for everybody but Mr. Wasserstein and Lazard." On the first day of trading, chief underwriter Goldman Sachs lost $15 million propping up the stock, while Wasserstein walked away with almost $300 million, and the capitalists and David -Weill received their promised billion-dollar buyout. Two years later, though, Wasserstein and Lazard have more admirers than critics. Company stock and core businesses are thriving. Most notably, the once-turbulent firm is "very quiet," an insider told the Financial Times. "There is no sense of infighting." By getting rid of Michel David - Weill, Wasserstein made sure of that.

Jyothy Laboratories

Jyothy Laboratories Limited (JLL) came into being in 1983, powered by the vision of one man, M P Ramachandran, the current Chairman and Managing Director. Jyothy started as a proprietary concern, manufacturing and selling a single product in a single district and has grown to become a multi-brand and multi-product company with operations all over the nation. In keeping with the tenet of offering a solution rather than a product, JLL has consciously ventured into product categories that provide simple but tangible benefits to consumers through a portfolio of value for money brands. JLL makes fabric care products, household insecticides, surface cleaning soaps, personal care products and air purifiers.

Initial Public Offering and Limited Product Line

The main objective of issue is to dilute equity holdings by venture capitalists. The company's flagship brand Ujala liquid fabric whitener is available in 2.8m outlets in India. JLL has established a distribution network across India with a sales staff of over 1,500 people servicing 2,500 distributors. Its products are manufactured through 21 facilities in 14 locations across India, 8 of which are in tax-exempt units. Heavily depend on two biggest brands, Ujala and Maxo which contribute 43.6% and 35.4% of its total sales respectively. JLL relies on outsourced production through third parties. Any disputes or disagreements may affect its business. The company is susceptible to seasonal variations in demand for its products.

Jyothy Laboratories Limited acts on key insights from consumers, market research and sustained in-house analytical processes.

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