He runs a business with annual turnover of $6 billion from an armchair in his Manhattan apartment. He has a telephone, a tattered address book and maybe, somewhere, a pen. There is no computer, and not even any assistants to boss around. "I am not interested in running a company. I am interested in building one," explains Joseph Luter.rnSmithfield Foods may be one of the largest companies in the world to be run by remote control. Mr Luter directly approves every acquisition and all capital spending in excess of $1m. He receives monthly financial statements from 20 division heads, and is available in case of trouble, but the rest of his time is spent thinking about Smithfield's future.
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