20 Best Businesses of all Time
There must’ve been a million articles written about how to succeed in business – and there will inevitably be many more to come. The subject will always find readers, but essentially it’s the biggest waste of energy and words in history of human endeavour. Basically, there are only three bits of advice that bear repeating – have a worthwhile product or service, hire good staff and, once you’ve made it, don’t spunk your fortune on hiring an army of sex dwarves to keep your champagne flute topped up. Well, at least don’t get caught. In our list below there are names both new and old in sectors ranging from finance to fizzy drinks, but they are all fundamentally similar. By taking these rules and running like Usain Bolt with them, these twenty companies have kicked their feet through the door and sent the competition packing. Our choices are no means definitive – and far from the most financially successful, but they take in what we feel to be the most important and enduring of all time.
MICROSOFT
An obvious one to start with – Microsoft changed the world, and its iconography and innovation have become as much a part of our lives as getting dressed in the morning. Founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen back in 1975, the technology giant has lost some ground to rivals like Apple since its heyday in the 1990s, but remains the dominant force in the software marketplace.
JOHN LEWIS
When John Lewis opened his first drapery store on Oxford Street in 1864, he could have had no idea what he was setting in motion. Also in possession of Waitrose supermarkets and the magnificent Peter Jones department store at Sloane Square, this famously employee-owned cooperative (staff are referred to as ‘partners’) is both the essence of Middle Class taste and the face of considerate Capitalism. It’s also not doing too badly on the business side of things – between 2003 and 2013, it increased its after-tax profits from £41 million to a staggering £198.8 million.
DIOR
The label that dress designer Christian Dior founded in 1946 is without a doubt one of the world’s most respected and iconic brands. The company now owns a 40% stake in the gargantuan LVMH group (along with 59% of its voting rights), and continues to design clothes that are the last word in chic.
NEWS CORP
Say what you like about Rupert Murdoch – everybody else does – but it’s hard not to be just a little impressed by the extraordinary way he built up his business empire. Covering titles from The Sun to the Wall Street Journal to the giant publisher Harper Collins, it looks unlikely that recent scandals will do much to dent News Corp’s power.
FORD
Henry Ford was the father of the modern automobile and the company he founded in 1903 is now the world’s fifth-largest car manufacturer. Their vehicles might not be the flashiest, but the consistency Ford has maintained since then is astonishing.
EXPEDIA
When it was launched in 1996, Expedia revolutionised the entire idea of travelling – it offered a service that was quicker, more efficient and decidedly easier to use than anything that had come before. Pretty much the definition of a good business, innit?
OGILVY & MATHER
Established by the late, great David Ogilvy in 1948, this advertising and PR giant changed the very notion of what such a business was supposed to do. It continues to go from strength to strength, with a recent ad campaign in India and Pakistan actually being brought up as a major political breakthrough for the two countries.
KELLOGG
There’s a lot more to Kellogg’s than plain old Cornflakes – it has been one of the world’s largest and most imaginative food brands for decades, and since acquiring Pringles from Procter & Gamble in 2012, the future looks to be as sweet as the frosting on one of its cereal brands.
HARLEY DAVIDSON
More a religion than a business (the polar opposite, then, of Scientology), the motorbike manufacturer has been going strong since 1903 when William Harley and Arthur Davidson built their first machine. It has since become the brand of choice for all aspiring tough guys, rebels and beardy drunks, and has recently made incursions into the potentially lucrative Indian market.
LEVI STRAUSS & CO
Perhaps the best example on this list of a business that created a functional product that nobody previously knew they needed, it was founded by German entrepreneur Levi Strauss in 1853 to provide durable workwear for Californian gold miners. The result was blue jeans. ‘Nuff said, really.
MOTOWN
A business so distinctive it became a byword for Soul music itself, Motown was founded in Detroit in 1959 by Berry Gordy Junior, who took it on to conquer the charts and consciousness of America. It has released records by the likes of Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson and, more recently, Erykah Badu, it is unlike many of the great record labels, still going strong today.
AMAZON
You used to have to walk all the way to the shop to buy stuff – Amazon changed all that. Founder Jeff Bezos may not be the most popular bloke in the world, but his determination and vision ensured that his company took everything we thought we knew about retail and rewrote it in a different language.
PAUL SMITH
‘Quintessentially British’ – or rather ‘Kwintessentchlehbwitish’ is one of those meaningless phrases knocked about by people who really have no idea what they’re talking about, but if any business fits the bill, it’s Paul Smith. The Nottingham-born tailor, cyclist and entrepreneur opened his Floral Street shop in 1979 and since then it’s been success after success. Today, the label he founded has over 30 shops in Japan alone, and is a truly global business.
BRITISH AIRWAYS
The fear that budget airlines would sink Britain’s national carrier was unfounded – if anything, the Ryanairs of this world only serve to remind us just how great BA is. Having merged with Iberia in 2011, it is now the world’s third-largest airline group.
SAMSUNG
By far the most ambitious and versatile electronics company in the world, the South Korean business has effortlessly kept up with its competitors. As to what it has in store for the next few years, we can only guess – but hell do we enjoy trying…
APPLE
You can’t have a list like this without mentioning Apple. You just can’t. There. It’s mentioned. You know the story, don’t you? And no, it wasn’t founded by Ashton Kutcher.
IBM
The International Business Machines Corporation, as nobody calls it, was and remains an unmatched pioneer in the field of computer development. From the moment it unveiled the first ever computer systems family in 1964, the world was its oyster.
BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY
Warren Buffett’s firm has elevated itself from unremarkable beginnings in manufacturing to becoming one of the largest public companies in history. Much of the credit, of course, is due to the grand old man of American investment himself, but he could not have achieved half of his success without the trustworthy and cool-headed employees he hired.
FEDEX
Like so many of the businesses on this list, FedEx (note the hidden arrow in the name) took an existing service and drastically simplified it for the consumer. The sheer scale of its global reach is, in a word, gobsmacking.
COCA COLA
Andy Warhol said it better than we ever could:
‘America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think – you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the street is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it and you know it.’
By Digby Warde-Aldam
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