The Only Constant Thing is Change
Ray Brimble, Founder, Lynx Group
During this time of global business change, its important to note that global business has been in an almost constant state of change since the end of WWII. Gary Hoover has compiled a list of the world’s largest companies since the early 1960’s demonstrating just this. In the 60’s, American companies dominated the list. By the 1980’s it looked like Japanese were taking many of the top spots. Today, its no surprise to see many Chinese companies on the list. What may be more surprising is to see the number of American companies back on the list, and that some of the companies on the list did not even exist in the 1980’s.
The activity depicted on these lists of companies at the top of the Global business food chain indicate several things. First, that global business has gone from being American and European centric to being truly “global”, particularly with the rise of Asian companies to challenge “western” dominance. Second, the rise of non-western companies indicates an enormous new wealth creation outside of the USA and Europe. No doubt some of this may also be wealth-shifting from one region to the next. However, the rise of brand new companies, and well as the continued growth of other western companies clearly indicates that this is not just a zero sum game. Hoover’s charts show perhaps the greatest period of trans-global wealth creation ever seen, and this is not limited to any one region. Finally, the charts are proof that one should not lean heavily on straight line projections. Just because a company is the big dog now, does not guarantee them entre into the big dog’s club of the future. This goes for national wealth and activity as well. Things change. Things are changing quickly now. What will Hoover’s list of 2040 look like? My guess is, very different from the list of today.”
