Sample 1,435 good companies. Evaluate their performance over 40 years. Distill it to eleven great companiesTHE GOOD TO GREAT COMPANIES:
Abbott, Circuit City, Fannie Mae, Gillette, Kimberly-Clark, Kroger, Nucor, Philip Morris, Pitney Bowes, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo
Whatever happened to would be good companies such as Burroughs, Enron, Businessland, MCI, Bethlehem Steel, Daewoo, Arthur Andersen, DeLorean Motor Co., Olympia and York, countless dotcoms, etc. Reading through the list gives you an appreciation for how once proud and good business can become obsolete and doomed to extinction if not led and managed properly. We should not despair, the good news is that although we lose companies with alarming frequency, there are new and old firms that adapt well, and find ways to invent competitive and sustainable positions in their markets. What do those companies do right?
