liquidated.Thebuyercontinuestooperate it
under the samename, but, for thefirst
time innearlyamillenniumandahalf,
theowners arenot namedKongo.
BritishEast IndiaCompany
Kongo Gumi may be the oldest, but
the mantle of most powerful business
in history goes to the British East In-
dia Company. In 1600, Queen Elizabeth I
granted the newly formed organiza-
tion exclusive rights to trade with
the East Indies — probably the most
valuable franchise of all time. Despite
the royal fiat, theEast IndiaCompany
struggled for a century against the
Dutch and other challengers in trying
to tap the riches of the East. Then it
won a foothold in India, and with a com-
bination of commercial andmilitary prow-
ess, it eventually became ruler of the entire
subcontinent.
At its peak, the East India Company’s
power overwhelmed Indian princes and
European states alike— it even rivaled that
of itsmother country. But following the In-
dianMutiny of 1857, the companywas dis-
solved. Ithadplayedapivotal role in therise
of the British Empire and had transferred
immeasurable wealth (in the forms of tea,
spices, silk, andothervaluables) fromSouth
Asia toEngland.
Today, little vestige of the company sur-
vives,but theshadowof itspowerful lifestill
puts every succeeding business enterprise
in the shade. “Some people have argued
that the British East India Company was
theworld’sfirstmodern corporation,” notes
Sylla. “But it’sa littledifferent frommodern
corporations in the sense thatmodern cor-
porationsdon’t have their ownarmies.”
ExtrEmEsofbusinEss
prompt some to
say:Sowhat?Kirschdoubts thatAOLTime
Warner’s $100 billion bath is any more
meaningful than Coke’s golden brand or
than the outsize longevity of certain family
firms. “In a lot of ways, they are so extreme
that they signify nothing,” Kirsch says. “We
drawconclusions from theseextremeevents
at ourperil.”
Be that as it may, the uniqueness of ex-
tremes cries out for attempts to decipher
what messages they may hold for the rest
of us. “There’s always a lot to be learned
from the extreme example,” Urban says.
“Can they be duplicated? That’s probably
not going to happen. But there are things
to learn.”
A frequent contributor to
AmericanWay
,
markHEnricks
also
writes for
Entrepreneur
and CNET.com, among other publica-
tions.
Asa result of Coke’s currying
favorwithworldmarkets, its
name, logo, andeven the shape
of itsbottleneedno translation
virtuallyanywhere. “It’shard to
imagineabrand that isanymore
recognizable thanCoke is.”
66 amEricanWaY
MAY 15 2007
AW
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