Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Death Of A 1,400 Year-Old Business
Posted by: Glen Stone
In a time when people often say that the only constant is change, you don't often hear about a business being around for dozens or hundreds of years. For example, people are often amazed to learn that the Toronto Board of Trade has been on the scene since 1845.
But a business in Japan took the cake with a continuous history of more than 1,400 years!
Unfortunately, the world's oldest family business is no more. It's gone bankrupt and been taken over by a larger company.
Lessons learned about how to keep a business alive for centuries, and how to drive it into the ground in a mere decade, are the subject of this fascinating Business Week article.
Glen Stone is Public Affairs Manager for the Toronto Board of Trade.
In a time when people often say that the only constant is change, you don't often hear about a business being around for dozens or hundreds of years. For example, people are often amazed to learn that the Toronto Board of Trade has been on the scene since 1845.
But a business in Japan took the cake with a continuous history of more than 1,400 years!
Unfortunately, the world's oldest family business is no more. It's gone bankrupt and been taken over by a larger company.
Lessons learned about how to keep a business alive for centuries, and how to drive it into the ground in a mere decade, are the subject of this fascinating Business Week article.
Glen Stone is Public Affairs Manager for the Toronto Board of Trade.
// posted by Toronto Board of Trade @ 7:44 PM 
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