The World’s Largest Companies in 2024 … and in the Past
Five years ago, we took a look at the biggest companies in the world. Today we update that look with a few tables, based on the data provided in the annual Fortune magazine Global 500 lists. You can see the shift from a US-centered (and to some degree European)...
The Largest American Corporate Employers 1994-2024
Today we publish the last of our series of four annual animated charts on the top American public companies, focused on the largest employers. This list may seem to change more gradually than our prior lists based on revenues, stock market valuations, and...
In the Headlines: Historic Railroad Mergers
Four years ago we published a history of the American railroad system, showing how mergers had reshaped the industry in the late 20th century and beyond. That article contains maps and illustrations that bring life to this story. At that time, we concluded...
Highest Profit American Companies: 1994-2024
In our last article, we presented a history and chart on the most valuable companies in America over the past three decades. In this issue, we take a look at another interesting measure, the twenty American companies that made the highest annual dollar profits...
Most Valuable American Companies over 30 Years: 1995-2025
In our last article, we presented a history and chart on the largest companies in America over the past three decades. In this issue, we take a look at another interesting measure, the twenty most valuable American companies over the same time span, based on the...
Largest American Companies over 30 Years: 1994-2024
In the paragraphs below, we take a visual tour of the evolution of the largest American companies over the past thirty years. We’ve posted updates of our annual charts of America’s biggest companies from the recently published Fortune 500. The first chart shows the...
The Birthing of a New (Distribution) Technology: the Discount Store
Few subjects are more interesting than the evolution of innovations and new technologies. When a new idea catches fire, new enterprises enter the fray. Then there is a shakeout, with many of the early movers dying. Then there may be additional...
Most Valuable American Companies 1995-2024
Here we continue with our series of annual updates on America’s biggest companies from the recently published Fortune 500. This chart shows the 20 US public companies with the largest market capitalizations from 1995 through 2024. You can pause and move to...
Largest American Employers 1994-2023
Here we continue with our series of annual updates on America’s biggest companies. This chart shows the 20 biggest employers among US public companies from 1994 through 2023. You can pause and move to any year between 1994 and 2023. (There is also a...
Highest Profit US Companies 1994-2023
Here we continue with our series of annual updates on America’s biggest companies. This chart shows the 20 highest profit US public companies from 1994 through 2023. You can pause and move to any year between 1994 and 2023. (There is also a video...
Largest US Companies 1994-2023
We’re delighted to present our annual update of our charts on the largest American companies, ranked by revenue, reflecting full year results for 2023. Here are two charts which you can pause and move to any year between 1994 and 2023. One chart is the top...
Understanding How Business Works, with Book Recommendations
I am often surprised how many entrepreneurs, and even folks with MBA degrees, don’t fully understand how big business really works, how company leaders think, and how companies strategize and compete. One of the best ways to understand all this is to study the...
Why Should We Study Business History?
This article was originally published by the Discourse Magazine. Great scientists learn from and build upon what has gone before them. Similarly, attorneys make their careers by studying precedent and the legal cases of the past. Military leaders still study...
J.W. Marriott: From Herding Sheep to Hospitality Empire
This article was originally published by the Archbridge Institute. Growing up on a hardscrabble sheep and sugar beet farm in Utah, John Willard “Bill” Marriott sought opportunities beyond his humble Mormon beginnings. In 1927, the twenty-six-year-old Marriott opened...
Can We Build a Department Store for the 21st Century?
This article was first published by Discourse Magazine. At its peak, the large urban department store was like a center of the American universe. From the late 19th century to about 1970, these stores were major tourist attractions, drew huge crowds, sat at the core...
The Simple Key to Breakthrough Innovation
History lovers, I have been busy rebuilding my life and my library since my house burned down a year ago. I’ve spent some time on writing longer biographical articles, such as our recent story on Sam Walton and Walmart. I hope to get back to...
How Curiosity and Humility Built the World’s Largest Company: the Sam Walton Story
This article first appeared in the Archbridge Institute’s American Originals Series. The most important principles of retailing are quite simple: Know your customers and the role you play in their lives. Know your merchandise and its suppliers. Know your competitors....
Whole Foods Founder Begins a New Adventure
Whole Foods Founder Begins a New Adventure At the American Business History Center, we rarely comment on current events or living entrepreneurs. At the same time, our study of the lessons of the past is motivated by our desire to understand the present and the...
America’s Largest Employers 1994-2022
Today we present our annual update of the twenty biggest employers among US public companies over the last 28 years. You can see the chart above. Enjoy and share! Gary Hoover Executive Director American Business History...
America’s Most Valuable Companies 1995-2023
An updated 2024 version of this chart can be seen here. Today we present our annual update of the market capitalizations of the twenty most valuable US public companies over the last 28 years. You can see the chart below, which you can control, or a video here....
Business History on the History Channel
Dear friends, You can see me talking about business history on these upcoming shows on the History Channel. The series is called The Mega-Brands that Built America. I hope you enjoy them! Gary HooverExecutive DirectorAmerican Business History Center “Battle of...
Highest Profit US Companies 1994-2022
Here we present our annual update to our animated chart of the highest profit American companies, now extended to include results for 2022. You can pause them and move them to any year to see the lists of the top 20. We find studying them over and over very...
Largest US Companies 1994-2022
In this, our 161st newsletter, we present our annual update to our animated chart of the largest companies, now extended to include results for 2022. The picture above shows the leading companies when Fortune first did a list of all US companies for 1994 (previously...
21st Century Growth of American Cities
In our most recent newsletter, we reviewed changes in population among American cities (metropolitan areas) since 2019, a short but important period of change. In this issue, we take a look at the longer-term trends; how our cities have shifted over the 22 years from...
The Rise and Fall of American Cities During Covid
The Census Bureau recently released 2022 estimated populations of American Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs – cities with all their suburbs). We were curious to understand what places in the nation were growing and which ones were shrinking since the start of...
Television Giants: From I Love Lucy to Streaming
In our last newsletter, we took a look at the backgrounds of four media industry leaders, Shari Redstone of Paramount Global, Lachlan Murdoch of Fox, Brian Roberts of Comcast, and Bob Iger of Disney. Our exploration of the media and entertainment industries and...
Modern Media Moguls: The First Female Media Mogul, the Paperboy, and the Cable Guy
Warning: The individuals and companies discussed in this story are highly controversial. No industry has had more books and articles written about it than the media industry. These writings are often very opinionated: every industry analyst has a different...
Magnanimous Merchant: Julius Rosenwald
This article first appeared in the Archbridge Institute’s American Originals Series.\ In this American Originals series, we’ve recounted the life stories of men and women who created great inventions and enterprises. None of them had more energy and drive than the shy...
The Wonders of Chain Stores and Franchises
This article was originally published by the Archbridge Institute. I often hear people say that they dislike chain stores or chain restaurants, “big box” stores, or franchises. America has long had a love-hate relationship with the big chains. Understanding the...2022 UPDATED Largest Companies Charts
A Visual Tour of American Architecture
Back to School! Expand Your Mind with Peter Drucker and History: Automobiles, Airlines, Computers, and Retailing
Autumn is the time many Americans put on their thinking caps and start learning again, after a summer break. So we’re offering zoom courses with Gary Hoover. We are excited to add new industry-specific, very affordable classes on the automobile, airline,...
Learn from History’s Great Innovators!
For four successive Tuesday evenings, starting August 23, I will moderate small group Zoom discussions about some of the most important entrepreneurs and innovators in American business history. This series follows our successful Great Leaders course which...
America’s Largest Hotels through Time
The world couldn’t function without the lodging industry. Wayside inns for the traveler have been with us for centuries. The American West was built on stagecoach stops and hotels near the train depot. Today, most Americans have experienced hotels and motels,...Biggest American Employers 1994 2021
Largest Employers 1994-2021
This week we present our animated chart of the largest employers in America among our big, public companies. In the last three weeks, we have published similar charts based on revenues, on profits, and on market capitalization, all of which can be found by clicking...
Most Valuable American Companies 1995-2022
Most Valuable U.S. Companies 1995 Through 2022
An updated 2023 version of this chart can be seen here. Two years ago, we created animated charts showing the change in America’s largest companies, first by size (revenues), then by profits, market capitalizations, and number of employees. The new Fortune...
20 Highest Profits American Public Companies 1994 2021
Highest Profit US Companies 1994 Through 2021
An updated 2023 version of this chart can be seen here. (Our original post listed this as the 25 highest profit companies but should have said 20 highest profit companies.) Two years ago, we created animated charts showing the change in America’s largest companies,...
Fortune 500 25 Largest American Public Companies 1994 2021 Year by Year
2022 UPDATED Largest Companies Charts
Two years ago, we created animated charts showing the change in America’s largest companies, first by size (revenues), then by profits, market capitalizations, and number of employees. The new Fortune magazine “Fortune 500” list of the biggest public companies...
New “Lessons of the Greats” Zoom Course
We’re introducing two short zoom courses in which we explore the lessons we can learn from great business leaders and innovators. Each of the two courses consists of four successive Tuesday evening 90-minute sessions, led by me, Gary Hoover. The first...
Americans Leaving Older Cities for Greener Pastures
In the twelve months ended on July 1, 2021, Dallas-Fort Worth and their suburbs attracted almost 75,000 people from around America, while the greater San Francisco Bay area witnessed more than 170,000 folks running to other parts of the country. These population...
Learning History Through Advertising and Design: The Airlines
We can learn much about the history and evolution of technology, business, geography, fashions, and design by studying the advertising materials of companies. The passenger transportation industries have produced some of the most vivid posters, ads, and...
From Dog Dung to Plexiglas: the Rohm and Haas Story
Few industries are more important to modern life than the chemical industry. Almost everything we touch, the clothes we wear, and much of what we eat contains chemicals or was processed by chemicals. Yet the companies are usually out of sight of...
Drucker Zoom Study Group with Gary Hoover: 8-Week Course Limited to 9 Participants
SOLD OUT Do you want to engage in a serious discussion about the purpose of business and the roles of leaders and managers? Do you want to expand your understanding by studying the ideas of the great business thinker, Peter Drucker? No scholar or professor of...
A Tale of Entrepreneurial Failure: TravelFest Austin Part Two
If you read Part One of this story, published in our last newsletter, you know that TravelFest was an immediate success with customers. The store was not big enough to handle the traffic, so we decided to build larger stores. The original 6,000 square foot...
A Tale of Entrepreneurial Failure: TravelFest Austin: Part One
Read the second part of this two-part story here. Two years ago, we started our “Share Your History” page on our website. We solicited contributions from our readers, telling us of their history with enterprises large or small. To start the page, we seeded...
Support Us
Your donations help us show the importance of learning from the past.
