Fortune 500 dropouts

Abstract

Hercules Powder. Liebmann Breweries. These companies, and over 250 others that appeared on the very first Fortune 500 list in 1955, have vanished from the front ranks of American industry. Why did so many fail to thrive? Is there an inevitable cycle of corporate growth, senescence, and morbidity? This is a salient question to pose three decades later. Why does the American corporate elite have such a lackluster record in perpetuating their preeminence? What accounts for the fact that companies with the wherewithal to hire the very best executive and technical talent available, and with the most money to invest in marketing, manufacturing, and R&D, have had so much trouble sustaining themselves at a lofty level?

Citation

Shanklin, W.L. (1986), "Fortune 500 dropouts", Planning Review, Vol. 14 No. 3, pp. 12-46. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb054143