The Company maybe the greatest of all human inventions.
The Company started as a singular idea, for a singular purpose. It evolved to 1000’s of variations in every part of the world.
The impact of companies is everywhere, in every part of our lives.
New types of companies are formed in response to new technologies, changing social, economic, and polictical trends.
Most recently, Digital Entities, which resemble Companies in some aspects, but differ in others have been forming.
A fun read is to go through the oldest companies in the world here
- A Brief History of Corporate From and Why it Matters - “ Take a brief moment to look around at your surroundings. Ask yourself, “how much of the ‘stuff’ in the room is directly or indirectly related to a corporation?” 150 years ago, the answer would have been very little. But today, there can be no doubt that corporations are intimately involved in all aspects of our lives. In light of that fact, it is appropriate to consider: (1) why we have corporations; (2) where they come from; and (3) how they will impact our future.”
- A Brief History of Corporations and a more indepth examination can be found in Power Inc - The epic rivalry between Big Business and Government
- The Company: A Short history of a Revolutionary Idea - “With apologies to Hegel, Marx, and Lenin, the basic unit of modern society is neither the state, nor the commune, nor the party; it is the company. From this bold premise, John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge chart the rise of one of history’s great catalysts for good and evil.”
- Merchant Kings: When companies ruled the world - “It was an era when monopoly trading companies were the unofficial agents of European expansion, controlling vast numbers of people and huge tracts of land, and taking on governmental and military functions. They managed their territories as business interests, treating their subjects as employees, customers or competitors. The leaders of these trading enterprises exercised virtually unaccountable, dictatorial political power over millions of people.”
- Business Breakdowns - a podcast dedicated to disecting great businesses.
- A helpful visual of the size of 20 most powerful companies of all time.