Reading articles and books about the best companies in the World and their founders is a great way to learn from their successes and mistakes.
Let’s take a quick look at a few companies and what we can learn:
- Microsoft—wanted a personal computer in every home. Started with an ambitious goal.
- Amazon—mastered online retail and now others are getting on board. Ordering is effortless, returns effortless, overnight shipping at no charge (with Prime), endless selection.
- Nike—mastered branding
- Walmart—mastered traditional retail in smaller cities then took over the world.
- Zappos and Southwest—made great company culture relevant.
- FedEx—made the world small. Ship something anywhere in the world overnight.
- Apple and Steve Jobs—showed us how a company pivots to new products.
- Uber and AirBNB—demonstrated how you can completely disrupt an industry.
- Disney—that you can evolve out of your comfort zone (ie. ESPN)
- McDonald’s—demonstrated the power of systems.
