The world's first multinational company
Many
consider the Dutch East India Company as the first multinational
corporation in the world. With their trade expanding to most parts of
the world, the Company established a monopoly in the field of business
for over 200 years by carrying out colonial activities especially in
Asia. Despite the colonial nature of its operation, the Dutch East India
Company, however, has gone down in the history of business
organizations as the first ever multinational commercial enterprise.
The industrial revolution
The
Industrial Revolution, which took place during 1700-1850 A.D, saw an
unprecedented surge in technology, the effects of which we still see in
today's digital age. In a way, some of the greatest pages in the history
of the business organizations were written during the Industrial
Revolution. An eruption of technological knowledge drastically enhanced
the growth of several businesses like textiles, mining, metallurgy,
chemicals, transport, medicine, and agriculture.
The entry of ambitious entrepreneurs
The giant leaps that technology made during the Industrial Revolution
gave an impetus to the succeeding generations where large enterprises,
headed by ambitious, revolutionary entrepreneurs thrived. Three names,
if one were to pick and choose, that boosted the industrial world into a
whole other arena of success were that of the Scottish Andrew Carnegie
and the Americans John D. Rockefeller and Henry Ford. The three
19th-century industrialists didn't just stamp their indelible marks in
the history of American business, but in the history of international
business possibly forever.
Andrew Carnegie and the Steel Business
The
Carnegie Steel Company, which was located in Pittsburgh, didn't merely
see the rise one of the world's most successful businessmen, but created
an all around progress that laid the foundation for America's superior
standard of living in today's age. As far as the history of American
business goes, the Carnegie Steel Company was the one company that
transformed the infrastructure of the modern world. Carnegie's steel
possessed two qualities that gave every business an inevitable upper
hand-quality and cheapness. With the boom of the Carnegie Steel Company,
bridges, skyscrapers, and high-rise buildings increased, and with it
the standard of modern day infrastructure.
John D. Rockefeller and the Petroleum Industry
Rockefeller Standard Oil Company changed the petroleum industry forever and put his
name in big bold letters in the history of American business, as well
as the history of international business. He was the first person in the
history of American business to earn the title of being a billionaire.
He is often quoted by financial and business magazines of today and is
considered the richest man in history. Despite his several commercial
commitments, Rockefeller, much like Carnegie, was one of the greatest
philanthropists of his time.
Henry Ford and Automobile Industry
He
revolutionized mass production with his unique manufacturing process
known as "the moving assembly line" that was able to finish a car within
98 minutes. By making available inexpensive automobiles to a large
group of people, the Ford Motor Company raised the standard of living
for American people and made America one of the leading economies. The
history of American business owes a lot to one of the greatest American
visionaries, Henry Ford. He was also a pioneer of welfare capitalism,
which earned him a godlike status in the history of international
business and in the hearts of laborers.
Today, as we set sail through the infant stages of the 21st century,
business organizations and multinational corporations are not a handful,
but almost a dime a dozen. With the unparalleled rise of technology and
the advent of e-commerce, every man could be a businessman if he had
the drive and the will to work hard enough. The Internet, perhaps, can
be credited for being the single biggest reason for the commercial boom
that we experience all around us. Today's heroes aren't war heroes or
revolutionaries or celebrities, but business tycoons* who, with their
ambitious mind and through their relentless hard work, have made life
far more comfortable and easier.
Companies like Microsoft®, Nokia®, Sony®, Nike®, Honda®, Walt-Mart®, and
Apple® aren't just names of corporations to the people of today, but
integral components of their everyday life. These big names and similar
others, are already some of the most successful corporations in the
history of business organizations, and will undoubtedly live on in the
history of international business as some of the companies that changed
the world forever.