The Christian Dior Group was founded in 1946 by Christian Dior, who started his haute couture brand in a Paris townhouse where the company still has its headquarters. Since then, the company has purchased LVMH and a long list of luxury brands to form the…
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Pronounced “D-N-A,” this Knowledge Leader was founded in 1999 by three Tokyo entrepreneurs seeking to establish an online auction site. Today the company operates a broad range of mobile and online services including online shopping, mobile auctions, social networks and game platforms. DeNA attributes the…
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Based in Daytona Beach, Florida, TopBuild is the No. 1 installer of insulation to the U.S. residential construction business, and today the firm is at work in more than 40 percent of new housing starts. Until 2015, TopBuild operated as a subsidiary of Masco, with…
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Now branded as LP Building Solutions, the company formerly known as Louisiana-Pacific is a global leader of engineered wood products for building homes. Its biggest and fastest-growing product lines are called SmartSide and Oriented Strand Board, both panels for siding and sheathing in new home…
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Headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, BHP is the world’s No. 1 mining company. Formed in the mid-1800s from two small mining companies, BHP is the result of a merger between Broken Hill Properties (BHP), which began as a silver, lead and zinc mine in Broken Hill,…
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Belgian holding company Groupe Bruxelles Lambert invests in European industry leaders with two key strategies in place. First, its companies must be engaged in markets expected to have long-term tailwinds. Second, they must have a stated commitment to grow sustainably based on clearly defined ESG principles….
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Australian metals miner South32 is a 2015 BHP Billiton spinoff named to reflect the southern latitude where most of its assets are located. In its new iteration, South32 has a bias toward developing its business in “base” metals, those metals considered common and therefore non-precious,…
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Sweden’s Investor AB was founded in 1916 by the Wallenberg family with the aim of making long-term investments in high-quality global companies, a business philosophy it has maintained through booms, depressions, recessions, and global trends. Chaired today by Jacob Wallenberg, the firm supports companies in…
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AngloAmerican was founded in 1917 by Ernest Oppenheimer, who moved from Germany to Johannesburg, South Africa, and secured financial backing from J.P. Morgan to start a gold mining business. His first major industry partnership was forged in 1926, when AngloAmerican became a majority stakeholder in…
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Italy’s Pirelli is the only tire producer that sells exclusively to consumers. Today with more than 3,000 different models in stores, one area of breakthrough innovation is what Pirelli calls connected tires. The firm’s “cyber” technology strategy involves building sensors into the tire to collect…
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While Continental is best known for the tires which accounted for 40% of sales in 2019, this Germany-based firm actually thinks of itself as a technology company. Its mission is to develop safe, intelligent and affordable solutions for vehicles, machines, traffic and transportation. Today the…
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Founded in 1926, the first chemical Shin-Etsu ever manufactured was a limestone nitrogen fertilizer, made possible thanks to raw materials from two plentiful natural resources: water from the Shinano area (Shin) and limestone from the Echigo area (Etsu). The company’s name recognizes these gifts from…
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Agnico Eagle Mines was founded in 1957 when five small struggling silver mining companies consolidated resources to try their hands at gold mining, ultimately saving the companies and their miners’ livelihoods. Today the firm mines silver, gold, copper and zinc from sites in Canada, Finland…
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Chugai is the No. 1 Japanese pharmaceutical company for therapeutic antibody and oncology drugs. The firm’s product line includes drugs to treat cancer and viruses such as HIV, immune diseases and the flu. In addition, Chugai considers itself to be a pioneer in “personalized patient…
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One behavior demonstrated by innovative companies is a tendency to embrace change, to apply the tools of the digital revolution to drive innovation within companies that then permeates entire industries. One example of an old school company embracing new tools is Sandvik. Based in Stockholm,…
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