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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Garmin’s is one of those stories we used to see a lot: private companies made in the USA and spawned from the fruits of federal government innovation, in this case GPS. “In the early 1970s, the DoD (Department of Defense) began creating the Global Positioning…
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Franco-Nevada is the world’s largest gold royalty and streaming company. This means the firm invests in gold and mines, but indirectly, the idea being to provide investors with exposure to gold prices and gold exploration while limiting the risks of investing directly in mining companies….
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How does a Knowledge Leader handle a global pandemic? By adapting. Consider New Zealand-based Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, a top 10 manufacturer in the global ventilator market, a company one could argue was already prepared for the unknown by its disciplined approach to investing in…
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With 30 million daily users, South Korea’s top search engine is focused not on the desktop, but rather the phones in people’s pockets, cars, city streets and shops, aiming to connect people with each other, shopping and entertainment. To do so, the firm relies on…
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What began as a breakthrough device for filtering saltwater in 1992 has – through a commitment to innovation ever since — transformed Energy Recovery Inc. into the most innovative industrials company in the world, as measured by R&D as a percent of sales. According to…
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