From acorns to oak trees

It is important to keep in mind that all of the Fortune 500 companies began as a start-up. For example:

Eli Lilly and Company: A pharmacist and Union officer, Colonel Eli Lilly, started his company with $1,300 in 1876 and developed a process for coating pills with gelatin. The company later made gelatin capsules and introduced insulin in 1953.

Corning Optical Communications LLC: Amory Houghton founded Houghton Glass in 1851 and began to produce a limited selection of technical and pharmaceutical glass products. In 1880, it provided the glass for Thomas Edison’s first light bulb.

MeadWestvaco: Daniel Mead established Mead Paper in 1882 when he became owner of a small paper mill. Later, one of his grandsons acquired several other paper companies and packaging firms in the United States and Europe.

Wrigley Company: The company’s founder, William Wrigley, Jr. (age 13), began selling soap door-to-door that was produced by his father’s company. He tried to attract interest with free premiums (e.g. cookbooks) and ingratiated himself with purchasing agents’ gatekeepers by giving them spruce gum. When he realized that the gum was much more popular than soap, he shifted his attention to developing his first product, Spearmint, introduced in 1910.

Bank of America: Amadeo Giannini was a son of immigrants who founded the Bank of Italy in San Francisco in 1904 to serve the needs of those whom all the other banks rejected. The bank was housed in a converted saloon as an institution for the “little fellow”.” He later acquired BOA Los Angeles and combined it with his own. BankAmerica was acquired by NationsBank (based in Charlotte) in October 1998 in what was the largest bank acquisition in history at that time. The name has since been retained.

Caterpillar Inc: In 1904, combine-maker Benjamin Holt modified his farming tractor by replacing a steam engine with a gas engine and iron wheels with crawler tracks. In 1915, the British adapted what Holt had characterized as a “caterpillar” design to an armored tank. This design refinement led to all manner of earthmoving and construction equipment.

The Walgreen Company: In 1901, Chicago pharmacist Charles Walgreen borrowed $2,000 from his father for a down payment on his first drugstore. In 1909, Walgreen sold a half-interest in that store and opened another in which he installed a large soda fountain and began serving lunch, then breakfast and lunch.

Xerox Corporation: The Haloid Company was incorporated in 1906 to make photography paper. Its purchase of Rectigraph Company in 1935 led to the development of a new process, “electrophotography, that later became known as “xerography” from two Greek words for
dry” and “writing.”

The Disney Company:
After his first animation firm failed, Walt Disneyland his brother Roy started another firm in 1923. Disney created the first Mickey Mouse cartoon (Plane Crazy) and in 1928 Steamboat Willie, the first cartoon with a soundtrack. The company’s first feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was released in 1937 and the company’s first theme park, Disneyland, was opened in 1955.

Wal-Mart Stores: Sam Walton began his career in retail merchandising as a clerk at J. C. Penney and later leased a Ben Franklin franchised “dime store” in 1945. By 1962, Walton owned 15 Ben Franklin franchises under the Walton 5&10 name. He left the Franklin organization and opened the first Wal-Mart Discount City in Rogers, Arkansas. The first of several thousand Sam’s Wholesale Clubs stores was opened in 1953.

All of the following companies were “acorns” only a few years ago: Natural Health Trends, Vipshop Holdings, Facebook, INSYS Therapeutics, Douglas Dynamics, Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Skechers (U.S.A.), Abiomed, Ambarella, and Lending Tree.

Whether or not they realize it, their founders share much in common with Walt Disney, Amadeo Giannini, Benjamin Holt, Amory Houghton, Eli Lilly, Daniel Mead, Charles Walgreen, Sam Walton, and William Wrigley, Jr.

Do you?

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