VERY OLD COMPANIES

How old is your Company?  How long do companies really live in this world?  Whilst the Human Beings are able to live for about 80 years why is it that the Companies started by the same human beings do not survive that long?  I read recently that most of the companies live anywhere between 20 to 40 years.

I also read recently that a third of the Fortune 500 companies of 1970 were gone by 1983 as they were either merged with another company or acquired by some other company or simply went bankrupt.

In 2004 Citigroup was ranked No.1 in the Forbes list of Top 2000 Companies and it went down to No.16 in 2014.  GE has moved from No.2 to No.7 in the same 10 year period and BP has moved from No.5 to No.17.

In 2004 the top 10 had 7 companies from USA 2 from UK and 1 from Japan.  In 2014 there are 5 companies in the top 10 companies from China and balance 5 are from USA.  In this period of 10 years Toyota has moved from No.8 to No.12 and Walmart has moved from No.10 to 20.

Interestingly companies with less than 300 employees and which have been managed by the Family have always survived much much longer.  Kongo Gumi which was founded in 578 AD survived till 2006.  There are a lot of companies which have been in existence for several centuries particularly in Japan, Italy, Germany and France.  Sumitomo was founded in 1590.  Some of the other older companies from 17th and 18th Century are listed below:

Coats - 1755

Royal Bank of Scotland - 1727

Cox & Kings Travel - 1758

Allen Solly - 1744

Saint Gobain - 1665

Lambertz - 1688

Lloyd's Insurance - 1688

Lloyd's Bank - 1765

Levi Strauss & Co - 1853

Managing a Company in this world of high and intense competition is not easy.  In business it is always "survival of the fittest".  You need not have the biggest company but you should have the company that is fittest in order to survive.  The admire the management of the above companies which have survived not just years but several centuries.

T.P.Anand
Dubai, U.A.E.
27th September 2014

AIRTEL SUPER SINGER JUNIOR 4 - FINALISTS

Super Singer in Vijay TV has been a very good programme to watch.  It is really amazing how these youngsters (young stars) perform.  I have been a great fan of this programmes both the seniors as well as the Juniors.  To me the Airtel Super Singer Junior has been a tremendous programme to showcase the talent of such young kids.

The Super Singer Junior 4 has now reached a level where they are going to select the Top 10 very soon.  They would also have the wild card round and when it finally reaches the Finalists of top 5 it would be great to watch the competition among the children.

Srihari is also a very talented and good singer and how can we forget the little wonder Angeline. From the beginning she has been one of the star performers.  At that age I wonder how she is able to remember the whole song and reproduce it with such ease and elegance.

Watch this great performance by this 5 year old wonder kid:

I think in the coming years she will give a tough time to the other competitors with her stellar performances.

My prediction of the top five is as follows:

1. Pravasthi
2. Spoorthi
3. Bharath
4. Srisha
5. Haripriya

Pravasthi is a very talented singer and has given some remarkable performances over the last few months.  I would rate her Engengae Engengae song at the top so far:

Spoorthi is another wonder kid.  She sings every song with such ease and her pronunciation is so perfect despite the fact that Tamil is not her mother tongue.  Ninaithu Nianithu parthen is one of the super performance that she has given particularly the long sustaining notes and the breathe control with which she sings is truly mind blowing:

Bharath is a born entertainer.  He not only sings well but also has the unique appeal for the audience.

His voice modulation and expressions are outstanding and truly unbeleivable for his age.  I quite liked his Rukku Rukku rendition as it had all the ingredients for a super performance:

Srisha is another participant who has come in the earlier year.  She has matured a lot in her singing and has been performing well consistently.  Over the last few weeks she has been getting the chocolate shower almost every week with some very good performance.  Her rendition of Enaduyire was exceptional and truly brought out her full potential and talents:

Haripriya is not new to Super Singer and this year she is giving some extraordinary performances.  I was completely mesmerized by her performance in Azhagan Muruganidam:

With many more rounds to go and wild card entry possibilities for some of the contestants, we do not know how this will turn out.  However I feel the above five will make it to the Finalists of the Super Singer Junior 4.  Let us wait and watch or keep watching and waiting.

T.P.Anand

Dubai, U.A.E.

16th September 2014