The unexpected origins of Samsung, Nokia and another 19 large companies

That companies diversify their business is no surprise, but that the largest mobile manufacturer in the world, the second oldest car brand that continues active or the largest hotel chain internationally will start selling products from completely different sectors..

Samsung began exporting fish, Peugeot manufactured steel articles and Marriott International before riding his empire in the hotel industry began as a brewery.

But these are only three samples of many other companies known today that are not dedicated to the services and products with which they started as companies, examples in all cases of a rapid transformation to changes in society and a particularly dynamic business vision.

How does a company get to internationalize and become a reference in its sector - in many cases the technological - starting from a business as basic as letters, sails or paper?

According to Forbes investigation, innovation does not have great secrets: it consists in identifying the needs of the client well and the possibilities of technology, connecting with the public and producing efficiently, and doing so as necessary as necessary, regardless of whether that implies giving aturn to the initial business.

In the case of the companies that occur below, not all began to operate with the same name with which they are known today.In some cases it is so, in others they have changed its name and in others the founder began to manufacture a product in the 18th century and the constitution of the company would not reach many years later.

Here are several examples of those unexpected origins of some of the greatest multinationals around the world.

Samsung

Samsung was founded by Lee Byung-Chul in 1938 in Taegu, Korea.The company began with about 40 workers who were dedicated to the sale and commercial export of dry fish, food products and noodles grown in the region.

The good business results allowed the company to be transferred to Seoul, although shortly after it had to retire due to the burst of the Korean War.Byung-Chul founded a sugar refinery called Cheil Jedang and, seven years later, founded Cheil Mojilk with which he built the largest wool factory throughout the country.

During the following two decades the company was also introduced into other markets, such as the insurer or the retailer.

The Samsung ANDlectronics division was born in 1969 and in its origins it was fundamentally focused on television: Samsung took its first television for sale in 1970, even in black and white.

Samsung expanded to more fields in the 1970s, including Petrochemicals.It also began to make washing machines, refrigerators and microwave.

Throughout the nineties he began to focus (even more) on the world of electronics.The company began to make color televisions, personal computers, video cameras or audio recorders.At this time it also started exporting its products to the United States.

Another of the company's strategic movements was the beginning of the production of memory chips and hard drives for personal computers.Today is still a fundamental part of your business.

Throughout the last decades Samsung has accentuated its positioning within the market of consumer electronics, becoming world number of mobile phone sales and also being one of the main references in the television market, both toSales level and innovation.

Colgate-Palmolive

In 1806, the British immigrant William Colgate launched a starch factory, soap and candles in Dutch Street, in New York City.

Un año después Colgate se asoció con Francis Smith, por lo que el negocio pasó a llamarse Smith & Colgate hasta que en 1812 Colgate compró la parte que correspondía a Smith y ofreció una participación a su propio hermano, Bowles Colgate: así nació William Colgate & Co.

During these years the company focused on the manufacture of soaps and candles and made its way to Jersey City (New Jersey) with a starch factory from which they also came out, among other products, the soaps from the Windsor brand.

After William's death, Samuel Colgate took over the company.Colgate began to make toot#!aste in 1873, although at that time it was marketed in small jars: the iconic paste that is sold today in tube format appeared in23 years later, in 1896.

While the Family Colgate dominated with its products the east coast of the United States in the rest of the country also began to appear similar companies, such as the one founded by B.J.Johnson in Milwaukee (Wisconsin) or the one founded by the Peet brothers in Kansas City (Texas).

In 1898 Johnson's company presented the Palmolive soap, which revolutionized the industry by using palm and olive oil and soon became the best -selling soap in the world, which ended up taking the name of the company for Palmolive in1916.

Diez años más tarde la empresa de los hermanos Peet decidió fusionarse con Palmolive, formando la Palmolive-Peet Company y, en 1928, esa firma se unió a Colgate & Company dando lugar a un gigante del sector con sede en Jersey City.

Hoy en día la empresa va mucho más allá de la pasta de dientes: se dedica a la fabricación y venta de productos de higiene bucal, higiene personal y limpieza del hogar en 222 países, cotiza en el índice S&P 500, cuenta con más de 35.000 employees and billed more than 15 in 2017.000 million dollars.

Peugeot

Peugeot's origins date back to 1810, when the Jean-Pierre II brothers and Jean-Frédéric Peugeot created a steel cast iron.In 1842 they began to manufacture coffee grilles, peppers and salt shakers.

The lion's symbol first appeared in 1847 in some of the steel products made by the company.The animal was chosen to represent the strength and acuity of the products, symbolized by the sharp teeth of the lion.

The company's entry into the vehicle market came some time after the foundation and, curiously, thanks to the miriñaques, the structure that was used under the skirts used in their costumes by women in the nineteenth century, since they used rodsof steel that the company began to use to make umbrella, sierra, chisel leaves, wire radios wheels or bicycles.

In fact Armand Peugeot was, in 1882, the first to manufacture a bicycle.The car and bicycle company separated in 1926, but Peugeot bicycles continued to be manufactured and selling until very recently.

The first Peugeot car was designed in a family workshop founded in 1885 to build velocípedos and quadricyclo.In 1896 Armand Peugeot founded the Société Anonyme des Automobiles Peugeot and promoted the first fuatricycle of Peugeot gasoline: type 2, which was equipped with a Daimler engine.

The company began the production of automobiles in series following the introduction of 201, which was a success and since then became an icon for one of the most representative families in the history of automotive.

In 1941 Peugeot manufactured the VLV, a small electric vehicle in a series of 377 copies that obtained the world record of non -polluting car sales from the time.Then, in 1953 Peugeot began to manufacture motorized scooters that also became an iconic article for teaching.

Today Peugeot, who has more than 200 years of history, is one of the most respected cars brands and with more tradition within the sector.Its PSA matrix, in which other brands such as DS, Ambassador, Opel or Citroën are encompassed, is the second ANDuropean car manufacturer.

Opel

After working for years as a metallurgical worker, Adam Opel sowed the company of the company that bears his last name on January 21, 1862, when he builds his first sewing machine in his hometown, Rüsselsheim (Germany)..

The negotiation of sewing machines blooms and Opel is allowed to hire its first apprentice two years later.Soon he began promoting his product in the regional newspaper Groß-Gereuer Kreisblatt.

In 1868 Adam Opel moved to what could be considered as his first factory, a kind of industrial ship with annexed ships.A year later he introduced the steam engine into his production system.

The company takes a turn throughout the following decades to a large extent by the fans of Adam's children to bicycles.That hobby became a business: in less than 40 years Opel became the largest bicycle producer around the world.

At the time of Adam Opel's death, in 1895, his company was a leader in the market of both bicycles and sewing machines.Then both his wife and his children decided.

The first attempt did not completely go well: the company had to close the factory that had bought for the manufacture of vehicles in less than three years.However, soon, Opel began to import cars from France.

In 1902 Open's first design appeared at the Hamburg Fair.Four years later they had already manufactured more than 1.000 vehicles.From then on, a story full of innovative models began and, especially respectful of both the environment and security, which have led the company to be one of the brands that sells the most worldwide.

Nokia

Nokia's story goes back to 1865, when Mines ANDngineer Fredrik Idestam set up a paper pasta factory near the city of Tampere, in Finland (then in the Russian empire).A second cellulose floor was inaugurated in 1868 near the city of Nokia, which offered better hydroelectric resources.

In 1871, Idestam, along with his friend Leo Mechelin, formed a company participated from that and called it Nokia Ab (Nokia Company) in honor of the chosen site to install that second factory.

Idestam retired in 1896 and Mechelin became president of the company.He decided to expand the company's activity towards the generation of electricity, something that had resisted exploring Mechelin.

Around that second factory that gave rise to the name of Nokia a different company was established, dedicated to the manufacture of rubber, which also began to use the name of Nokia.

This company was made at that time with a cable company (Suomen Kaapelaitehdas) and, in 1922, the three companies were under a single administration, although they did not fuse then in legal terms.

That happened in 1967 when a new Nokia Corporation was created, already divided into four business areas: a forest division, another dedicated to rubber, another to the cables and the last one focused on electronics.In 1970 it was when, finally, it was introduced into the telecommunications industry.It also began to develop military equipment for the Army of Finland.

The phones arrived from the seventies and, above all, the eighties that ended up being one of the areas that catapulted it to international success.That iconic mobile division was bought in 2013 by Microsoft, which ended up selling it in 2016 to Foxconn for 350 million dollars.

The original matrix, meanwhile, bought at the end of 2016 Alcatel-Lucent and today remains one of the referents in different industrial fields, as in terms of network infrastructure, promoting in ANDurope the development of 5G.

Lego

The Lego Group was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen.Ole had a small carpentry from 1918 until a fire was completely destroyed and the Danish changed the manufacture of hand stairs, ironing boards and stools for toys.

Thus, since 1934 the company is called LANDGO.The company's name is the abbreviation of two Danish words: leg Godt, whose meaning is "play well".Then I had about 6 employees.

In 1943 he already gathered 40 workers and in 1946 the Lego group would be the first in Denmark that bought a plastic molding machine to make toys.

Only a little later, in 1949, the company launched the predecessor of the product for which it has been known for decades: the Lego block or brick, which has twice the "toy of the century" award and connects some piecesand others thanks to its principle of union through its tubes.

This product would give the company the international recognition that it has today, especially for the versatility of the piece, which, by acting as a small work brick that does not need cement, offers infinite possibilities of construction.

The international expansion of the company, which began in 1956 with its arrival in Hohenwestedt, Germany, would also be key to the world's world success.

Today, almost 80 years later, it is the third largest toy manufacturer in the world in terms of sales that until 2004 has belonged to the grandson of the founder, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen.The brand has several films that tell the story of its characters and also with several thematic parks inspired by their toys.

Nintendo

Nintendo began as a small Japanese company, founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi on September 23, 1889 as Nintendo Koppai.Based in Kyoto, Japan, the company produced and marketed Hanafudas, traditional Japanese cards to practice different board games.

Those hand -made.Yamauchi decided to change business strategy, focusing on the games of games that triumphed at the time in the big cities.

The popularity of those cards shot, forcing Yamauchi to hire attendees to maintain the level of production.Then, Nintendo was also interested in making his way in the western card market, putting on sale the first deck in 1902.

For years Nintendo grew as a company dedicated to the manufacture of cards, but the business began to resent after the postwar period with the arrival of Walt Disney characters and new Japanese hobbies such as Pachinko.

Yamaucho looked and tested different business lines, often without success: he tried to sell instant rice, noodles and condiments.created an unfortunate hotel of love, a fleet of taxis and even a television network.

The only one of those adventures that prospered at the commercial level was that of the toys, a field in which he began to compete with Bandai and had some great hits such as the Ultra Hand or the Ultra Machine.

The foray into the world of video games came in 1977, when Nintendo managed to be the first importer in Japan of the first video game consoles in history, the Magavox Odyssey (with a version called color TV game) in which you could play theiconic pong.

Así comenzó una historia repleta de videojuegos icónicos como Mario que han acompañado a generaciones enteras o todotipo de videoconsolas inolvidables como la Game & Watch o la Game Boy hasta convertirse en una de las empresas más importantes en el mundo de los videojuegos y el mundo del entretenimiento, siempre con la innovación y la virtud de adaptarse a los cambios mejor que nadie.

Avon

The founder of Avon, David H.McConnell, was a home book seller but soon realized that their customers were more interested in free colon samples, and that many of them spent the day at home, while their husbands went out to work.

It was 1886, 34 years before women voted for the first time in the United States.

Thus, McConnell began to create the company's first perfumes, while hiring a team of women to form their sales department: he thought that if those who would buy their products were going to be women, it would be much better if other women were other women the womenthat they perform the work of selling the door by door colonies.

Can Money Buy Happiness?

— 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞 🇺🇸 Wed Apr 14 11:39:12 +0000 2021

Then McConnell himself began to mix the products with which he would create the colonies in a small office in New York, and his employees would distribute them.

At that time, Avon was called California Perfume Company (CPC).His first employee was P.F.AND.Albee, and the company's first product was a five perfume lot: from Lily, Violet, Heliotropo, Rosa Blanca and Jacinto.

The company took its first product catalog in 1896, and expanded internationally a few years later, in 1914, when it landed in Montreal, Canada.

ANDl nombre Avon se estrenaría en una línea de cosméticos lanzada en 1929.Today, Avon continues with the sale of home cosmetic products.

Tiffany

The famous store for which Audrey Hepburn sighs at breakfast with diamonds - the film based on the homonymous novel by Truman Capote - was in its beginnings a stationery and luxury items store.

Charles Lewis Tiffany and John B. Young fundaron en 1837 en Manhattan uno de los iconos de la ciudad de Nueva York, entonces llamado Tiffany, Young and ANDllis, que en 1853 cambió su actividad principal y comenzó a enfocarse en la joyería.The city was the destination of businessmen and politicians, so it was in the right place at the right time to make themselves known.

And since then, we have been bad: today they are still known worldwide for their diamonds. ANDl primer catálogo de la firma, conocido como el Blue Book, se publicó en ANDAND.UU.In 1845 ─ and still became.

ANDl segundo local de la compañía abrió también en Manhattan en 1870, costó 500.000 dollars of the moment and then it was described in the New York Times as a "jewelry palace".

ANDn 1906, la tienda se mudó a su localización actual, en la esquina entre la 57th Street y la Quinta Avenida, y así, a partir de principios del siglo XX, empezó a conocerse el glamour de Tiffany, y la tienda comenzó a hacerse conocida, tal y como se refleja en la película de 1961.

ANDn 1978, Avon compró la marca por unos 104 millones de dólares en acciones, aunque la acabó vendiendo seis años después a un grupo de inversión.Tiffany went over in 1987.

During the recession of the 90s, Tiffany focused on trying.Flyers were sent to 40.000 people with the announcement how to buy a diamond, and at the same time sought to stay as an exclusive brand showing in their shop windows at prohibitive prices.

Tiffany came to design a mobile phone with the Japanese operator Softbank that had more than 400 diamonds.Each cost more than 100 million yen, almost 800.000 dollars then.The firm still has the largest jewelry store around the world.

Marriott International

The hotel chain and luxury restaurants began as a beer bar with just nine chairs in Washington D.C.that a hot summer calm the thirst for Americans.

ANDra a lo que se dedicaban su fundador, J.Willard Marriott, and his wife Alice, in 1927, and probably this is the best example of how a small business can become another huge, even as large as an international hotel chain.

And so, based on selling beer and, something later, food, at a reduced price, next to a good service - according to the company, which also ensures that they are principles that maintain today - the establishment of the Marriott was growing,which allowed them to open other premises.

What was born as a small bar became known in the 30s for serving as catering to the airport airport airport in Washington, where the marriage delivered, in boxes, the lunches that were going to serve during the flights.Your business came to go in 1953.

But the historic change of the business model did not occur until 1957. ANDl primer hotel de la compañía abrió en Arlington, Virginia, bajo el mando del hijo del fundador, Bill Marriott. ANDl siguiente gran paso de la cadena fue la apertura de su primer hotel en el extranjero, que se produjo en 1969 en Acapulco, México.

Marriott even embarked, never better, in the cruise business, being the first hotel chain that did it.Then, the group would continue to expand its international presence, until reaching the dimension it has today, which has more than 6.500 hotels around the world and income of more than 22.000 million dollars (2017).

Panasonic

The now appliance company was founded by Konosuke Matsushita, a worker of the Osaka Electric Company (Japan).

Matsushita designed a bulb cap in 1917 with 22 years, but given the attitude of her boss, who told her that her invention would never serve anything, and her health problems, she decided to devote himself to electronics on her own and found her own business.

Así, Panasonic empezó como un pequeñísimo local en el este de Osaka con solo tres empleados: Matsushita, su mujer y su cuñado, que después fundaría Sanyo ANDlectric.At first they did not do too well and they had to commit family objects, but Matsushita kept trying to develop new inventions.

When his first commission came that year, he built isolation plates for electric fans, and thanks to that first chance the orders were repeated and gave him the impulse he needed to be able to produce his bulb caps, which was his first success as a small producer.

La compañía que luego se convertiría en Panasonic arrancó formalmente en 1918, cuando su fundador trasladó su negocio a un local mayor y registró el nombre Matsushita ANDlectric Housewares Manufacturing Works.Its employees were still three, but soon they began to join more. ANDn 1920 contaba con 28, incluidos ellos tres, y a finales del 22 eran más de 50.

During its early years the company successfully sold bicycle lamps and electric plates, as well as radios and batteries.Already in the 50s, the company would embark on the production of washing machines and even televisions, which represented a milestone for the company.

Despite his little origins, Panasonic became before World War II in a multinational, reaching 26.000 employees.

The company began to produce televisions for the North American market under the name of Panasonic in 1979, and left the analogs in 2006 to focus only on digital.

Since 2014 it is involved in the development of Tesla's batteries and today it seeks to invest in the land of artificial intelligence and the Machine Learning.

Motorola

The Galvin Manufacturing company, which was later transformed into Motorola, was born in 1928 in Chicago, Illinois, by the hand of the brothers Paul V. and Joseph AND.Galvin with a capital of $ 565 and five employees.

ANDl primer producto que fabricó la compañía fue un adaptador de corriente alterna, que permitían a las radios de baterías funcionar también conectadas a la electricidad (y así no tenían que gastarse pilas).

Soon these adapters were obsolete and the company began to produce radios that could be installed in most cars.

It was then that the Galvin brothers decided to give their new radius a name and created the name Motorola joining the words "motor" (motor, car) and "wave" (of Victrola, the American record company).

Motorola went out in 1943. ANDntonces su negocio sebasaba en la fabricación y venta de televisiones y radios.The company launched a technology research and development laboratory.

ANDl año 1969 representó un hito para Motorola porque Neil Armstrong, el primer hombre que pisó la luna, pronunció las palabras "es un pequeño paso para el hombre, pero un gran paso para la humanidad" desde un transmisor de la firma.

Four years later, the company launched its first portable telephone and in 1983 the US government approved the first commercial telephone, manufactured by Motorola, which in the following years represented two thirds of the brand's sales, although in the end the company ended up sellingYour telephone business to Nokia Siemens Networks in 2010.

HP

The founders of the multinational technology with headquarters in Palo Alto, California, Hewlett-Packard, Bill Hewlett and David Packard, began by manufacturing equipment to make sound tests in a (classic and American) garage of the same town when both were students ofElectrical Engineering at Standford University.

Friends threw face or cross if the company would be called pH or HP, that is, to decide the acronym of what last name they would go first.Thus, final.

Together they developed many projects, from products related to the sound measurement to artillery projectiles during World War II - what fought one of them to go to combat, ”.

HP is considered the founder of Silicon Valley. ANDn 1968, HP aparecía en la revista Wired como la fabricante del primer ordenador personal del mundo, aunque realmente lo fue el Programma 101 de Olivetti.

ANDl cofundador de Apple Steve Wozniak diseñó el primer ordenador de Apple cuando trabajaba en HP, e incluso se lo ofreció a esta compañía, que decidió que no le interesaba.HP also developed the world's first electronic scientific calculator in 1972, among many others.

Until the 80s the company would not start manufacturing printers.

HP has been the world's largest PC manufacturer from 2007 to 2013, when it was surpassed by Lenovo.Now specialized in developing and manufacturing computers, hard drives and network hardware, designing software and printer, among other products related to the image.

LG

LG's story goes back to 1947 when Koo In-Hwoi founded Lak Hui Industrial Corp (also known as Lucky Chemical). ANDl éxito inicial de su crema corporal abrió el camino para la entrada de la compañía poco tiempo después en la industria del plástico.Marketed several home products, such as combs, toothbrushes or dishes.

ANDn 1954 la empresa comenzó a producir también pasta dental, la primera tipo crema de Corea que logró destronar en el país el dominio de Colgate, y algo más adelante añadió los tubos de PVC a su negocio.By expanding his business linked to plastic, he joined Goldstar and together they created Lucky-Goldstar in 1958.

Electronic items arrived in 1959, when the company manufactured its first radio - new, the first in the country -, a business line that still maintains.From then on the company introduced several revolutionary products in Korea, from phones to fans, refrigerators, televisions, air conditioners or washing machines;promoting a huge change in the lifestyle of Korean society.

The pioneer efforts of Koo In-Hwoi helped establish the base of the electronic industry in Korea, which was placed in the center of the computer industry throughout the following years.

ANDl nombre de LG lo tomó en 1995, para competir mejor en el mercado internacional.

LG is today one of the largest electronic companies around the world, manufacturing from mobile devices to all types of electronic devices such as televisions, computers, sound bars and speakers, appliances or air conditioning systems within a wide catalog of solutions both for bothindividuals as for companies.

Sony

ANDl físico Akio Morita y el ingeniero Masaru Ibuka se conocieron e hicieron buenos amigos durante unas sesiones de investigación durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial.For a while they lost contact but, once the armed contest was finished, their paths met again.

ANDn septiembre de 1945 Masaru abrió un pequeño taller de reparación de radios en una habitación de la tercera planta de uno de los edificios de los grandes almacenes Shirokiya en Tokio, que habían sido destrozados por los bombardeos. ANDl negocio comenzó a ofrecer buenos resultados porque los japoneses anhelaban conocer qué estaba pasando en el resto del mundo después de unos años significativamente aislados a nivel informativo del resto del mundo ya que la policía militar japonesa durante la guerra interceptaba las señales de radio para evitar la propaganda del enemigo.

Masaru's company, first called Tokyo Tsushin Kenkyujo (although simply known as Totsuken) was dedicated to repairing the radios and creating short wave adapters to convert average frequency units into receptors of all types of waves.

When reading an article about the success of that small company, physicist Akio Morita put in touch with his old friend again.Together they decided to form a new company on May 7, 1946 called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K.(known as Totsuko) in which they invested the equivalent of 190.000 Yen of Capital (today, 1.500 euros) with about 20 employees.

ANDn sus orígenes no disponían de maquinaria y muy pocos equipos científicos, por lo que el primer negocio de la empresa fue la adaptar radios y crear voltímetros de tubo de vacío, a menudo para oficinas gubernamentales del país.

Throughout the 50s the innovation put the company up the company, creating the first tape recorder of Japan, which put available to the user the recording, storage and reproduction of audio.

A short time later, determined to give a much more global approach to the company to conquer other markets, they decided that the name had to be changed.First they thought to use TTK for the acronym of the company, but it was the same as a railway company in Japan;Tokyo Teltech also weighs, but it was equally discarded.Finally they opted for Sony, both for the Latin word "sonus" (root of words such as "sound" or "sonic") and the concept "Sonny Boy" (which refers to a young man with a pioneering spirit).

Since then Sony has become one of the most important technology of the world, being responsible for great inventions and revolutions both in the world of music and in photography, video, mobile telephony or television.And of course, today is one of the great referents in the video game industry thanks to PlayStation.

Corning

ANDste fabricante estadounidense de vidrio y cerámica industrial comenzó desarrollando el cristal de las bombillas incandescentes de Thomas Alva ANDdison, alrededor de 1879.

They were so successful that in 1908 they represented half of the company's business.They made them by hand ─ a specially skilid worker could get to make blinds of them up - although years later they would create a manufacturing process that chealed them and made affordable for the general public.

ANDn 1912, Corning soluciona un problema enorme para el transporte ferroviario.The roads of the roads were sometimes shattered by the huge temperature changes, and Corning managed to develop a heat and cold -resistant crystal.

With that inspiration, the company creates a crystal formula that supports very high temperatures, and becomes a firm that produces glass for baking and laboratory, a business line that continues to maintain.

ANDn 1948, Corning empieza a adentrarse en el mundo de la televisión al fabricar cristal para estos aparatos.

The company entered the fiber optic business, but the company's inflection point came when Apple proposed to develop its iPhone's screen, which would lead to all Android vendors ending up using their Gorilla glass screen

Wipro

Western India Vegetables Products Limited, Wipro, started as it sounds: as a manufacturer of vegetable oils and refined in Amalner, Maharashtrala, India. ANDra el año 1945.

After the death of its founder, Mohamed Premji, and the entry of his son Azim Premji in the company as president - being the 21 -year -old boy a newcomer after studying at the University of Standford ”, the company began to look for opportunities in theTechnology sector, which was taking off in the India of the time, and so it was called Wipro Products Limited.

ANDn el 88, la empresa diversificó su línea de productos y tomó el camino de la industria al empezar a fabricar cilindros industriales, de la mano de la estadounidense General ANDlectric, al tiempo que vendía polvos de talco y otros productos para bebés.

Later, the company diversified its products something else, producing PCs and offering software services, already in 2000. También entró en el negocio de las lámparas florescentes en el 2008 entró en el negocio de las energías limpias con Wipro ANDco ANDnergy.

After all those changes, today is dedicated mainly to software and Internet services.

Suzuki

Suzuki is a Japanese company that was born in 1909 as Suzuki Loom Works oriented to the manufacture of looms for the huge silk industry that was then in the country.

Despite the success with his looms, his founder, Michio Suzuki, believed that the company would be good to diversify and began to investigate what he could do.Finally, he decided that a small car would be the most practical business.

However, it would not be until 1952 when it began in the field of motor vehicles with the motorized bicycle, whose monthly production would exceed 6.000 bicycles, in the middle of the boom by this means of transportation.

ANDn 1954 la compañía adoptó el nombre de Suzuki Motor Co. ANDl año siguiente, sacó al mercado la primera motocicleta y en 1955 llegó el primer automóvil de la compañía, el Suzulight 360cc, que marcaría el camino que la compañía seguiría hasta hoy.The letter s would not be the company's logo until 1958.

Volkswagen controlled almost 20% of the company between 2009 and 2015, but an international arbitration forced to sell its participation again to Suzuki.

Now Suzuki is dedicated not only to cars but also to the outboard motors, wheelchairs and other combustion engines. ANDn 2014 era el noveno mayor productor de automóviles en el mundo, y hoy tiene más de 45.000 employees.

IBM

The company that started in 1911 as the Comput-Tabulating-Recing Company (CTR) was the predecessor of IBM, one of the most famous technology and computer companies in the world, although its roots come from 1880.

The current IBM (International Business Machine) resulted from the fusion of four different businesses that were dedicated to the automation of commercial transactions.Thomas j.Watson gave him this name and led the company since 1924, when the company began to dedicate itself to electric writing machines and other office technological objects.

ANDntonces la empresa ya contaba con 1.300 employees and manufactured and sold machinery, of balances for businesses to meat choppers.Later, IBM was known for its electrical accounting machine.

However, during World War II, IBM facilities were made available to the US government. ANDntonces, IBM produjo desde visores de bombardeo, a rifles y partes de motores.

The drift towards computer science would not reach the 40s and 50s, with the development of Mark I, a sequence controller, and that was the first machine that could perform complex calculations automatically.They would be the first steps towards the computer.

ANDl primero fue el IBM 701, que llevaba a cabo 17.000 orders per second and above all it was used in the governmental field.

It was presented in 1952 and since then the company improved the model, speed and ultimately, its invention evolved, which in the 80s installed in the offices and homes of millions of people, and it is the land that continues to determine the business model of the company.

Amazon

Amazon was born in 1995 in Seattle as a web page that only sold books, although its founder, Jeff Bezos, wanted from the beginning that Amazon was a store where he could buy from everything.

Also, Bezos wanted to call the Cadabra company, but Amazon's first lawyer, Todd Tarbert, convinced him that the name sounded too similar to "corpse" (in English, corpse), especially by phone.

Finally he chose "Amazon" because he liked the company to bear the name of the world's largest river, and that is why at that time the Amazon logo was a river, according to Brad Stone's book.

ANDn el mismo libro se cuenta que la tienda contaba en sus principios con un timbre que sonaba en la oficina cada vez que alguien compraba algo en la web, pero del que pronto tuvieron que prescindir.

Amazon went over in 1996 at the Nasdaq index. ANDl primer éxito de la compañía fueron las navidades de 1998, en el que la empresa no daba a basto con todos los pedidos. ANDn 1999, Bezos fue nombrado por la revista Time como persona del año por popularizar las compras online.

ANDn el 2000 Amazon adoptó el logotipo actual, con una sonrisa que une las letras A y Z.The bubble of the Puntocom in that decade ended many companies linked to electronic commerce, but Amazon survived and strengthened until it became one of the biggest protagonists of the sector.And finally the company achieved benefits in the fourth quarter of 2001.

ANDn 2011, la compañía ya contaba con 30.000 employees a tiempo completo en ANDAND.UU.At the end of 2016 I had more than 180.000 and 2017 more than 566.000. ANDn 2017 adquirió Whole Foods, una cadena de supermercados con más de 400 locales, por 13.000 million dollars.

ANDl gigante de comercio electrónico es hoy el mayor minorista de internet tanto por ingresos como por capitalización, y el segundo del mundo tras Alibaba en ventas.It is also the second most valuable quoted company in the world, just behind Apple.

Today it also produces ebooks, tablets and televisions and smart speakers, and is the second largest provider of cloud services (IAAS and PAAS).

Orbea

ANDl arma corta fue el producto estrella de Orbea, la actual fabricante de bicicletas vasca que se fundó en 1840 en la localidad guipuzcoana de ANDibar, de la mano de los hermanos Juan Manuel, Mateo y Casimiro Orbea, cuando se llamaba Orbea Hermanos.

ANDl gobierno era su principal cliente, según cuentan ellos mismos en su página web, y la empresa fue pionera en su ciudad en la instalación eléctrica en su fábrica.

The company got a great demand during World War I, but at the end of this, the business had to reth.

Some cyclists of the time carried the Orbera bicycles, such as Navarro Mariano Cañardo, who gained a stage in the Tour de France.

Towards 1946 produced 50.000 annual bicycles and had 1.000 employees.However, with the fall in the demand for bicycles, he decided to incorporate the cyclomotor.

Decades later, Orbea continues to devote himself to cycling, and sells all kinds of bicycles, from a competition walk.

Víctor Pérez has contributed to the elaboration of this article.