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The interwar years

Twenty years of unfinished business between two wars.

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10:09

Merck & Co.

George Merck · 1891

Merck & Co. is a multinational pharmaceutical company founded in 1891 as the American affiliate of the German Merck Group, made independent in 1919 after U.S. government expropriation and resale. Its early growth came from strategic mergers — not organic R&D — and its landmark streptomycin breakthrough relied on external academic research funded by the company. Under George W. Merck’s presidency (1925–1950), it developed synthetic vitamins, sulfas, antibiotics, and hormones, while simultaneously leading the U.S. biological weapons programme. The gap between its self-presentation as a scientific pioneer and its actual mechanics — acquisition, outsourcing, and state-aligned research — is the core of its business story.

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12:57

Meituan

Wang Xing · 2010

Meituan is a Chinese technology company headquartered in Beijing that operates a platform for local services, including on‑demand food delivery, in‑store services, consumer reviews under Dazhong Dianping, hotel and travel bookings, and instant retail. It monetises through fees on its platform, taking a commission on food delivery orders and charging merchants for booking and in‑store services. Meituan’s rapid user growth is driven by its extensive coverage of local services, its integration of food delivery, in‑store services, and hotel bookings creating a one‑stop shop, and its large merchant base of 14.5 million active merchants providing network effects. Meituan faces regulatory scrutiny in China, its 2021 post by Wang Xing triggered a 7.1 % share plunge and anti‑monopoly investigation, and the company has been subject to scrutiny by Beijing Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau. Meituan demonstrates the power of a diversified local‑services platform, its ability to scale across cities and internationally shows the importance of network effects, and its regulatory challenges highlight the need for compliance awareness. Meituan offers a case study in rapid scaling and diversification, but its regulatory risks caution investors.

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10:56

ABB

Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown · 1988

ABB is a post-merger industrial incumbent whose value lies in proven, regulated, physical infrastructure — not software, platforms, or scalability stories.

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10:50

AbbVie

AbbVie didn’t win the autoimmune market with science — it won with patents, pricing, and settlements.