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Bristol Myers Squibb
A 1989 merger of two penicillin-makers became a US-revenue monoculture built on seven drugs — not science, but scale.
Physics
The rules underneath, as far as they are known.
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Genmab
Jan van de Winkel · 1998
Genmab is a platform biotech — not a drug developer — built around two licensed and proprietary antibody generation methods. Its value is in reducing discovery risk and time, not in owning clinical or commercial outcomes.
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Boehringer Ingelheim
Albert Boehringer · 1885
Boehringer Ingelheim is a rare case of sustained private ownership enabling both technical continuity (from lactic acid to biopharma) and social infrastructure (welfare policies pre-dating national systems). Its business model is not about disruption but compound discipline: owning the science, the scale, and the staff.
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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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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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AbbVie
AbbVie didn’t win the autoimmune market with science — it won with patents, pricing, and settlements.
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Abu Dhabi National Oil Company
ADNOC is expanding oil production while the rest of the industry retreats — not because it ignores climate change, but because it answers to no one but Abu Dhabi.