Surveys of 100-Year-Old Companies Beginning

Now that I have returned from a semester teaching in England I am re-starting my research on 100-year-old U.S. companies.  (I was interviewed last month by the BBC for an article on corporate longevity.) My student researchers and I are starting with small to medium sized companies, only because I suspect it will be easier to contact a person within the firm who is willing to work with us on completing our survey.  The survey itself has been developed by my Japanese colleague, Makoto Kanda, who has used the instrument to gather information on behaviors and strategies of old Japanese companies.  Once we obtain enough information on U.S. companies, we are planning to do a comparative analysis.  If you work for a 100-year-old company or know of someone who does, please email me at tenhaken@hope.edu. The survey only takes a few minutes to complete and all individual company information will be completely confidential.  I look forward to posting the results of this research in the future - it will all be in consolidated form, with individual companies identified only with prior permission. We hope to work with many interesting old companies to discover their 'secrets' to living a long life!