Amazon, Samsung, Nintendo and 5 Wealthy Companies that Completely Pivoted Their Business

Samsung one of the world's biggest electronics and cell phone companies used to export fish Nintendo perhaps the most famous video game company of all time used to run a taxi service and owned a few love hotels as the times tastes and Trends change so must the businesses to keep up with consumers however some of these companies went through unimaginable transformations to escape complete bankruptcy and as

a result are now multi-billion dollar businesses let's find out how some of the world's most successful companies reinvented themselves Nintendo most people's first foray into video games just about everyone recognizes the iconic gaming console Company by their famous video game characters like Mario Donkey Kong and Link but Nintendo's history goes back well over 100 years established in 1889 the Japanese company started as a manufacturer of

handcrafted playing cards cards Nintendo sold these cards for 70 years before sales began to slip in the 1960s the company decided to find another Avenue for Revenue as they surged far and wide for a new product to Pedal they tried instant noodles Lego like building blocks even a taxi service they even went into the business of Love hotels and we'll just let your mind wander on

what that could possibly even mean but toys and entertainment ultimately proved to be their wheelhouse two men proved to be the saviors of Nintendo yokoi gumpe and Shigeru Miyamoto yokoi was a genius engineer and inventor in 1966 he invented an extendable grabbing hand tool the Nintendo turned into the ultra hand toy it was also yokoi that created their first home video game machine and then later

the famous Game Boy handheld video game system in 1989 in the 1970s a young designer joined Nintendo and would change the entire direction of the company shingero Miyamoto created characters that would later become Donkey Kong and Mario Miyamoto worked close mostly with the engineers to create their Donkey Kong arcade cabinets and from 1981 till this day Nintendo became a video game company today Shigeru Miyamoto is

the general manager of Nintendo entertainment and development the company reached its peak market capitalization of 73 billion dollars in 2007. they've released several successful consoles and countless incredible gaming franchises to top it off they currently have a box office hit movie in theaters not bad for a 134 year old playing card company you probably know Hasbro as the makers of some of your favorite childhood toys

and action figures such as GI Joe Transformers and Power Rangers but they couldn't have started further from this current industry in the 1920s the brothers Hillel Hermann and Henry hassenfeld founded hassenfeld Brothers textiles and sold Fabrics in the next couple of decades the company expanded into school supplies pencils and pencil cases they later sold educational toys like doctor and nurse kits as well as clay modeling

kits in 1952 they bought the rights to a toy that would lead them into their current industry Mr Potato Head it was a near instant hit in 1964 they produced a game changer GI Joe was developed for boys that didn't want to play with dolls so the term action figure was born in 1968 the company thankfully shortened their name to Hasbro Industries the company is still

making and selling licensed toys and action figures to this day with movie tie-ins being some of their hottest sellers along with toys Hasbro awns Parker Brothers Playschool Tonka Monopoly and several other iconic toys and board games founded by biancho Li in 1938 Samsung started as a company used to export dried Korean fish fruits and vegetables to Manchuria and China but early on in their operations Samsung

was pretty Diversified moving into flower mills and selling things like candy machines textiles and life insurance they weren't introduced to the electronics Industry until the late 1960s in 1970 Samsung produced their first black and white TV they decided to move into higher Tech in the 1980s exporting computers VCRs and tape recorders around the world in the 90s they moved into hard drives and digital memory today

Samsung mainly produces flat screen TVs and the hugely popular Android phones and tablets if you don't have an iPhone odds are you have a Samsung Android Samsung still has several businesses that aren't Electronics related staying Diversified as when and they started Samsung has their own financial services medical center and operates their own hotels and resorts I want you to imagine a time where Amazon wasn't the

biggest online retailer the world has ever seen in its infancy Amazon was just an online bookstore that's it just a simple Online Marketplace to buy and sell books in 1994 Jeff Bezos took a quarter million dollar loan from his parents must be nice right by July of 1995 Amazon was opened online boasting the largest collection of books anywhere on the web but the online retailer didn't

stay with Just Books in 1998 they started selling music CDs by 1999 they were selling even more categories of goods such as toys tools and electronics today Amazon is the biggest online retailer of just about every conceivable item into man and they've completely revolutionized delivery Logistics as having an Amazon Prime account gives you access to free same day and in some cases even hourly delivery Amazon

employs over 1.5 million workers worldwide in 2006 Amazon launched Amazon unbox a service that allows users to watch content on Amazon's Online Library without having to have the actual physical media it was renamed Amazon instant video on demand and then ultimately Amazon Prime video Lucky Strike brand cigarettes used to be all over the place you could see their ads on billboards magazines newspapers and in television

and films dating all the way back to 1890 as the American Tobacco Company Lucky Strike enjoyed many decades of success but in 1969 the public perception of cigarettes started to change ATC decided to diversify themselves from the newly controversial tobacco products and sold off the tobacco business they rebranded themselves as American Brands under the holding company Fortune Brands this resulted in several smaller product divisions including

office supplies golf clubs even Whiskey Jim Beam whiskey to be exact Fortune Brands more recently added a home and security division which includes Brands such as Master Lock and Sentry Safe there's a very good chance you've reached for a stick of wriggly gum to freshen your breath if not both offered and highly encouraged for you to take the hint but Wrigley's foray into the chewing gum

world was a bit of an accident founded way back in 1891 Wrigley sold soap and baking powder their chewing gum used to be a free sample that came with the purchase of their baking powder similar to how a stick of gum would come in a pack of baseball cards the free gum proved to be much more popular than the soap and baking powder they sold so

the son of the owner William Wrigley Jr helped his dear old dad realize that maybe they should focus on the gum instead Wrigley Jr was a traveling salesman for his father's company and came up with the idea to offer the Gum as a premium for buying their soaps or baking powders he also gave out clocks coffee grinders and or fishing tackle depending on the size of

the order in 1893 the Wrigley company was exclusively advertising and selling their spearmint chewing gum by 1908 the gum was selling to the tune of over 1 million dollars per year which is well over 30 million dollars per year adjusted for inflation the success of their chewing gum led to Wrigley becoming one of the biggest advertisers in America by 1921 they were successful enough to buy

the Chicago Cubs and built their Stadium Wrigley Field formerly known as Cubs park it became Wrigley Field in 1927 and still carries the fam his name to this day even though they no longer own the franchise LG Corp is one of the biggest conglomerates in South Korea today but this Electronics giant started from very humble beginnings the company was founded in 1947 known as the Lacroix

chemical industrial Corp the company expanded from chemicals into Plastics and by 1958 they had established gold star Co to handle those operations Lacroix and gold star would eventually emerge and become Lucky Gold Star the beginning of what would be known as LG in the 1950s LG produced the very first radio in Korea they would later go on to make telephones refrigerators and televisions under the gold

star name the Lucky Brand was associated with soap toothpaste and laundry detergent in 1997 Lucky Gold Star rebranded themselves as LG to better compete in Western markets and focus mainly on electronics today LG is one of the biggest players in the world market for cell phones and HD TVs in 1970 a 20 year old broke an enterprising Richard Branson was selling mail order vinyl records to

undercut the high prices seen on the streets and record stores he even had a motto where complete virgins at business by the following year Branson had his own record company and label with the Sex Pistols among the headliners of the roster it seems as if Mr Branson just kept succeeding and diversifying in return in the 1970s Virgin Records thrived by 1984 Virgin Atlantic Airlines had taken

to the friendly Skies fast forward to 1993 virgin added Virgin Radio to its diversification list followed by Virgin Mobile in 1999. in 2004 Richard Branson announced the beginning of luxury travels to space Virgin Galactic the Virgin group currently has over 400 companies in several different Industries in the world of business it's important to be flexible and able to change with the times all these companies we

just listed have shown remarkable resilience to the ever-changing wills and wants of consumers which company reinvention did you find the most impressive tell us in the comments and as always remember to like subscribe and share our content with your friends thank you