"Killed"/"killable" is one of those terms that changes with age. Was GM unkillable? Well, they aren't dead, but... Was Windows unkillable? Well, it's not dead, but... Is Facebook unkillable? Well, it's not dead, but... So the old fogies who would tell you GE, GM, IBM are all unkillable aren't wrong but neither were the younger folks they were responding to.
Lotta zombies hang on long after their relevance fades for the future. "X is unkillable" is a good way to reveal a limited imagination for future changes. You go from talking about disruption to talking about how things are now disruption-proof!
I would love to have a company that has 1% the success of just Windows 11 which is estimated to be on 20% of all running PCs, let alone the rest of the MS empire.
Selling 6.2 million vehicles in one year (GM) is hardly a zombie company.
Meta had 40 billion dollars of net revenue, and 3 billion MAUs, which is a pretty fierce zombie if you ask me.
IBM measures their profit in the billions too.
Even GE is still spinning off billions in profit.
All of the companies you mentioned have grown in the past 10 years.
"Strange definition"? Isn't that literally what I said, that it changes definitions with age (and focus)?
Which of those companies still have the influence they did at their peak?
If you've got a startup, growth mindset, you're growing or you're dying. And even growth in revenue, headcount, profit, etc, can lag growth in relevance by decades.
Got any interesting new GE projects on your radar you'd want to work on that you think will be relevant in 20 years?
Do you think Paul Graham of twenty years ago would've called GE unkillable?
It's the difference in ambition and goals that leads to one person loving to take over today's Microsoft (or Reddit) and another - probably much younger person - wanting to start tomorrow's.
> Which of those companies still have the influence they did at their peak?
Facebook is accused of having way too much influence on society as a whole on a constant basis.
MS is the money and computing power behind the hottest AI technology on earth. With Azure and AI they are arguably more influential than at any other time.
GM runs Cruise, which is busy inventing self driving cars and implementing the rules. They are also the largest manufacturer in the US. Hardly uninfluential.
> Got any interesting new GE projects on your radar you'd want to work on that you think will be relevant in 20 years?
Floating wind turbines, automated grid controls, efficient jet engines, 3d printed jet engine parts, advanced mobile medical imaging at sports events, modular nuclear reactors all seem like they might be relevant 20 years from now.
Nothing is completely unkillable, but a company / tech doesn't have to be sexy, new, or fast-growing to be entirely viable or wildly profitable. See: GM, MS Excel, banks.
Lotta zombies hang on long after their relevance fades for the future. "X is unkillable" is a good way to reveal a limited imagination for future changes. You go from talking about disruption to talking about how things are now disruption-proof!