The Thousand Year Company

How long do you consider a business needs to survive to be considered successful? Ten years? Twenty? Fifty? In today’s turbulent economies, businesses have an almost ephemeral quality, dissipating quickly under the wrong conditions.

Now consider the Nishiyama Keiunkan Onsen, a hot spring hotel in Japan. The hotel has the distinction of being the oldest business in the world with a founding date of 705 AD. This relatively small business watched Japan switch from monarchy to feudalism and industrialism, surviving multiple wars and economic disasters, and it continues to thrive.

The Nishiyama Keiunkan Onsen is not alone. The Weltenberger Kloster brewery in Germany dates back to 1050 AD. The Brazen Head pub in Dublin, Ireland, first opened its doors in 1198 AD.

In The Thousand Year Company, sustainability consultant and leadership advisor Anton G. Camarota, PhD, examines Nishiyama Keiunkan Onsen and other venerable companies as models of sustainability.

Camarota integrates the lessons learned from long-established companies into the Thousand Year Model, a flexible starting point for developing your company’s own processes and systems. Discover what you need to do to help your business thrive into the next century and beyond.