My construction partner sent me an email last week that said: "Check out Kongo Gumi. Search them. Pretty cool history." So I flagged the email and made a mental note to come back to it over the weekend when I had more time. I finally looked them up this morning and, he was right, it is a pretty cool history.
It turns out that they are/were the oldest continuously operated company in the world. Founded in 578 to build Japan's first Buddhist temple, the construction company was active for over 1,400 years. They eventually became insolvent in the mid-2000s and the company was then purchased by Takamatsu Construction Group; but before that they had successfully operated across 40 generations.
That is something that doesn't happen very often.
Supposedly, there were two important ingredients contributing to this long run: (1) They forced sons-in-law to take the family name. This ensured that the line continued even when there were generations of only daughters. And (2), they were in the business of building Buddhist temples. So as long as there were millions of Buddhist followers in the world, they were ensured work.
I'm not sure what happened to make the company insolvent in 2005-2006, but imagine the pressure facing each subsequent generation. I know I wouldn't want to be the generation that ultimately took down the 1,400+ year old family business.
For more on the history of the company, click here.
