There can’t be many Fortune 500 companies that were founded by someone placing an ad in The Economist, but Illinois Tool Works (US:ITW) is still going strong 112 years after Chicago-based financier Byron Smith did just that.
Hoping to invest in a manufacturing business, Smith ended up backing a group of tool inventors who had had some early success providing washers for the up-and-coming carmakers in nearby Detroit.
Over a century later, the automotive industry remains the group’s biggest customer, providing around 20 per cent of its revenue, but ITW has since diversified across a range of industries and markets.