In the private sector, failure to embrace changing times can lead to catastrophic and existential loss. The American economy lavishly rewards businesses with foresight, vision and innovation, and brutally strikes down those that fail to adapt to evolving consumer behaviors, demands and lifestyle situations.

A few years ago, Forbes magazine published a fascinating review of America's top 50 companies from 1917-2017 ranked by asset size. The report first examined the leading industries by sector and the largest businesses at the threshold of the 20th century in 1917, then re-compiled and compared the list 50 years later in 1967, and finally rounded out its analysis with 2017 figures.

A lot changed in the U.S. during that century span, including the leading companies at the pinnacle of business prosperity.

The largest firms by sector in 1917 were Steel, Oil and Gas, Mining, Food and Telecom. Only two of the top 50 companies from that year's list existed under their own names 100 years later: AT&T, then known as American Telephone & Telegraph (No. 2) and General Electric (No. 11).

More than two-thirds of 1917's Top 50 companies wouldn't make the list in 1967, which measured size by market value. The 1967 industry sector top-five lineup--Oil and Gas, Tech, Telecom, Film and Autos--reflected dramatic changes in the ways Americans worked, lived and spent leisure time.

Industries appeared on the 1967 list that........

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