Here at Flex Technologies, we are proud of American industry. We are also proud to do our part to keep it running smoothly with our high quality manufactured silicone products for businesses, available for order online. Our silicone tubes and hoses for businesses are made to the strict requirements of ISO 9001:2008, TS-16949, as well as our own internal company standards. The quality of our silicone products is why they have seen use in every industry ranging from agriculture to aerospace. In honor of the thriving business world, we thought we would list some fun business facts here.

Round Table

Taking a cue from the mythical King Arthur's round table, Starbucks created their small, round coffee tables to instill a sense of community so that its customers would not feel alone. It has been observed by psychologists that circled furniture improves communication, which makes sense if you have ever noticed how people congregate.

Yahoo!

While Google now dominates the search engine market, Yahoo was once a pretty big contender. Most people don't know that the name is also an acronym. "Yahoo" stands for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle".

Serious Cash Flow

Some companies are so profitable, it kind of blows your mind when you look at their profit flow. Walmart, one of the biggest companies in the United States, is a great example; they average just under two million dollars of profit every single hour.

Cooperation

When you run a multi-billion dollar company, sometimes a little cooperation is necessary. That is why you will find some company's outsource their work to unusual places. For instance, Apple's iPad retina display is made by Samsung. Surprising, huh?

Brand Recognition

Major companies spend millions and millions of dollars on brand recognition. It is a major part of what drives sales. Perhaps no company has been so successful with brand recognition as Coca Cola. According to one study, a full 94 percent of the entire world's population can recognize the red and light logo for the Coca Cola brand.

Unusual Trademarks

We all know that companies prefer to protect their intellectual properties with trademarks. But it might surprise you how extensive this can get. One example comes from Marvel comics, which had a trademark for the word "zombie" for about twenty years. Thankfully, they lost it by 1996, or they might have monopolized a whole fad in television, comics, and movies.

Dark Side

It shouldn't come to a surprise to anyone that business can have a dark side. One facet of this is with misleading advertising, as customers should have the right to know what they are consuming. For instance, one study found that about two out of five bottled water brands were not actually "source water", or more pure water extracted from springs, but actually just purified tap water. To be clear, the water was advertised as "purified", not as source water, but that didn't stop customers from making the assumption. Dasani, owned by Coca Cola, is one of the major brands of bottled water that is just purified tap water.

Manufacturing Costs

Nobody can escape the global economy. Though it is a sore subject, most manufacturing jobs have been shipped overseas to places like China and Taiwan, where labor protection laws are much more lax. However, doing so does drive costs down. For instance, if Apple were to manufacture their products in America, according to the Analyst, then the iPad 2 would have cost $1,140 to American customers, almost twice the price that it sold for: $729.

Advertising

Advertising and brand recognition go hand in hand. On television at least, two industries completely dominate the advertising market. That would be the automobile industry, the largest television advertiser, and cereal industry, the second largest advertiser.

Names Matter

Many owners spend many a night contemplating the perfect name for their business. And sometimes, in hindsight, they can be way off the mark. This was the case for Google originally, back when its company was named "BackRub". Can you imagine the search engine giant "BackRub" dominating the market?

Secrets of the Game

Facebook's creator Mark Zuckerberg apparently created an easy way to access his profile. Just take the home page Facebook url and add a "/4", and you will be taken directly to it.

Naming Conventions

There is often an obscure and convoluted reasoning process for many major successful companies out in the world. One instance of this is the major company Pepsi. Stumped on where their name came from? It is based off of the digestive enzyme pepsin. Don't worry, we didn't know either.

Umbrella Companies

Many companies have umbrella like ownership patterns. Major companies acquire smaller companies, but they still operate under their brand name. For instance, the online shipping giant Amazon owns the popular brands ShopBop, Goodreads, Zappos, and Audible.com.

Information Power

Especially in the information age, the major companies out there have an amazing amount of data based on our use habits of their devices. Apple for instance, analyzes and stores everything that is said to Siri. The means may not be nefarious, but big brother sure is watching.

Market Share

America is known for its monopolies: Superstores like Walmart and Target, ISPs like Comcast and AT&T, the list goes on of companies dominating a market. But Samsung in South Korea may take the, cake making up a full 20 percent of the GDP of the country. 

Unenforceable Trademarks

Speaking of unusual trademarks, it may surprise you to learn that the major music publishing company Warner Music owns the rights to the "Happy Birthday" song. Hopefully they won't enforce that trademark any time soon, or we are all going to owe a lot in back pay!

Purchasing Power

Company's have amassed more wealth than ever before, and the benefit for owners and shareholders has been tremendous! Take Bill Gates for instance; if he was a country, he would be the 37th richest country on the entire planet! Now that is a tree that bore fruit!

Hopefully these fun business facts proved interesting! If you are looking for silicone products for businesses, then Flex Technologies is the company to call! Our silicone tubes and hoses are manufactured to the the highest quality. Please reach out to us for more information on our products. One of our friendly and knowledgeable representatives will be happy to answer any questions that you may have.