Back in 1987 the rock band Bon Jovi was top of the pops and the world's third-largest firm by value was Tokyo Electric Power (tepco), a utility in Japan few outside that country had heard of. Today Bon Jovi is still churning out number-one albums but tepco's value has fallen by 90% and it is teetering on bankruptcy. It is now known around the world for the disaster at its nuclear power plant at Fukushima. Like pop charts and Olympic medal rankings, corporate league tables are both silly and compelling.
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