I remember writing a position paper as an undergraduate philosophy student, which, I suppose in some way, epitomizes how philosophy is sometimes characterized by popular culture: arcane, esoteric, and utterly preposterous (or bizarre). My target? I sought to expose the epistemological faults latent in empirical observation. My foil? The unicorn (its single antler does, after all, resemble a sword). While I used more than the mere unicorn to illustrate my point—I used something even more intellectually elusive: theoretical physics—I hoped to change the parameters we use to determine whether a thing exists. In short, I (quite unsuccessfully, I might add) sought to conflate two different categories of being: things that exist only in concept (e.g. unicorns) and the intelligible, observable universe.
Even if a unicorn’s empirical existence is debatable (or perhaps, beyond debate), the idea of a unicorn, what it is meant to symbolize, traces reality. The unicorn, a mythical one-horned horse, to me, seems to embody something that is ever-elusive—something almost unnatural, or rather, not occurring in nature. Within the context of the latter part of the first decade of the 21st century, the prospect that one company, much less 14, could emerge undamaged by the turbulent economic winds of the past three years, with workforce fully intact, seems almost mystifying. Alas, there are indeed 14 such companies, each of which I have dubbed “unicorns” of business!
Who are these unicorns? There are 14 companies who made CNN Money’s list, boldly titled, “No layoffs-ever!” (as of January 2012).
- Wegmens Food Markets
- The Container Store
- Nugget Market
- St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital
- Baptist Health South Florida
- Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
- Baker Donelson
- Scripps Health
- Atlantic Health
- QuikTrip
- Aflac
- Publix Super Markets
- GoDaddy.com
- Navy Federal Credit Union
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