Business
A single company can become a story a small nation tells about its own survival. It can shape national identity the way a defining war or a founding epic does, because its success stands for the country's ability to endure and prevail.
A company can become better known abroad than its country's own wars and epics. Yet foreigners may not see it, or even know it, as coming from that country. A brand's global fame does not automatically carry its national identity with it.
A company that changes dramatically over time does it through deliberate strategic vision and risky decisions taken by its leaders. Its transformation is not just the result of market luck.
A company already in trouble can be pushed further when its key leaders suddenly die. The loss removes the people steering it at exactly the moment steady direction is most needed.