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So you want to be a Fortune 500 company...

No product, service, or strategy is sacred. Change is hard, but the regulars in the 500 are willing and able to change all those things as a shifting environment demands. IBM (IBM, Fortune 500) (No. 20) used to make meat choppers and cheese slicers. General Electric (GE, Fortune 500) (No. 8) made computers and cannons. You can't get and stay big enough for the 500 without adapting continually.

NEXT: Long-term focus

By Geoff Colvin @FortuneMagazine - Last updated May 06 2013 07:17 AM ET

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