If Your Company Went Out of Business, Would Anybody Notice?

One of the truly jarring dimensions of the Great Recession is the death sentence it has imposed on of hundreds of brands, even whole companies, that were once familiar parts of the business landscape--not just bankruptcies, but liquidations and flat-out disappearances. Once-proud automobile nameplates, including GM's Oldsmobile and Pontiac, and Ford's Mercury, have become history. The ghosts of once-prominent (and now liquidated) retailers, from Circuit City to Virgin Megastores to Linens N...