Too BIG to fail?

I was idling away a short while on a train journey by looking at a list of the top 100 UK shares (the 'FTSE100') and the top 100 world shares (as at March 2010).
[I say idling, I was actually working, looking at the current dividend yields, but my thoughts also wandered to blog topics]

Top in the UK was HSBC with a gross mkt cap of £118.52bn, representing 8.25% of the FTSE100
This placed them 8th in the world on a $ basis

Top world shares:
Exxon Mobil, then Microsoft, then Apple

Other top 10 notables: IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble.
UK top 10 notables: AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithkline, Vodafone

So lots of tech, comms, and pharma with a little financial.

My eye was then drawn to an article over the weekend comparing the top 30 companies in the UK ('FTSE30') now with the top 30 in 1935. Only 2 companies remain (although companies have merged etc) - The most well known arguably Tate&Lyle

The article highlighted the main changes, the most obvious being the lack of manufacturing companies there now that were the bulk of the benchmark in 1935. Brickmakers, heavy industry, car & engine makers, tyres manufacturers - the list goes on.

But this blog post is not a backward looking lament for UK manufacturing , more a question that asks what will the big shares, or successes, of the future be? What will make up the FTSE 30, or FTSE100, or perhaps even more usefully the world 100 in 10, 20, 30 years time? For that is where we need to be looking today for the gains of tomorrow.

I have long claimed NOT to have a functioning crystal ball. The nature of financial planning is long term, not knee-jerk reactionary or speculative with regards to investing. I would therefore maintain the best approach is a flexible one - whereby your financial planning, whether tax aspects or investment aspects, can be changed or amended to suit.

And finally do not be swayed by the press, well meaning friends or company PR when you hear the phrase 'they are too big too fail'. You never know.