Again, they aren’t a good company today if they can’t weather a down turn. They may have been a good company in the past, but they aren’t currently if they can’t make it.
That definition of "good company" is close to being just a tautology. It isn't useful to investors or business managers.
Are there any consistent patterns which allow us to reliably predict which good companies will contine being good longer term?
What's your definition of a good company? If people could reliably predict which companies are and will remain good then they will be very rich. Most of us can only know in hindsight for the most part. This is why virtually no one picking individual stocks beat the S&P 500 index over the long run.
Abbott Laboratories
Circuit City Stores
Fannie Mae
Gillette Company
Kimberly-Clark
Kroger
Nucor
Philip Morris
Pitney Bowes
Walgreens
Wells Fargo
https://www.harpercollins.com/products/good-to-great-jim-col...