is classification out of date 
in recent years the relevance of gics and icb classification has been questioned many of our current economic categories and measurements are products of the industrial age when the companies that were growing and shaping the world were giants with huge physical plants and plenty of material products today s giants cross boundaries between hardware and software and beyond apple makes phones and computers and sells entertainment products amazon creates hardware produces entertainment programming sells cloud services and delivers just about everything general electric has interests in nbc telemundo and universal pictures critics argue that it s time to move from a vertical industry emphasis to one centered on business models instead by updating the global industry classification standard to reflect the wider scope of today s corporate giants new measures and standards would help investors customers and employees manage new strategic landscapes with greater insight 