And some of the most successful internet-savvy companies, such as Google and Microsoft, are as secretive about what they do as any old-line company.

ECONOMIST: Schumpeter

But we can look at the marketing practices their firms used to rocket from irrelevance to dominance, and we can examine how an old-line company outside of tech has adapted those approaches successfully.

FORBES: 6 Lessons from the New Tech Titans

There was a time when IBM was synonymous with the image as a stodgy and rigid old-line technology company.

FORBES: Connect

Kodak's current woes boil down to that eerily familiar song: An old-line technology company unable to adapt to the fast-pace and vicious competition of the digital age.

FORBES: Kodak's digital crisis

With an old-line tech company wrinkle, though: Leverage the government.

FORBES: Cisco's Riches-Educate India?

But today the company is predominantly a hodgepodge of old-line media properties.

FORBES: Magazine Article

While emitting IR or controlling an RS-232 device over the LAN is an old trick for this company, the latest line really takes it to the next level.

ENGADGET: New WiFi IR emitters from Global Cache? get us excited about home automation