A new week dawns here in the Daily Outsider.
We chose a Gif Courtesy the State of California about the need for each and everyone of us to step up and help protect our planet. We leave all with some of the #RandomThoughts we curated over the past week or so as we look forward to the privilege to serve:
Fall seven times, stand up eight. Japanese Proverb
August 2, 2021
Good morning. David Meyer here in Berlin, filling in for Alan this week as he takes a well-deserved break.
This year’s Fortune Global 500 list is out this morning and, as ever, it illustrates some of the most powerful industrial narratives of our age.
For the clearest visual depictions of what I mean, I urge you to visit this page of informative and beautifully rendered charts and maps, produced by our official analytics partner Qlik. But here are some facts that speak for themselves:
—Pandemic effect: The Fortune Global 500 companies experienced an overall 5% drop in revenues in 2020, the largest since 2016, and aggregate profits were down 20%, which is the biggest decline since 2009. Last year’s list contained six airlines; with their revenues down 60% in 2020, not a single one made the new list.
—China: This is the second year in a row in which mainland China (including Hong Kong) has had more companies on the list than the U.S. A decade ago there were 69 companies on the list that hailed from Greater China; now it’s 143. And, of the 107 Global 500 companies that are government-owned, over two-thirds are Chinese.
—Fossil fuel: Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell, both of which ranked at No. 1 at least twice this century, each dropped to their lowest Global 500 rankings yet, at No. 23 and No. 19 respectively. The list’s petroleum refiners saw a 36% decline in revenue. Mexico’s Pemex was the biggest money-loser of the year (again) with a $23.7 billion loss in 2020. Saudi Aramco’s two-year reign as “most profitable” company is over, with the crown passing to Apple again.
—Diversity: A year ago, there were 14 female CEOs of the Fortune Global 500. Now, the tally is 23, representing a rise of nearly two-thirds.
As for who leads the list, well, no surprise there: it’s Walmart again, for the eighth year in a row.
As ever, this year’s Fortune Global 500 is also accompanied by important stories. Toyota’s the biggest automaker on the list again, so here’s Eamon Barrett on how the Japanese giant kept production up in the face of a semiconductor shortage. Netflix is on the list for the first time, and here’s Vivienne Walt on how the company has been wooing the Saudi market. Then we have Geoff Colvin on lessons for winning in the new global business environment, and Nick Rapp and Brian O’Keefe’s handy visualization of the biggest Global 500 companies by country.
Lots to dig into! More news below.
David Meyer
@superglaze
david.meyer@fortune.com
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