Good morning.
Trump’s nod to a “merit-based” immigration system in his speech to Congress seems to be an acknowledgement of what we at Fortune have believed for a while: that in today’s economy, human capital is the most important determinant of business success. If the world’s best and brightest want to come live and work in the U.S., why shouldn’t we let them?
My friend Gary Shapiro, who runs the Consumer Technology Association, advocated such an approach in a piece he wrote recently for Fortune. “We must determine what skills and talents we need in the U.S., and then create an immigration system that appropriately values those attributes,” he said. “Australia, Canada and the U.K. use a points-based system to determine immigrant desirability and award the majority of visas to high-skilled workers, while still allowing for family and humanitarian visas. This is a thoughtful approach to immigration that would work well in the U.S.” You can read his full piece here.
The competition for talent is one reason why our list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For is Fortune‘s most popular franchise, read by millions of people throughout the year. We’ll be unveiling the 20th anniversary edition of the list next Thursday, March 9th. CEO Daily readers in New York are invited to join us at our offices to hear from top executives of three of the companies on the list—Accenture, Kimpton Hotels, and Edward Jones—on how to build great workplaces. You can RSVP here.
I’m in Guangzhou, where this morning I visited the offices of Guangzhou Automotive, which is sponsoring our Fortune Global Forum here in December. The company makes a popular Chinese car called the “Trumpchi.” Executives went to great lengths to explain the car was christened in 2010, and is not related to the current U.S. President.