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Good morning.
Which companies will survive and thrive two decades from now? It’s a good question for both investors and job hunters to ask, especially considering that roughly half the companies on the Fortune 500 list in the year 2000 are no longer there today.
Four years ago, Fortune teamed up with BCG to try and answer that question. The result is Fortune’s Future 50 list—the fourth edition of which is out this morning. The ranking is based on two pillars: a “top-down” market-based assessment of a company’s potential to generate future profits, and a “bottom-up” analysis that BCG developed using machine learning to select and weigh various factors based on their contributions to long-term growth.
Before I give this year’s winners, a word on results: Last year’s Future 50 portfolio provided triple the return of the S&P 500 over the 13 months since it was published, and significantly outperformed the Nasdaq as well. Martin Reeves, chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, told me the stellar results show that, for companies focused on the future, “it is not only possible to increase performance during a crisis, but that outperformance during a crisis can determine peacetime performance.”
Here are the top five:
1. ServiceNow
2. Veeva Systems
3. Atlassian
4. Workday
5. Splunk
You can find the full list here. By the way, Reeves also said his research on the list shows that companies with a strong sense of purpose are better poised for future growth. “It looks like one of the worst ways of making a lot of money is to try and make a lot of money,” he said. “The best way is to try and do something meaningful.”
News below. And on the day that his company is releasing more details of its plan to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, Nestlé CEO Mark Schneider tells how he went from climate-agnostic to climate activist in this essay for Fortune. “This is a moment of truth for industry leaders,” he says.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
TOP NEWS
Facebook suit
Facebook is about to become the lucky target of an antitrust lawsuit that will reportedly be lodged by over 40 U.S. states next week. New York is apparently leading the group. The Federal Trade Commission may also be preparing a complaint. With the Justice Department having sued Alphabet's Google in October, Big Tech is most definitely now on trial. Reuters
Delisting law
The House has approved legislation, already passed by the Senate in May, that could lead to the eventual delisting of Chinese companies that won't let U.S. regulators review their financial audits (think Alibaba, Baidu and so on.) The bill, which has bipartisan support, now goes to President Trump, for whom it will likely serve as a parting shot at Beijing. Fortune
L.A. lockdown
Los Angeles is now under severe coronavirus lockdown, after Mayor Eric Garcetti ordered residents to stay at home—no walking, driving, biking, or taking public transport unless it's really necessary. Supermarkets, grocery stores and health-care operations get to stay open. Adults travelling into the city have to sign an online form first, or face a $500 fine. S&P futures dipped on the news of Garcetti's order. Fortune
100,000 hospitalizations
The U.S. currently has over 100,000 COVID-19 patients in hospital, with many experts saying the health care system is being pushed to its limit. "It’s an astonishing, astonishing number and the shame of it is it’s a number that we could have impacted and we didn’t," said Janis Orlowski, chief health care officer at the Association of American Medical Colleges, saying no-one has previously seen so many Americans sickened by one disease at the same time. CNBC
AROUND THE WATER COOLER
Russian vaccine
Russia's health ministry says 100,000 high-risk people have already been vaccinated with the country's two-dose Sputnik V vaccine, and around 2 million doses have either already been manufactured or will roll off the production line in the coming days. President Vladimir Putin has now ordered the immediate large-scale vaccination of other priority groups such as doctors and teachers. Moscow Times
Ecommerce squeeze
As the pandemic forces people to shop from home, the volume of goods sold online became so high over the Thanksgiving shopping period that UPS had to tell its drivers to stop picking up packages from L.L. Bean, Gap, Nike, Macy's and a couple other big retailers. The capacity crunch came thanks to what the National Retail Federation estimated was a 44% jump in online shopping. Wall Street Journal
Black founders
The number of Black female founders who have raised at least $1 million for their ventures has nearly tripled since 2018, reaching 93 this year. Ninety Latinx women have also raised the same amount, according to ProjectDiane, a biennial report on the subject. Fortune
Spotify A.I.
Spotify, the music-streaming service, has filed a patent for a "Plagiarism Risk Detector and Interface" that allows it to judge how similar a song is to others in the system, based on elements such as chord sequences, melodic fragments and harmonies. This is based on scanning lead sheets (i.e. tablatures) rather than listening to already-recorded audio—the advantage being that songwriters could use the technology to make sure they aren’t accidentally ripping off other artists. Music Business Worldwide
This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer.
