DuPont

Here are the World's Most Admired Companies for 2017 as ranked in their industries. See who made the list.

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This year's Fortune Global 500 generated $27.7 trillion in revenues and $1.5 trillion in profits.

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This year's Fortune 500 marks the 63rd running of the list.

Fortune 500

This year's Fortune Global 500 generated $27.6 trillion in revenues and $1.5 trillion in profits.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 62nd running of the list.

The world's 500 largest companies generated $31.2 trillion in revenues and $1.7 trillion in profits in 2014. Together, this year's Fortune Global 500 employ 65 million people worldwide and are represented by 36 countries.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 61st running of the list. Wal-Mart claims the top spot again. See who made the list.

Global business is back. After limping through a worldwide financial crisis and economic slowdown, the 500 largest companies ranked by revenues shattered all sorts of performance records in 2013: They racked up combined revenues of $31.1 trillion, up 2.5% from 2012, and profits soared 27% to nearly $2 trillion. China’s 95 companies (up from 89 last year) posted $5.8 trillion in revenues. The U.S. has four fewer companies on the list than last year but remains (for now) the country leader, with 128 corporations on the list—including No. 1 Wal-Mart Stores—reporting $8.6 trillion in revenues. 

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CEO Lal Karsanbhai tells Fortune: "That may well be the case."

Is Emerson Electric CEO Breaking up the Conglomerate?

Energy

well. Wonderful to see you and thank you so much for coming by to talk to us about your company Emerson Electric. So it's a year now since you became ceo of Emerson? And right from day one from the very beginning you've been saying that the company is going to look very different at the end of your tenure. What do you mean by that? What are you picturing for this company? Yes. We have been speaking to the board well before day one about the evolution and transformation of Emerson really three dimensions culture. That's about people and talent retaining and attracting the best. It's about the portfolio and accelerating value creation and about execution our management process, the strength that we have to create value within our business is Well, how is that different from the Emerson Electric before you came? What's the change? You know, our company from a cultural perspective was much more autocratic company, A less diverse company, more traditionally run company. We're opening that up. We're modernizing work practices. We now have diversity targets goals around women in leadership, people of color in the United States. Uh and we have a uh a sustainability set of targets that are very important for for all stakeholders of Emerson as well. You just closed on a major acquisition actually, the biggest acquisition in Emerson history. Um Asma Tech. Tell us how this fits into the new design that you're talking about ASma Tech, say an industrial software company that has software that optimizes how assets work in plants, whether that's discreet life science or hybrid. We call them or process industries and that's gonna give us really a platform to grow our industrial software business. So do you want to do more acquisitions? Is that your strategy as you redesign the company? It's not just acquisitions, but it's also divestitures and we look at our portfolio in the number of dimensions. One that's very important is the cohesiveness of the portfolio. How did the pieces come together? Um, do they make sense? There's one plus one, equal three. Um, and so we're looking at it from that perspective and if not then we will use M and a as an opportunity to mix the business differently. The second dimension. That's important, diversification of the assets we have approximately 24% of our assets today of our company today tied to energy. So diversifying the business into different industries is important. And markets and technologies. So are you saying in your new vision of Emerson that you may no longer be an industrial conglomerate may very well be the case. I think we've thought about the portfolio perhaps slightly differently than in the past. We value the cohesiveness of how things fit together from a strategic perspective and I think there's a value unlock opportunity there for us. Well, this is something that Wall Street and investors have been wondering for a long time because we see many uh, industrial conglomerates like GE or United Technologies, uh, Dupont Raytheon that have been breaking themselves up to become a more efficient, high growth kind of company. Is that what you're picturing? Well look, we were in a position of strength. Our companies are all operating in a, at a great level today we'll continue to perform uh with great technology across all our markets, so we're gonna take our time and think about what the right strategic moves are, but that's a potential pathway and we'll take us a little bit of time to get down. So have you started looking at your mix of businesses, everything from air conditioner equipment to um garbage disposals and thermostats? Are you beginning to sort through and saying this makes sense this one, we can let go Exactly. We did that with our board last october, I went through a very detailed two day session with them and we defined those pathways exactly as you described, You wrote a commentary in february about the five lessons that you've learned in your first year as a Ceo one of them was think boldly and you wrote we cannot be afraid of change. What's holding back change, Change is uncomfortable. Generally my message there to the organization really is around, don't be afraid of it. We will be better on the other side. It's a journey, but we all got to take it together and whether that's applicable to what we just spoke about the portfolio or to the culture or to how we manage the company. It involves change as you look back on your first year Ceo, what do you look at as your biggest two of my favorite was we named the first ever chief sustainability officer mike train. Um, who's taken us leaps and bounds into the future, not just in our own greening of our company, but working with our customers in their journey uh, to to go to a zero carbon footprint. The second is we heard our first chief people officer from the outside Elizabeth before we came into the business and really brought a tremendous amount experience and energy around talent, culture and people innovation. Well, you have said that your top priority at the company is modernizing our workplace culture. How do you modernize of culture? And to what extent are these two hires Part of that? A significant part modernization comes from a couple elements. The first will be tactical things that you do work from home programs, modern modernization of benefits, everything from maternity leave to vacation policies, All those things get those in a competitive place. The second element comes from things like diversity targets. We didn't have diversity targets in this company. We set those in june made them public. We're compensating based on hitting those targets, whether it's women in leadership globally or people of color in the United States and we're all very energized because we believe two things at the court diversity makes us better and number two talent is the one war that ultimately matters in business and between the two people will choose to work in places where they believe they belong inclusive and they can make a difference. You know, it's fascinating that in your career, the only place you worked is Emerson, um you came to the company right out of business school and that's almost 30 years ago. Many people would say if you want change in a company hire an outsider. Um why do you think that as an insider, you're the right person to lead the way at Emerson From the beginning, I really positioned my viewpoints as as is very different from the status quo. And the reason was that I found that to accelerate the value creation opportunity for our business, we needed not to work harder, but to work completely differently. And and so consequently it became almost an outsider perspective. And I became an outsider choice ultimately for our board of directors when they made the decision. How would you say that your personal story has shaped your leadership? You come from a multicultural family, your mother's Portuguese, your father's indian? Uh you speak several languages and and your growing up years, you lived in many different countries. How do you see that? All of those international experiences? Um what do they bring to your leadership the opportunity to grow up in a household where culture was cherished celebrated where it was encouraged to practice different religions, to understand different perspectives, to debate uh, different things. My parents both being very global citizens, made me who I am, how I think about the world, how I think about opportunities. So I think about people and ultimately how I think about business.

 Andrew, let's get an update on this historic merger between Dow Chemical and Dupont. So you've already gotten shareholder approval. So that's great. And the next step is getting approval from the regulators, both in Europe and the United States. What are you expecting? Well, we still expect to see the merger to close by year end. And that's US and Europe, of course, are key jurisdictions, as is China and a few other countries around the world. But so far, so good. And the shareholder vote being so positive from both companies is a great step forward, as you said. But what's the chances that you don't get the OK from regulators? After all, this $130 billion deal, it's big and regulators have been getting tougher and tougher on these big mergers because they're worried they're anti-competitive. Yeah, embedded in your question is the answer. It's not a $130 billion status quo. It's $130 billion that'll split into three. So you go into the regulator with remedy, if you like. So it's not got that big monolithic, oligopolistic look to it that other deals might have. And I'm still pretty confident that it's not risk free. Nothing is. But this deal will close. You do the big merger, and then shortly after that, you're going to split into three separate companies. What are the benefits of that? The synergies of coming together, a powerful $3 billion a year, the ability to actually rearrange these assets without any tax leakage, and to do all this with no premium. When you buy a company, you're paying a big premium normally. We're not doing any of that. So the shareholder benefits, win-win-win. And then the employees, they benefit by being in three growth companies. As you know, Dow and Dupont are famous for all the innovations they've done in this past century. So is there a risk that as you divide up into these separate companies, that you're not going to have that innovative edge? Absolutely totally not. In fact, growth is the driver here. The ag company will grow, the materials company will grow, the specialty company will grow. And actually, the ability to allocate resources to a few key markets, like the ones I just mentioned to grow, is one of the premises of the deal. So the innovation engine should become better, faster, more agile, more adaptive. And the culture should be synonymous with the growth industry that these are aligned to. But one could say that in this time where every company is talking about being disrupted or being a disruptor, that you want to pour all your money in as much as you can into your research and development, rather than cutting it back and dividing it up between separate companies. Actually, that's what tech startups do. They start in a niche and scale. OK? Think of us as new startups. We're actually becoming more agile, more entrepreneurial in fewer spaces by going deeper. Because we're bigger, we can scale up. You have said that this deal is going to be revolutionary for your industry. What's the most revolutionary thing that's going to come out of it? It's revolutionary because the chemical industry has over the last 20, 30 years been commoditized and actually been bought and sold many times because it's not doing R&D. We're remaking the entire sector by saying agriculture is over here. The specialty is over here. The materials are over here. It's a rebuilding of the sector, if you like, almost a reinvention of the sector. 

 Dow Chemical's CEO Is 'Pretty Confident' the DuPont Deal Will Happen

Finance

Andrew Liveris explains the future of Dow DuPont.

Dow Chemical CEO 'Pretty Confident' About DuPont Deal

and you. Let's get an update on this historic merger between Dow Chemical and DuPont. So you've already gotten shareholder approval, so that's great. And the next step is getting approval from the regulators, both in Europe and the United States. What are you expecting? We still expect to see the much too close by year end. And that U. S. And Europe, of course, the tea jurisdictions, as is China and a few other countries around the world. But so far so good in the shareholder vote. Being so positive from both companies is a great step forward, as you said. But what's the chances that you don't get the OK from regulators? After all this $130 billion deal? It's big, and regulators have been getting tougher and tougher on these big mergers because they're worried they're anti competitive. Yeah, embedded in your question is the answer. It's not a 1 30 billion status quo. It's 1 30 billion that'll split into three. So you're going to the regulator with remedy if you like. So it's not got that big, monolithic call a go ballistic look to it that other deals might have, and I'm still pretty confident that it's not risk free. Nothing is. But this deal will close. You do the big merger, and then shortly after that, you're gonna split into three separate companies. What are the benefits of that? The synergies of coming together. A powerful $3 billion a year, the ability to actually rearranged these assets without any tax leakage. And to do all this with no premium. When you buy a company, you paying a big premium. Normally we're not doing any of that. So the shareholder benefits win, win win, and then the employees they benefit by being in three growth companies, you know, Dow DuPont are famous for all the innovations have done in this past century. Is there a risk that, as you divide up into these separate companies, that you're not gonna have that innovative edge? Absolutely, Totally not. In fact, growth is the driver here. The ad company will grow, materials company will grow, especially company will grow. And actually the ability to allocate resources to a few key markets like the ones I just mentioned to grow is one of the premises of the deal. So the innovation engine should become better, faster more agile, more adaptive. And the culture should be synonymous with the growth industry of these airline to. But one could say that in this time where every company is talking about being disrupted or being a disrupter, that you want to pour all your money and as much as you can into your research and development rather than cutting it back and dividing it up between separate companies. Actually, that's what tech start ups, too. They started a knish and scale. OK, think of us as new startups. We're actually ah, becoming more agile, more entrepreneurial, in fewer spaces, but going deeper. But this were bigger. We can scale up. You have said that this deal is going to be revolutionary for your industry. What's the most revolutionary thing that's gonna come out? It's revolutionary because the chemical industry has, over the last 2030 years being commoditized and actually being bought and sold many times because it's not doing R and D. We're remaking the entire sector by saying agriculture is over. Here, specialises over here. Materials are over here. It's a rebuilding of the sector. If you like almost a reinvention of the sector

 Andrew, you have been working at Dow Chemical for 40 years, and 11 of them as CEO. So during this whole time, what would you say you've learned about what it takes to be a successful leader? I think, to be a successful leader-- especially to be a successful CEO-- you have to reinvent yourself constantly. I'm on my fourth version of myself, and this fourth reinvention of myself measured to be a continuous learner and be willing to embrace inputs, criticisms, if you like, emperor wears no clothes. You work harder. You try to work smarter. You're everywhere. You're ubiquitous. You engage at the factory level. You make sure you don't lose touch with your customers, you're in touch with your shareholders, and you're managing a board. These many dynamics on your daily schedule means you have to have energy, passion, and judgment. And you're soon to become executive chairman of the new DowDuPont, as result of the merger. And there's going to be a lot of change going on in these two organizations. In your new role, what are you going to have to do to motivate and inspire all of these employees? You've got to actually keep it simple for everyone, and basically protect them from the complexity. That means focus on your job within the context of the mission of the enterprise. Are you going to be hiring different kinds of people because of the massive changes that are going on? Absolutely, totally. I'm just as likely today to hire a history major, a physics major as I am a chemical engineer. And what that is is the mixture of skills and the overwhelming skill of being entrepreneurial, agile, empowered. Those sorts of skills typically come with youth, but also retraining the people that are of experience. And what about on the executive level? As you are mentoring your senior executives, what are you telling them that they need to do to be leaders? Look around not just one corner, but two corners. Learn how to play chess-- not two-dimensional chess, not three-dimensional chess-- four-dimensional chess. Strategize in the moment. Know your North Star. Know where you're going, but understand that, in the moment, there are perturbances and volatilities. Adjust, be nimble, know the direction. Make the changes that have to be made, and decide. Your job is to decide. Don't come to me with a problem that you haven't thought of a solution. Kill white papers. Kill presentations. Engage. Look people in the eyes and be truthful. Live the values. Stay steady under crisis. Don't emote to the high side or the low side. Stay calm. People are looking at you every moment. Recognize that, in a Twitter world, there are no secrets. So be private. Make sure that you keep things focused with the wisdom you have, and teach as you go. Wow, that's just amazing. And I'm sure, in your four decades at Dow, you also got a lot of leadership advice. What's the best leadership advice that you ever got, and why did it resonate with you? Came from a customer in the Far East, and basically, taught me that the way you should conduct yourself-- you should think about the three pillars of society-- relationship, logic, law. Don't let law drive logic, drive relationship. Let your relationship, your word, your bond, how you conduct yourself, drive what you do. That stuck with me forever. I became a relationship-driven businessman. 

How Dow Chemicals CEO Plans to Lead During the DuPont Merger

Leadership

and you have been working a Dow chemical for 40 years and 11 of them as CEO. So during this whole time, what would you say? You've learned about what it takes to be a successful leader. I think, to be a successfully, especially because we'll see you have to reinvent yourself constantly. I'm on my fourth version of myself, and this fourth reinvention of myself means you have to be a continuous learning and be willing to embrace input criticisms if you like. Improv is no clothes. You work harder, You try to work smarter. You're everywhere. Ubiquitous. You engage at the factory level. You make sure you don't lose touch with your customers, you're in touch with your shareholders and you're managing aboard these many dynamics on your daily schedule. Okay? Means you have to have energy, passion and judgment. And your soon to become executive chairman off the new Dow DuPont is results of the merger, and there's gonna be a lot of change going on in these two organizations in your new role. What are you gonna have to do to motivate and inspire all of these employees? You gotta actually keep it simple for everyone and basically protect them from the complexity that means focus on your job within the context of the mission of the enterprise. Are you gonna be hiring different kinds of people because of the massive changes that are going on? Absolute totally time is just as likely today. Toe higher history major a physics major, as I am a chemical engineer and what what that is, is the mixture of skills and the overwhelming skill of being entrepreneurial, agile, empowered. Those sorts of skills typically come with youth, but also retraining the people that air of experience. And what about on the executive level as you're mentoring your senior executives? What are you telling them that they need to do to be leaders? Look around not just one corner, but two corners. Learn how to play chess, not two dimensional chess, not three dimensional, just four dimensional chess. Strategize in the moment. No, you know Starr know where you're going, but understand that in the moment they're pater Vince's volatilities adjust. Be nimble, know the direction, make the changes that have to be made and decide your job is to decide. Don't come to me with a problem that you haven't thought of a solution. Kill white papers killed presentations Engage! Look, people in the eyes would be truthful. Live the values. Stay steady on the crisis. Don't emote to the high side All the low side Stay calm, Okay? People are looking at you every moment. Recognize that in a Twitter world there are no secrets. So be private. Make sure that you keep things focused with the wisdom you have and teaches you go. Wow, that's that's just amazing. And I'm sure in your four decades at Tao, you also got a lot of leadership advice. Let the best leadership advice that you ever got. And why did it resonate with you? Came from a customer in the Far East. And basically he told me that the way you should conduct yourself, you should think about the three pillars of society relationship logic law. Don't let Law Dr Logic, Dr Relationship Let your relationship your word, your bond, how you conduct yourself, Dr what you do that stuck with me forever. I became a relationship driven businessman

[ MUSIC ] The Cape Fear is an incredible river. It's the largest river in North Carolina. It's the most diverse river in North Carolina. The ecosystem and the environment around here is important for lots Of reasons. It drives our local economy. People come here to see this river, they come here to walk along the river on the river walk. The river is the heart and soul of this community. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] The story came out about this new contaminant, this emerging contaminant being in the river and at fairly high levels, and that started the conversation in our community. I started getting calls from all my neighbors. They know I'm a lawyer, they were looking to me for answers, which I did not have. And we all were very frightened and concerned. They tested a well on a piece of property that I owned with some friends of mine down on the Cape Fear River. Where we ski and raised our kids, camping and fishing and having birthday parties and Christmas events. And this is what we enjoy, why we moved to the country. So all of this became changed when we learned about Gen X. [ MUSIC ] So GenX is part of the family of perflorinated alkylated substances. And these are chemicals that have a lot of fluorine. Atoms on them which gives them unique properties. And one of the unique properties is the nonstick properties that things like Teflon and Goretex and Stainmaster, all those things that we love. It's a compound that replaced C8 which is a pretty well known On a countdown that was previously used to produce teflon. In CA it was found to be very hazardous to human health, and as part of a huge settlement based on a lawsuit, the company has phased out CA. And they replaced it, at least in Du Pont and ten more states, they replaced that With Gen X. One of the key issues in understanding the risk assessment for Gen X and for [ INAUDIBLE ] compounds is how long it remains in the body. And right now we have no information. We're doing foundational research. We are developing the methods to analyze these. Newly identified chemicals so there maybe health consequences or there maybe no health consequences, but until we can kind of quantify the levels we can't go on and answer those next questions because everybody's concerned about I've been drinking this water what does it mean, what does it mean for my children, what does it mean for my health. Our community had been drinking this stuff for close to 40 years. And it was startling, and our community was, and is, outraged. The really troubling thing was, is that it was in the river, it was being taken into our drinking water treatment plant. And our treatment plant was completely ineffective at treating it, as is almost every other treatment plant in In the entire country because water treatment plants aren't designed to take out these kinds of chemicals. [ MUSIC ] We have a highly advanced water treatment plant. But it was never designed to remove these compounds. [ MUSIC ] We estimate it will cost about $ 46 million to upgrade our plants and another $ 2 to $ 3 million per year to operate the plant with this additional treatment. In my opinion this is not a cost that our rate payer should have. This is something that the people upstream who are putting these contaminants in the river should bear. We shouldn't be paying to treat. Industrial waste in our drinking water, while the industry that's producing that waste and putting it in the drinking water, is allowed to just continue to do that with no repercussions. There's no single solution to it. It's gonna take a lot of different efforts across a lot of different fronts. It's going to take proper discharge control, proper enforcement of the discharges, making sure that the industries and the people who are putting these contaminants into the river and into the environment are the ones who are filtering it. [ MUSIC ] Our community is kind of terrified of what this means for our health, and what is means moving forward if we can't get the stuff out of water. You know my wife worries about the effects. Our childrens were raised drinking that water. We drank water. Or drank tea which is made from our water? And we mixed our infant meal baby formula with that water. And we don't know, at this time, what the medical effects are. You live with it, constantly. And I know they're things that our society uses, but is it really worth ruining sections of our state for that, and I say, " No ." I don't know that we'll ever be able to Cleanse the water underneath our property, get the gen x out of the trees and the ground. I want to be compensated for what I know that I've lost at this point. There's a balance that man has to have with nature, and if you cross that line, you're gonna start killing man and nature Damaging things to the point of no return, and that's what frightens me. I don't know that this mess can be cleaned up. But my hopes are that it can, and [ BLANK_AUDIO ] We can get back to the style of living we were accustomed to. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ]

For nearly 40 years, Chemours Co. and DuPont have been releasing a chemical byproduct known as GenX into the Cape Fear River in North Carolina.

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