Fortune Editors

Great Place To Work

Total revenue for the world’s biggest companies fell 4.8% to $31.7 trillion this year—the first decline in half a decade.

Fortune Global 500

This year's Fortune Global 500 generated $33.3 trillion in revenues and $2.1 trillion in profits.

G500-2020-450-NEC

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

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

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.

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. 

Key Financials (last Fiscal Year)

Revenues ($M)

Profits ($M)

Assets ($M)

Total Stockholder Equity ($M)

Profit Ratios

Profit as % of Revenues

Profits as % of Assets

Profits as % of Stockholder Equity

NEC Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

legacy

NEC Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings | Fortune

The future of autonomous vehicles is here. From Qualcomm’s cutting-edge chips powering next-gen perception to WeRide’s real-world deployments across urban Asia, AI is transforming not just how we drive, but how mobility is imagined, regulated, and scaled. We unpack the breakthroughs and bottlenecks in hardware, data, safety, and trust that will define whether robotaxis become everyday reality or remain stuck in the slow lane.

The Reality Of Robotaxis

Conferences

Autonomous vehicles have promised a future of convenience, but trust, policy, and performance are still major factors in how mobility is regulated and scaled. Here to discuss the reality of RoboTaxis, please welcome We Ride General Manager of Singapore, Dr. Kerry Xu, Qualcomm Technologies vice president and Q Qualcomm president of Taiwan, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, ST Liu, and Fortune Andrew Neska. How fun was that session, right? Um, OK, we're here to talk about autonomous vehicles, robotaxis, if I may, um, so let's level set as I often like to do, um, Carrie, I'll start with you. Where are robotaxis specifically in the region? Where are we seeing them in city streets and where have they not reached yet? OK, um. Uh, I think, uh, a lot of people are already familiar with, uh, like what's happening in the US. So I focused on Asia and just, um, uh, actually I think China is uh really seeing a large scale the robo taxi deployment, uh, in Beijing, Guangzhou, uh, like we ride with in this year at February, we just launched our robo taxi fire charging commercial operations in Beijing. And we now have like more than 50 of the robotaxis providing service and in Guangzhou, same thing, we already launched our commercial charging robo taxi service and most of you may also know Baidu, I think they launched the robotaxi in Wuhan with like 100 of the vehicles. And the second, uh, hot field, uh, in Asia, I think it's Middle East, um, a lot of the you maybe all the red news we are teaming up with Uber to launch our robotaxi actually in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and in fact we already started the driverless robo taxi test in UAE right now. Wow, that's quite, I mean just thinking about all those cities, they are dramatically different. Urban landscapes and I can't even imagine the technological challenges, but that's precisely what we're going to talk about today. Um, ST, the tech is advancing rapidly. And yet there is so much we can't do. So, again, tell us what's possible, tell us what's on the cusp of changing as it pertains to autonomy. Sure. Uh, so our company comes from uh Years of innovations and creativity in coming up with a computing efficient, very efficient computing. Uh, devices and solutions and from there also with very efficient power consumption, uh, intelligence on the edge and all that. And as the automotive progresses, the need for intelligent processing, very, very high power processing at a very efficient power consumption has become more and more important. Now using that legacy of knowledge and experience over the 40. Years or so, um, we have put together a solution, what we call like Snapdragon chassis, which, which is a solution combining all the different platforms that you would need to make a AD you know automotive driving car, autonomous driving car or AAS or anything that you need to make driving or not to drive such car very comfortable infotainment, telematics and all that. Our role is to provide such a solution so that our customers can put them into products relatively faster and then as the need for autonomous driving cars become more and more important, especially in Southeast Asia or Asia where the driving condition, the weather condition is very, very different, that solution is important because, you know, ouan will bring. And encompassing that solutions, these knowledge and then on top of that allow our OEM to expand onto it, you, you know, especially with AI become available and all that, yeah, so obviously there's a lot of technology that goes into in an autonomous vehicle, right there's the power train, whether it's electric or otherwise they're almost uniformly electric, um, there's. The sensors themselves, which are relatively straightforward affair. One thing I've noticed is, as you said, you know, the kind of ever evolving intelligence of it all perfect for this conference here, you know, it has been clear in Qualcomm's earnings reports, for example, that the company is very bullish on. Artificial intelligence moving to the edge, right, moving to these out of the data centers that we love to talk about at AI conferences like this and into these other places like cars and whatever where the power, as you said, the power and the efficiency and the size, it's all a different consideration set. How is that changing the autonomous market? Well, A lot of this decision making, the decision making process and the speed of this decision making needs to happen locally. You know, latency is extremely important. So intelligence at the at the edge is a very pivotal feature. Uh it's, it's, you know, you, you imagine driving down the road, you know, you have to make decisions very, very quickly instead of going out to the car and come back in again. That's a very critical and a very typical example of intelligence at the edge. That's that's where our forte is, you know, AI at the edge, and that is, uh, that is bringing a lot of benefits from multiple perspectives, latencies one. Um, it also helped to bolster, uh, what do you call it, the protection of information data and so on and so forth. And so that's how it is changing and, and, and with AI coming on board, the, the process of learning, the, the deductions, decision making is becoming more automated and it allows a lot of developers to come up with applications that you can actually use inside the car. So autonomous driving car is not just a car that by itself, but there are lots of things you can do inside the car which bolster the drivers or the passengers' confidence sitting in the car and all that. Yeah, and to do some of that compute um locally is candidly necessary. I live in Los Angeles. There is a mountain range that cuts through the center of LA, uh, in many of the, in many places in that mountain range, there is no cellular service. I could not imagine the car just deciding, ah, we're gonna just give up, you know, mid-drive, um. I want to come back to you, Carrie, um, what are you learning as your company deploys in these different markets? As I said earlier, very different urban landscapes, very different challenges, we mentioned weather earlier, there's the landscape itself, um. There's obviously, uh, uh, uh, you know, kind of, uh, the expectations of the drivers in a given market as well. What are you learning as your company expands? Yeah, so so far we have been deployed our erasing more than 30 cities across 10 countries. We do learn a lot of uh lessons. But I want to emphasize the three lessons we learned. The first is that we, I think we have to work closely with the government and the regulators. We monitor the regulations to make sure we actually conform to the local traffic laws and the regulations. And uh in this part we actually uh hosted many delegations from different countries um like in the a few weeks ago, I think Singapore's acting Minister of Transport Jeffy, he actually led a delegate visited our HQ in Guangzhou and At our at there, he actually announced in the next 5 years, Singapore is going to see many, many AVs in the uh on the streets and they are actually planning to integrate the Aways into the uh public transport system. So I think the government support. You know, working closely with the government is one of the things when you deploy in a different country, when no matter which country you go, the first thing is that you should work closely with the government on regulation. It's an age old technology question, but we've articulated all of the technological, technical challenges of of autonomous driving, but Given what you've just said, in your opinion, do you think the greater hurdle to full deployment are the humans or the tech? Um, from my point of view, I think technology is actually mature enough. Uh, we have seen the like operations of way more in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and like uh we ride, we are operating driverless, no safety operator on board in Beijing, Guangzhou, you know, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, so technology wise. I think it's clearly mature enough to scale, but we have to work with the government on the regulation part, public acceptance, data transparency, all this. I think it takes time to for the community to completely accept the AV as like a part of their normal life. I think it will be. There, but it's just step by step taking some time to achieve it. Everybody remembers their first autonomous ride once you do it, you know, um, SD, I'm gonna, uh, come back to you. You work with many different companies and many different geographies. Uh, same question. Do you feel like the technology is what's, uh, preventing full deployment of these things, or is it in fact the humans, the policy, the. You know, I'm gonna answer this way, we always advocate that um uh that we, we always should have a cross-indust industry benchmark transparency in the training data and uh make sure that we are compliant. To safety, to, uh, to policies, etc. etc. I think those are the things that are built into our architecture. And by doing so, uh, there's you, you build trust in people, you have to build trust in passengers, in policymakers, in general public, etc. etc. So that's part of the importance of building that into the ecosystem and it's not just a technology thing, it is a private sector having to work with the government and uh you know, work with the cities and education and so and so forth, and it comes from both the Tech technological solution for us, it comes in the form of the chip set, the SOCs and the and the software stack that our OEM partners can, you know, choose and, and, and, and, and build into their cars. But at the same time, the build the confidence, I earlier mentioned the things that you can, you can do in the car, significant increase. So take care of the safety, make sure that it is transparent and then you can enjoy yourself while you are in the car, can build up that kind of Acceptability to this whole thing, but I, you know, safety is extremely important, so we have to benchmark, we have to be transparent and so on and so forth. Yeah, yeah, and I'm hearing the word trust quite a bit at this event, so I, I understand. I have one more question for you, but I just want to tell the audience, hey, we're gonna come to you for questions next, so, uh, get ready, um, all right, so. I see you, your organization works with virtually every automaker everywhere and you're of course, you know, ultimately an American company, a global company, um, and you're seeing uh massive differences across those markets in some regard. um I'm curious how you're, you know, you're supplying these, uh, automakers with this technology and working with them to integrate it in the way that it happens. Technology has been incredibly disruptive to the automotive industry. Just speaking from the US perspective, um, Detroit has built a car a certain way for many, many, many years, and it was very, very good at that. And then Silicon Valley shattered it, just totally reversed it, you know what I'm talking about, just completely just rethought the way you would put together, uh, honestly an end point is the way you might think of it in technology, right? ST as this stuff sweeps through, are you finding with your automaker partners a difference in the way they build their vehicles, the way they incorporate this technology, and by the way, is that different in, say, China or Southeast Asia versus the US? I think the big shift to the automotive is one term that you have heard a lot about is like the software defined car. I think universally I can, I can say that all the automakers. Uh, coming to the realization that this is one area that uh everybody needs to get master in. In the past, you look at power trend, you look at the car design, you look at, you know, the things that uh automotive auto automakers will look at. Now your conversation and your considerations uh Kind of get changed a little bit and say, what is your experience when you get into the car and that's where a lot of the differentiations will be brought up as well. And so if I go into the car and then I can conduct my meetings, I can use AI to ask where I am, book my restaurants and all that, just like an extension of my office or my home. I think they will make wonders and do wonders for a particular OEM or any OEM that will, you know, that's one of the ways now to differentiate the vehicles and then on top of that, no one market, no one country, no one geography is the same. So we must enable the continuous learning and with AI being available then now you do the continuous. Learning, use the smart way to factor all these things into the solutions. I think that is the way I would answer these questions. I think the opportunity is there for everyone and I can see very clearly the realization that a software defined car is is is is that is very much with us today, so I just want to correct one thing that you said. You're not going to be going into a self-driving car and booking your meetings. We have AI agents for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we have AI AI that's right. We solve that right here at this event. OK, let's go to the audience for questions about autonomous vehicles and robo taxis taxis. Yes, we have one right here. We just wait for the mic to reach you, and when it does, your name and who you're with. Thank you. Thanks. Hi, uh, my name is Firoz. I'm with Syngenta. Uh, my question is, how important is the infrastructure outside the car? Quality of roads, lane markings, curb, behavior of other drivers on the road, uh, for, for it to be safe. Gentlemen, which one do you want to take that, OK? Uh, yeah, I think that's a very good question. So I think earlier Andrew mentioned is the vehicle itself must be intelligent because, uh, we put the like brains in the vehicle, but Infrastructure is also important. For example, uh, network connection is like 5G, uh, a lot of this, uh, autonomous vehicles right now still have like remote monitoring in case the vehicle stuck or in certain. Conditions, the people who are monitoring remotely can still give a hint or help the vehicle. Also, in Singapore, we are already working with the government on like how to design the pickup job point to be friendly to Aways. And how you uh monitor all the different uh pickup points to uh be able to uh see where where the vehicles, all these kinds of uh infrastructure, even the how to educate the people to better interact with the AVs. I think this is something a lot of government. Actually already start looking at and I have worked with some scholars whose study topic is how to make our infrastructure friendly to uh driverless vehicles. I think this is something is going to be happening in the next uh maybe a few years. Yeah. Very good. All right. Another question. Yes, we have one over here, right here. Just wait a moment again, your name and who you're with. My name is Selvin. I'm with Alliance Asia. Just have a question. Do you think that LIDA technologies is necessary to make autonomous vehicles more safe? Is light are necessary to make it. Yeah, um, I think, uh, from my point of view, I think, uh, LEA is very necessary. Uh, in fact, is, uh, my, my, my idea is the reason some companies don't install the ladder is probably some a few years ago, ladder is still pretty expensive, uh, sensors to install which increases the cost for the vehicles. However, if you look at the edge case, so the vehicles are different from like uh some other like your cellphone. Uh, tolerance is different for vehicles. We are not looking at 99% safety. We're probably looking at 99.9999 safety. We don't, we can't afford the accident due to age case. You cannot catch it. So cameras has uh vision based has some limitations like in the very low light environment like midnight, no light, but lighter. You know, it's uh it's emitted the light, so it doesn't rely on any lights and also the lighter can accurately detect the shape of the obstacles which also helps the algorithm to more advance the control and planning algorithm to bypass or to avoid the obstacles. So with the lighter price is cheaper and cheaper, I think. Uh, like us, we are doing is we do the fusion between the camera and the ladder. So all this allows us to detect all the obstacles in like 200 m, 300 degrees, very accurately to do the planning and controlling. So yeah, that's how I believe the ladar is still very necessary. If I just add to the conversation about the infrastructure around the vehicles. I think one of the key things going into the future is. So the cellular V to X, cellular equal to any everything. And then if you think about the future of autonomous driving, uh, CV to X is something that we in Qualcomm, uh, continue to, uh, to invest a lot in. And to your point of light, when you have CV to X, obviously you can plan ahead on many, many things and and so and so forth. So I think, uh, to the questions about the road marks and things, CV. To ask the road maps and all these, just point to the fact that we need to work very closely with infrastructure partners as well as ecosystem partners and all that. Yeah, in terms of the infrastructure, I have a very good example. I keep telling my friends is that right now in the car park in certain areas we install mirror for the help drivers to look at the blind spot, but in the future for avis actually we actually can install. Those B2X equipment to help the AVs to look at the black spots. I think these are all the future probably development for the infrastructure to be AV friendly. But it is unquestionable that our our urban landscapes are going to change dramatically because of of the rise of robotaxis and autonomous vehicles. So gentlemen, thank you so much for an enlightening conversation, a round of applause please for our panelists. Thank you. Thank you.

Nations are racing for AI supremacy as global supply chains fray and geopolitical tensions rise.
With AI now a cornerstone of economic competitiveness and strategic power, governments must now invest in robust infrastructure to strengthen and scale their digital sovereignty.
What will it take to design an integrated infrastructure across compute, cloud, and connectivity to drive national-scale AI ambitions without slipping into isolationism in an increasingly fragmented digital world?
Who will lead the way?

From Infrastructure to Sovereignty: Architecting AI for Nations

Putting the customer first has long been a core principle of business, and today’s digital tools enable companies to craft consumer-centered journeys like never before. At the same time, in our post-pandemic world, customers crave connection and in-person experiences. Leaders from two major multinationals explain how they are bridging the online and offline worlds to better serve their customers, while gathering insights to strengthen and future-proof their brands.

Elevating The Customer Experience

Well, we are going to move now to the customer experience, which I think is so important, of course, because we can talk about our businesses all we want. It's the people who want to consume what we make, what we do. So today's customer of course has high expectations. We have two incredible leaders who will be coming out from multinationals. Let me introduce them, one of whom was my dinner companion last night. Peggy Rowe is the executive vice president, chief customer officer at Marriott International. And then Shahzia Sayed is the Unilever's general manager of personal care for the Middle East, Turkey, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, and the head of Arabia. Please welcome them to the stage. They'll be joined by my colleague Emma Hinchlif. Enjoy. Thanks. Hi, good morning, Peggy Shalza. Thank you so much for being here. You're welcome. And Peggy, an extra special thank you to you because we are here at a beautiful Marriott property. Thank you all for hosting us here. Yeah, so thank you for having us. Um, when people stay at this hotel or any hotel in your portfolio, what do you hope they come away feeling and how do you make that happen? Well, I always talk about, you know, how great service is about how we make people feel, right? And so I am very hopeful that you all will walk away with some memory here, um, whether it's some interaction you had with someone in our hotel or a great time or inspiration in this room, um, that will bring you back to the memory of this hotel. And tell us about entering new markets. What is Marriott's approach to this region? Marriott has said that Saudi Arabia is one of its fastest growing markets in the world. So what presence do you have here and how do you expect it to change in the future? I think you heard about the stats around tourism right here in Saudi Arabia, and I think we have close to 90 hotels and a significant pipeline across all price points and one of the. Things we're really doing is investing in the talent here we have a program called Tesinen which is for men and women who are next generation and really trying to upskill that talent. It's a partnership with Cornell and we, um, it's leadership training for 6 months combined with on the job training and every discipline in the hotel, uh, and it's one of the best programs I was hearing about it yesterday and I. you know, I've been in the business at Marriott for 21 years and I thought, I wish I could have done that program. Yeah, it sounds amazing and but as you experience, I hope, um, there's, it's great, there's great service in this hotels. I mean, I've been all over the world and I think what's happening here is really something special. I know they've been amazing. I've already had some of those memorable experiences you talked about.antastic. Well, Shahzia, so you have. Built these global brands in the Unilever portfolio in many different markets. So how do you start to understand your local or your regional customer when bringing a brand into a new market? And can you give us an example of how you've integrated one of your brands into a new market? Sure. So I think uh we are today sitting in a very interesting time. uh transformation barely describes what's going on around us, um, you know, I think while some things remain the same, uh. We are amidst some things which have not changed, which is the consumer is still king, but Everything around that consumer is changing how we reach the consumer, what are they looking for? I mean, there is, they are existing today in a kiosk and, and for a marketer or for a company to reach consumers, you know, gone are the days where you had a neat approach of one product, one way of reaching. Uh, so I think today it is how do you make method of that madness and how do you create um um organization organized ways of reaching. The consumers as they see the world in their world, you know, whether it is through their culture, um, through people they value like the influencers. So I think the whole scenario has completely changed. Unilever has, has, I think, a three-pronged approach. First is about, you know, looking at this transformation. I think culture embedding culture um is critical. So while we have global brands and it's interesting, so if you're sitting in in Saudi today we see. That actually trends travel here like yesterday. So if you go to a pharmacy, the young people have heard about or are demanding the brands which are launched in the US. So while all that is going on, there is there is a local nuance. There is a culture, the young people, whether they exist anywhere, and I think the Saudis, it will resonate with the Saudis. When I asked them what culture, they say, listen, our culture is non-negotiable while we, we, we endorse and we love the global brands, but we want things our way as well. So how do we embed, uh, you know, resonate or be in sync with the culture and not worst thing can be when you go against the culture. And I think the sweet spot is really living that culture, being that culture, and I think, you know, I can give an example of our brand Dove. Dove is a global brand. It's the most loved brand here in Saudi and in the whole of the Arab world, you know, it's the most the brand power is a way of measuring the brands and it enjoys the most, you know, high scores when it comes to that. But yet the, the, the expression is always linked to, uh, local, yeah, so that it resonates with the Saudi woman it uh resonates with an Emirati woman or an Arab woman. When you said that you've been having conversations and people here in Saudi Arabia are demanding global brands, what brands are you hearing? Um, is Dove the main one they're saying or what other brands are they interested in? So yeah, if you could, um, you mentioned that people here in Saudi Arabia. are really, really want global brands and so what brands are you hearing are most in demand. So we are, we have a quite a vast portfolio. So we've got um uh skin cleansing brands. We've got Lux, uh, we have uh Dove, uh, we've got Lifebuoy, so we cover uh a wide spectrum, and then we we are in deodorants and which are in different formats, sprays, um. Sticks and roll-ons with our powerful brands like Ax, Rexona and Dove, and then we are also in oral care with our two brands, Signal and Close Up. So we, and then of course there are other brands like on on hair which is Sunsilk, Tresemme, um Dove, um, and yeah, so I think keeping in mind that this is the heart of where um. Beauty and wellbeing, your personal care is highly regarded, and there are specialized phar pharmacies where high-end brands are sold. So here I think is where we have to be at the speed of lightning to make sure that we don't leave any gap in the demand and the portfolio. Fascinating. Peggy, you're in kind of a different position where you have these, you have your properties and of course local markets and you also have a global consumer who, as we were discussing who kind of has an expectation across Marriott wherever they're traveling, um, so how do you balance that regional versus global, uh, question when it comes to what you're serving your consumer? I was listening to Shazia talking about how, you know, products must be localized and. It's the same in hotels. I think the beauty of the hotel industry is that you want a really local experience both for locals and for travelers, right? So we have this um really challenging um. Piece of where we need to create brands that are consistent globally that deliver on experience like you have here at the Saint Regis, right, the heart of the experiences about having this extraordinary experience in a small hotel that feels like um the car lot the the after home from the past, right, we want that brought to life all over the world whether it's for business or leisure in different markets, um, but that's part of the fun right because consumers are. want both that consistency of what a Saint Regis delivers but also that local flavor when you go around the world. So food and beverage is one of the places where we really localize, design a little bit, but hopefully you still feel that essence of the Saint Regis brand when you walk in here. Great, um, Shalhia, you mentioned kind of this idea of, you know, really getting to know the culture when you are bringing a product to a market or serving that market. Um, to get a little more granular with that, like, how do you do that? Is it about hiring the right people in the market on the ground? What mistakes do you see brands making when it comes to localizing their products? So I think uh uh Saudi's a big market, um, and we are moving, we are focusing a lot on local talent here, um, because we want to put our finger on the pulse of the youth, um, and it can't be, you know, you can go to only that extent till you hear from the horse's mouth. And you get top notch quality of talent with the passion, and then we have some very powerful platforms which excite the youth who they can they can relate to to that platform, whether it is gaming, which is at the heart of, you know, it's a very passionate Saudi is very passionate about gaming. or whether it is football, so we do a lot of work around FIFA, whether it is also it's across the spectrum. So we have we are sponsoring a women's team for Rexona while there's a lot of work on FIFA, football, lacrosse, because we all know how popular, you know, it's next to religion I'd say football. We should work on that together. partnership too, so yeah, so I think when you have the local, local talent who can really tell you, I mean, you know, I was listening to the talent panel earlier and and um you know, the local, it's it's like second nature, you know, a person who's Saudi is a footballer, is a gamer, how do they devise that is going to be totally different to how we read it and we devise a platform. So I think that's that's where we are. Uh, we are putting our fingers on, on all the top, uh, top, um, platforms, um, which are football, gaming, uh, beauty, how is, how is it defined in the, in the Saudi definition, uh, within the cultural nuances, and then, uh. Brands which are well respected, well loved here with the right portfolio, um, you know, unleashed at the right time. That's our strategy in a nutshell. Amazing. Um, well, if anyone has any questions, start thinking. I'll come to you in a moment, um. But Shai, I'd also love to hear a little bit about your own story. So you grew up in Pakistan and you also led that market for Unilever for many years. So tell us a little bit about you and then also what lessons, uh, apply across markets both populations that are very young. So what about your experience there helps you in KSA? So look, um, being from Pakistan, I spent most of my career in Pakistan, and you know the funny question I still get asked is, oh, did you study in Pakistan? I said, yes, I did. So, you know, I feel very proud about that, that I'm a product of Pakistan. Um, but I've actually, um, you know, through Unilever because we have a program where we get a lot of opportunities to work in other countries. I've worked in Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Netherlands, Egypt. I looked after North Africa. I think what I've realized is that as a woman leader, um when I became the the GM in my own country. I think the big aha moment for me was that um you know, there are so many because it's it's a young population, 70% are under the age of 30 or less what they do is the amount of aspiration they have. So, so you know, it hit me that I have to play that role. So as a as a woman leader coming out of Pakistan. Um, I am the source of inspiration with the, you know, for, for, for those millions of people. So I have to wear that double hat of inspiring, of mentoring, and that was, that was something that hit me in that role, and I'm very active there now I across for women and what I, you know, the other question that you had was what is the difference, if any? And what I find in today's world with technology, with the digital age that we are in, actually the aspirations are not different, you know. I can tell you, I'll give you an example that if I look at, if I look at Pakistan in a small town, the young girl is aspiring for Huda Beauty. She cannot afford it, so she will go and buy something that's available closer to that, but she does aspire. So we have to realize that the information flow is a cross. They know the Dove, for example, Across is a popular brand. So I think the myth that it goes trends travel in a neat way is busted. Now it's all it's about, of course, there is that reality of affordability. But I think trends travel across. So we as companies have to prepare for how we want to receive those trends and translate them into growth. Yeah, fascinating. Um, any questions for Peggy or Shazia? Oh great, we have a question right here, um, if we have someone with a microphone. And please introduce yourself just with your name and company. Hi, good morning. My name is Marisa Andrada. I'm currently serving as a board director for Krispy Kreme. I'm also a recovering chief human resources officer from other iconic brands like Starbucks and Red Bull. So my question for you is, I'm a big believer in working in brands where the brand promise is not true externally unless the employees feel it internally. So, for your company, what are you doing to ensure that your employees are feeling that brand promise that you're delivering to your customer? Yeah, great question. Maybe Peggy, do you want to take that one? Yeah, absolutely. I think our whole philosophy for Marriott is that we treat our associates well and that's how we deliver great customer experience. So everything we do starts with we want customers to feel this, but if they don't feel it through the delivery of our associates, then you know it's, it's not successful so we invest a lot of time, money, um. Conferences right to make sure our associates are all over the world feel inspired and and that includes getting them involved in the experiences and things that customers would experience themselves we invest in many um partnerships like uh Beyonce concert or Taylor Swift or FIFA, um, the F1, and we often, you know, send our own associates and by the way, the owners of our hotels too to these experiences so they can experience what our customers do. Fascinating, um, yeah, anything that you do at Unilever to support? Yeah, I think the women, uh, sorry, not the women, but the consumers today are, are very, very, um, discerning, yeah, because of all the stimulus that is around them, they are very shrewd when it comes to picking on um the. The core of the brand, so you can't go wrong, and they're very unforgiving and they move on because there's too much, too many choices, too much stimulus. So I think what is important is that when we go, when we plan our activities, first of all, the focus on the fact that we've got the core right, we've got the functionality right, and on top of that we've got the communication right, you know, so that that the brand in all layers meets. The consumer's expectations. So I think it's a, it's an unforgiving world. It is a fast moving world, and that makes our job much more complex. But of course there is AI which which we have to adopt at the speed of lightning to help us navigate our brands. Yeah, Peggy, your role also includes uh Marriott Bon Boy, one of the best in class loyalty programs out there. So how do you drive not just, you know, purchases but real consumer loyalty? Yeah, I think I started with this, um, at the surface it feels like loyalty is about points, right, and redemptions, but when we talk to customers about their, um, experiences and I asked them, I've talked to many customers all over the world, why do you come back to us year after year. Um, it is because of the way we make them feel, right? And so I think that when you're thinking about building loyalty for your products, um, just trying to think about what is it, how do you create that meaning for somebody? And so for us whether you're. You know, in if part of your experience is digital or physical, we think a lot about that journey end to end and what is the customer feeling? I use emojis to try to say like, you know, when they're in this point in the process, how do they feel and how can we make them feel better about that specific moment of truth? And at the end of the day, you know, we've had people in our program for over 30 years and. It's about how we have made an impression on their lives, which is what drives loyalty. Yeah, amazing. Well, thank you so much, Peggy and Shahzia. Thank you.

Forget gadgets and gimmicks—the most impactful workplaces are intentionally designed to reflect how employees actually like to work. They balance focus with connection, autonomy with community. They don’t just house culture —they create it. In this insider look from the co-CEO of one of the world’s leading architecture and design firms, discover how top companies are reimagining the workplace as hybrid, flexible, and fully in-office models evolve.  

THE FUTURE OF WORK IS HUMAN: DESIGNING OFFICE SPACE FOR CULTURE 

So continuing on with the theme of workplace culture, our next guest believes that culture doesn't just materialize out of nowhere. It's something that is actively forms in the day to day experience that you have in your office and in your physical environment. A well-designed space doesn't just serve as a backdrop. It can help foster and develop positive culture. Elizabeth Brink, CEO of the global architecture and design firm Gensler, is with us. She joins us to talk about creating workplaces with a purpose in the ever changing world of work. So please welcome her to the stage. Thank you, Phil, and good morning everybody. It's really great to be here with you today. Um, as many of you know, there has been a lot of discussion about the future of work and the future of the workplace, and much of it honestly paints a pretty dystopian future. In fact, if you look at the images coming out of Hollywood, the future of workplace is pretty bleak. You'll start to see. The corridors, the disorienting maze of corridors in severance, you'll start to see the dramatic imbalance of power in succession, and you'll start to see the sterile and seemingly endless workstations in the Imperial Bureau of Standards from Star Wars. The common threads in all of these isolation, control, surveillance, and a general disregard for people's autonomy and well-being. But the real future of work, it's not dystopian at all. In fact, it's really genuinely human. It's not about designing better mandates or clever perks to convince people to come into the office. The challenge in front of us is to really create and design spaces that empower creativity and build belonging that support people and teams to do their best work, whatever that work looks like. At Gensler we've spent decades designing workplaces for many different sizes of organizations across locations across industries, and what we've seen is this organizational culture, deep organizational culture does not live in a mission statement. It lives in the people and in the behaviors and the places where they gather. So, instead of asking, how do we convince people to get into the office, maybe let's flip the question and start asking, how do we create places that people want to come into? Spaces and places that drive connection and spark innovation and reflect our shared values. Places that encourage colleagues to build relationships across the organization and connect with our purpose. Because the workplace is not just the mirror of your company culture, it is really a tool that can be the driver of that company culture. So knowing all of this, how do we actually create those physical spaces that create the feelings of connectedness and belonging that we're looking to drive? Well, I'll give you a hint. It is not with sterile white kitchenettes or controlled snacks, and it is not with mandated choreographed fun and merriment. What every great workplace needs at its core is a heart. Physically, that heart is the central place where people naturally gravitate to come together. The coffee bar that sparks impromptu brainstorms or the lounge where colleagues gather to chat, the canteen that flexes from a sort of buzzy lunch spot during the day to an event space at night. It's the place where people from different teams naturally run into each other and relationships across departments are built. Culturally, it's a space where your values become visible, where new hires get the feeling of your brand without being told what it is. It's where impromptu mentoring and coaching happens. And it's where people truly experience what it means to be a part of your organization. If your workplace doesn't invite collision, creativity, and connection, it's not a culture space, it's just a call center. You can't force culture and you can't force the heart of an office, but you can design the the conditions for it. You can create the places that attract people and draw them together from different teams that break down silos and give rise to serendipitous interactions. The heart of the office is a place that people choose to be in because it feels good to be there. It's about their choice. So knowing all of this, if we know these are the spaces we need to build, why have people been reluctant to come into the office? What we're learning is it's not just because they like their pets and wearing pajamas. The reality is that they're opting out of a place that feels imbalanced, a place that doesn't suit their real needs. So if the workplace makes it harder, not easier, to do their focused work, to collaborate, to feel inspired or connected, why would they come in? The best workplaces today are meaningful balanced ecosystems that offer performance and balance across the spaces. Deep focus spaces and collaborative zones, private nooks and vibrant commons, balancing out, seamless digital integration and thoughtful in-person touch points. Amenities that demonstrate their employee recognizes their humanity. And this could be everything from access to outdoor spaces to fitness facilities, to bike storage, to mother's rooms and prayer rooms and hydration stations, again, that recognize people's humanity. Something that our 2025 workplace survey has shown is that privacy for deep focus work is a top priority across generations, across locations, across industries. People want to be able to focus on their work, and they often have a hard time doing it at home because there are so many distractions. It's not that people want isolation, they just want choice. They want agency in how they engage with the work, with their work, and with others. And design can deliver that, providing that variety of balanced spaces, private spaces, small huddle rooms, common areas that are dedicated to quiet focus work, or lively communal spaces. So if your office still thinks balance means a number metric between conference rooms and cubicles, it's really time to evolve. We're also hearing a lot about the smart office. And what is a smart office really? It's much more than functional AV equipment, sensors and screens. Today's most innovative workplaces are using data not to surveil employees but to serve them. To deliver customized real-time insights, just like we're starting to expect from healthcare facilities. Not to track people, but to respond to them. With the right systems, you can truly understand how spaces are being used in real time, where people gravitate, what tools they prefer, what makes collaboration successful or frustrating. So just imagine being able to tie your employee survey data about engagement, about satisfaction to actual behavior in space, understanding how that tracks with where people are sitting, how they move, where they linger or spaces that they avoid. It's not theoretical. It's actually happening now. And the real opportunity is to use that data to create spaces that listen, that learn, and that adapt. There could be adapting with personalized lighting, with air quality adjustment, with acoustics that are tuned to stress levels and personal preferences, or even energy use goals. And even more so identifying predictive insights that could help leaders make portfolio decisions about their spaces at scale. So when workplace design is integrated with business planning, organizational strategy, and human experience, it becomes a true lever for smart transformation. So, what if the office was not a place that people felt an obligation to visit, but rather a place that they were compelled to engage with. What if anticipated needs sparked creativity and deepened connection in ways we haven't even imagined yet? What if your office became a living ecosystem, one that responded to your people, that evolved with your strategy, and amplified your culture every single day. The future of work is not about control or compliance. It's about creating meaning, and we have the opportunity and the responsibility right now to design for that very human future. Thank you.

NEC

Videos