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TUI ranks 210 with $17.9 billion in revenue (up 216.5%). The Germany-headquartered hotels, casinos and resorts company has 61,091 employees and made a loss of $300 million.

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 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. 

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TUI (TUIFF): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

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TUI (TUIFF): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings | Fortune

Gillian Zucker, master operator at the L.A. Clippers, discussed her unique relationship with owner Steve Ballmer, emphasizing his genuine love for the game. She detailed her career journey, from Hamilton College to roles in PR, sales, and operations. Zucker highlighted the transformation of the Clippers’ fan base and the development of Intuit Dome, focusing on frictionless technology and fan engagement. She shared insights on leveraging data for personalized experiences, such as rewarding loud fans and using facial recognition. Zucker also touched on the Clippers’ commitment to sustainability and efforts to enhance the fan experience through innovative features like the Halo scoreboard and the Wall. 

Gillian Zucker's Blueprint for Modern Sports Entertainment

Photo Courtesy of Gillian Zucker; Graphic by Fortune

Leadership

For sports franchises built on storied legacies, embracing innovation is a total game-changer— and Gillian Zucker is going long on reimagining the future of sports. We'll hear from this powerhouse president about the winning strategies for leveraging technology in sports  operations, including pioneering initiatives like the tech-enhanced fan journey at the Intuit Dome, home of the LA Clippers–two crown jewels in Steve Ballmer’s Halo portfolio. As stadiums evolve into dynamic, experience-driven destinations, this conversation will explore how v isionary leadership is shaping what comes next. 

CHANGING THE GAME: HOW TECHNOLOGY IS REVOLUTIONIZING SPORTS OPERATIONS

Conferences

Hello, everyone. All right, so I am dying to know how many of you, uh, prefer to watch a sports game in person versus, uh, on your couch, on your TV. So, show of hands, who prefers it in person? OK, alright, uh, on your couch? All right, all right, it sounds like in person is, is the dominant way to go, which we have the expert here, Gillian, who you've been to over 100 stadiums, is that right, Gillian, in your research for Intuit Dome? Yeah, we just, uh, this past summer, opened the new Intuit Dome, the new home of the LA Clippers. In Los Angeles and as part of that process over the course of 7 years, I visited any facility that I possibly could, some of them sporting facilities, some of them other types of entertainment events. What do you think is the number one thing that makes someone want to come into a stadium versus stay at home, lay on the couch? I think we're in the experiential economy. It's so important to people now to have experiences where they can connect, and I think a lot of that just has to do with how much time we spend looking at our phones and engage with screens. And so when you have an opportunity to do something that sort of forces your head up and forces you to engage with those around you and it's something that's really enjoyable, you want more of it. Yeah, that makes sense now. I don't envy your position because. You have quite the intimidating boss, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer. Talk to me about how you got him to build into a dome, because didn't he come in with the idea that we already have a stadium. I'm buying this team because it's everything's done for me pretty much. Yes, very famously during my job interview with him, I had had some experience in building facilities and I began to tell him about that experience so that eventually. when he wanted to build a new facility for the Clippers, I would be ready to help him to do that, and he stopped me. He said, Stop, stop right there. We are never building a new arena. He's like, This is why I bought this team. It's the best part about the whole thing. I don't have to worry about this. We have somebody else. They manage all of this for us. We don't have to worry about the cleaning the place. We don't have to worry about the capital that's associated with it. This is, this is the best thing about this team. And then a few weeks went by and then maybe a couple more and at that point he said, you know, here's the thing that I didn't realize is you don't have your own home. We shared our arena with another NBA team. We also shared it with a hockey team and a lot of concerts. And so as a result of that there wasn't branding. There weren't the things that make it feel like it has a personality that's associated with your franchise. He was like, we lose home court advantage and we have to fix this. So let's go find a piece of property, and we did. Amazing story. Now you tell me that you've embedded data into every part of Intuit Dome, you know, from shaping staffing plans, from seat assignments, menus once famously overruling Steve Ballmer on a menu placement. Tell us about that and how you integrate this tech into your stadium. You know, I think everybody wishes that they could know everything about their customers. Like, imagine if you could know everything about your customers. And so when we started thinking about Intuit, when you think about a typical Uh, arena experience where you come to a concert or you come to a game, you come in and you may come with let's say 4 people and you have all 4 tickets on your phone. So we would know who you are, but we would not know who those other 3 people are because when you get to the gate, you just swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe. So we essentially know 25% of the people who are coming in, and that's roughly true pretty much across the industry. So in our minds, we said, look, imagine if you could know everyone. So one of the things that we set out. In a dome was to make sure that people understood you have to have your own ticket on your own device when you come into the building, and that enables us to customize the experience. Well, we had to give people something in exchange for that friction that we gave them up front. And so what we said was that if you do that, you can put your phone in your pocket and you will never need it in this facility. It becomes your ticket, it becomes your wallet. It becomes your entry to clubs. It becomes your pass. It also you know, your reward system so we can reward you for behaviors during the game because we know who you are. Can you give me an example of that? Like what's the reward someone would get? Yeah, so one of the things that we have is this really amazing technology that we found that allows us to measure decibel levels down to a single seat. So when we first discovered the technology, it could do that down to about 25 seats, and we met the CEO and we said, Hey, could you get this down to a single seat in 2.5 years when we open? And he said, Yes, I can do it. And he did. And so that allows us to know how loudly each fan is cheering, and we can reward them for that behavior. So every game at the end of the game we actually reward the very loudest fan in the arena and we know exactly who they are and they win things like an autographed James Harden jersey and other fantastic things. And during the playoffs we utilized it. We had a pivotal game 6. We were playing it into a dome. It was must win against the Denver Nuggets and what we had learned through this information was not only who our loudest people were, That cheering's contagious that when you cheer you give the people around you permission to be loud as well. And so we invited the loudest fans and we had them bring a guest so that they can encourage that throughout the arena and help us with home court advantage. So interesting. So can you, you can tell in real time who is actually screaming the loudest. Yes, we can. We don't know what they're saying, but we do know how loud, right? That was my next question. And then how does that relate to, and I don't know if people have heard of the Wall, which is tell us what the wall is. And how that works with the tech you have and maybe you even have some props. I do. I have a couple of problems. So it's important to keep in mind that the whole idea of this building was was to create home court advantage but also to delight people, to bring them kind of more than they would expect, and Intuit Dome has a real personality. It's quite a unique place to see a game. So on one end of the arena is an architectural marvel. It's basically the steepest grandstand code allows, but it's also very comfortable. It has a lot of leg room. It starts in row 1, goes up to row 50. On 4500 people strong and we only let Clippers fans sit there. So you cannot sit there if you're wearing an opposing team jersey, if you're cheering for the other team, we kick you out. And in the middle of it is a standing supporter section that you have to basically audition to come to. But we've made those seats really, really affordable. It's $999 for a season ticket. The trick is your seat gets assigned when you show up. So if you show up early, you're going to sit down low, and if you show up late, we oversell it, so you might be standing and then they come to us and they ask us for all kinds of props. They come up with crazy ideas. I brought a couple of them. Our mascot is Chuck the Condor. Their job is to keep the opposing team from making their free throws. So the time when the opposing team is shooting, they do things like this, and we have this direction, pretty good, and they also all have these. This is our loud cup. This is actually intended to reduce lines at concessions. So bottomless drinks, you have your own cup on one side you sip, and on the other side you chair. Love that sound. OK, I'll come to the audience for a question in a second, but Gillian, I have to ask, you know, with all this, it seems like consumers are putting a lot of trust into you to safeguard their data, all these things, measuring their sounds. How do you ensure that their data is treated with respect and how do you alleviate concerns that people might have about it? were really worried about it, you know, I remember in the beginning how much research we did about this, and what we learned was when you go to people and you ask, how do you feel about facial recognition, they say adamantly opposed to it. I want to have nothing to do with it. And then we say, how do you feel about clear? And they're like, I love clear. And they're like, how do you feel about your iPhone and the ID that you use with your face to open your iPhone? People are like, it's amazing. So what we learned is that there are certain technologies that they really trust and so we went to them. We didn't have any we're a basketball team, we don't build tech. So we went to people who do do this who safeguard people's information that they're comfortable with and we utilize that. Any questions out here in the audience? OK, well, I have another and this is based on uh my own personal background and bias. So I feel like, you know, a lot of legacy sports fans, uh, my dad, a Mets season ticket holder being one of them since the 80s, are really resistant to new tech and, and to changes. They like the old school way it's done. How do you balance that need for tradition when you're dealing with sports also with new technology? Well, I think it's two things. Number one, it's entirely voluntary. So you don't want to do it, you're not comfortable with it, you don't have to. We have other. Mechanisms, but what we found was that a certain number of people would sign up for game face ID before the game, and then we would find that that number would increase by 15 to 20% by the time they left the arena. So what you really need to do is provide them with something that's so incredible, that's so advantageous to their experience that they say, I definitely want this, you know, our concept was, can we eliminate lines? Like, imagine going to a sporting event and not having to wait in line for your hot dog. Yes, it's possible. Come into a dome and you can experience it yourself. How? How do you do that? Well, in a lot of different ways. I mean, one through technology and secondly through architecture. So you know Steve spent so much time talking about the restrooms, and I remember we were saying, oh, we can use technology to kind of indicate where the shortest lines might be to send people to the right place, and he just denied that on its premise. He was like, no, you know this can be solved by just having more. So we did some pedestrian modeling. We had 50% of the people in a single section get up at the same time. Go to the restroom, go to a concession stand. Could we get them back in their seat before the end of the quarter break? And if we could, we had enough restrooms, and if we couldn't, then we kept adding more. So we have over 3100 different fixtures for people. So if you come into a dome, you're not waiting in line for the bathroom. You tell Madison Square Garden. because I'm constantly line again you have a lot of luxuries with a new facility that you don't necessarily have with one that's been very fair. Uh, what is the biggest tech investment that you've made that you don't think hasn't that hasn't paid off yet, I would say, or one that that really flopped that you're really excited about. Um, we have one that actually I'm really excited about, but I don't think it's, it's progressed to the level that we want, but we have a board that's in the facility that when you come in, it actually um specifically greets you. So when I look up at that board, it will say Hi Gillian, welcome to Intuit Dome. You're sitting in and it'll have my section row and seat number and it'll tell me where the. This concession stand is to my seat or it'll tell me something interesting about the game or concert that's coming up. If you were coming in and you were standing right next to me, you would see your name and your seat location, and over 100 people can look at that same board at the same time and all see something different. So it's pretty amazing and it is one of these, you know, we said we weren't going to have any tech for tech's sake in the building. Like we only wanted things that actually enhanced your experience, and this one what we found it does is it it it's exciting enough that it gets people to engage with our face ID so it's helped us to achieve, you know, more buy-in for that. But I think um at the same time at some point when um the detail on it gets better we'll be able to do much more with it and I'm looking forward to that day. One last call for questions. OK, I have one for you. All of this tech sounds really cool but also very expensive at the same time. So what metrics or KPIs do you use to measure the real return on investment for these types of innovations, both in terms of fan engagements and also growth of your business? Steve was pretty clear when we built the building. He, he wanted it to be this incredible experience for fans. I mean, it was built for. Basketball fans, um, but he also wanted to not be dumb about the investment and what he kept saying was like I look at index funds. I need to get the same return on the building as I get on index funds and anything that you can do within that ROI is good by me. So that was basically our metric as we looked at these things and there were a lot of different technologies that we saw that were very expensive that we had to pass on because we couldn't do that and deliver the kind of. ROI, but there were other things, and you know you have to be choosy. What are the things that are going to have the biggest impact? It's, I think it's interesting at the end of the day that some of the things that have had the biggest impact in that building are definitely not the most expensive. Interesting. All right, last question for you. You've kind of just alluded to this. What are some of the craziest tech pitches or ideas that you've gotten that either you didn't consider or or the ones that you did and now they're in there. Yeah, I mean, we had an awful lot around holograms, you know, so there were a lot of different companies that came to us that said they could make holograms of our players or different ways that people could interact with them, and those are wonderful, but they tend to be the kind of thing that people have that interaction once, but by the time they see it multiple times, it's something that people grow weary of. So we were always looking for technologies that would be things that would continue. like excite people. We found all sorts of interactive games that were really popular. I think the things that we try on our Halo boards, so we have this giant two-sided Halo scoreboard, the largest video screen of its kind in any indoor facility. It's a full acre of LED and with this board we're able to do a whole bunch of things like provide a lot of. Statistical information and other opportunities to entertain, but one of the things that we really wanted to do was figure out a way that players could kind of jump out at the board at the fans, and it almost feels like they can reach out and touch you. And so we spent a lot of time focused on that and we're finally able to achieve it midway through the season. Very cool. Well, thank you so much for your time, Elaine. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

Brian Chesky is the founder and CEO of the roughly $85 billion home-sharing business Airbnb. The company has been around for nearly 20 years and has had its ups and downs, but Chesky is still adamant that he will overtake the hotel industry. And in 2025, Chesky says Airbnb will roll out the biggest updates to the business ever.
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Airbnb CEO’s Counterintuitive Leadership Playbook for the $85 Billion Brand

Fortune Next to Lead editor Ruth Umoh sat down with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky to discuss his contrarian management philosophy, why most business advice books are wrong, and why he doesn’t believe in employee autonomy.

Fortune Next to Lead editor Ruth Umoh sits down with Airbnb CEO and founder Brian Chesky.

Ganesh Ayyar, EVP and President, Intuitive Operations and Automation and Industry Solutions, Cognizant,
Interviewer: Diane Brady, Executive Editorial Director, Fortune, Co-chair, Fortune COO Summit

COO Summit 2024: Setting The Stage - How To Drive Operational Excellence

Ganesh Ir is the Executive vice president and president of intuitive operations. I love that. I've never heard intuitive operations for automation and industry solutions at Cognizant. Um You know, I want to actually start on a personal level because you were ceo of emphasis, which was a publicly listed company, you sold the majority stake to Blackstone, I believe, right? And so what made you decide to come to Cognizant in this role if you know, this is the unrehearsed part? I want to just a sense of who you are. Yeah. So, you know, I have spent in this industry about 100 and 53 quarters now, 153 quarters. That's right. Measuring and outside the industry, I have spent 100 quarters. So that gives you my age. Um I was with emphasis for eight years as the CEO we sold the majority stake to Blackstone in 2016 and 2017. I decided to get out. It was the single largest transaction done by any pe firm in a listed company in India. So uh I didn't have the economic need to work after that. Um So I thought I'll take it easy So I decided to take it easy for a year and a half and two reasons, I decided to get back. My wife was very clear that I shouldn't be sitting at home. And uh and the second thing, I was getting very bored and I couldn't, I was missing the roller coaster ride. So I looked up at the companies that I wanted to join and I must say I chose the company that I decided to join because I had borrowed part of their strategy in crafting the strategy of the previous company. What part of their strategy they always played at the intersection of industry and tech and that is the intersection which excited me. Always so fantastic. Brand decided to join the company five years ago. Um Never regretted that decision every day. I feel like a teenager with 18 year old with a 45 year experience being 18 and uh and the new world of A I is just amazing. Well, you know, what's interesting is I often have these conversations with CTO S CFO S, you know, in fact, that's a role that's often combined with coo. But what is it about the coo that makes it such a unique role to have at this juncture? You know, in many ways, it is the most ambiguous title uh in my view, no, two ceos do exactly the same thing. Um Some people call it, they take care of the plumbing of the company. In many ways, they are the architects and orchestrators of success pathways of the company. And now they need to be architects and an orchestrator of neural pathways of the company. And that is the exciting transformation ahead for all of us. And in my view, nobody has monopoly on good ideas. And that's why this session is my best ideas from other people. I'm not proud as it should be. Exactly. So coming together and, and discussing co opting collaborating and at an industry level, finding ways to succeed is the whole idea of this conference. Well, and also it's been a very internal role to your point. And there is this need for this more external role for C OS. I'm certainly seeing that one thing I'm curious about is how are the business models changing? Because you get into the rooms? We don't get to go. I mean, if you look at um with A I and other factors, do you see any shifts that you put on our radar? So, Diane, I learn a lot from our customers. Many of them are here as well. And one of the things which I learned from Bond digital client and these are the companies, you know, until 18 months ago, the famous two words were Digital Transformation. And now those two words are forgotten. And now it's a IA I and generative A I. So we do a lot of business with digital natives. They do two things very differently, which has influenced me personally. And the team that I represent one is they ride multiple S curves simultaneously. So they are not betting on just one big idea, continuous innovation, multiple S curves and the S curves are shorter. So it starts and ends, then the next curve starts. So when they partner with us, they are not looking for the traditional outsourcing. They are looking for acceleration and global scaling because they know that time window is short, they want to maximize return. So if you can bring the value of acceleration and global scaling, they want to partner. And I see that as an attribute which I could apply in my business together with my customers, multiple S curves, continuous innovation and partnering for acceleration and global scaling. So acceleration and global scale, but you mentioned digital natives, there are a lot of people here also watching who are not digital natives, they have legacy costs. They've got that innovator's dilemma frankly of, you know, wanting to invest knowing that they have to transform, but yet it's difficult and, and, and I think we're at this juncture right now where people aren't sure even where you get the best return on your investment for A I. Any thoughts on what are the challenges that you're seeing? See the um currently I think we are going through a phase where people are pausing and thinking how to apply A I. There was an initial euphoria, we saw everybody, I mean, tech industry, you can't accuse them of underselling. So um there was huge euphoria now. I think there is a pause. What I personally think the whole world of A I agents and everybody here representing their respective organization and in many ways keen to innovate along with uh like-minded companies will create a path which, which, which will have to be pragmatic. In fact, one of the things which I remember somebody said this to me to err is human to completely mess it up. You need A I I heard that. So, so to A I. Yeah, no. So actually the governance of A I is equally critical, right? And A I has to be relevant to the industry which you are playing because there are regulators, there are customers, there are shareholders, there are internal employees and then there is society at large. So multiple stakeholders need to be managed. So the intersection of industry and A I and innovating in that intersection is extremely important. The speed of innovation is going to be uh mind boggling. So how do you keep ahead at the same time? Retain the pragmatism of AC O. And that's the challenge for that. It is important that we make some cultural changes. So it's not just changing, acquiring a piece of technology, a continuous innovation model, riding multiple S curves, um rigorous governance before it is implemented and continuously refreshing it because ultimately um the differentiation in my personal view is not going to be A I because everybody would acquire A I and then it will become a level playing field. What would be the difference would be human intelligence and culture of the company. Because if you are able to mesh it together, success is going to be beautiful. And in this new world together, we will succeed alone, we may not succeed. So it's important to collaborate co opt and work together to make it happen. And that is the model with which I am approaching my, the, the future of my business, which is about what I'm just 2000 short of 100,000 people in my business. So um 98,000 people in total and like to hit 100,000 or do you expect to go down? I expect that every individual become more valuable and it won't be measured in terms of whether I hit 100,000 or 100 and 20,000, it would be whether each individual becomes more valuable. And how do I inject the learning and development of these individuals to make them more valuable and being in the path of relevance of people who are sitting here is going define my success in the future. And my philosophy is we will co innovate with our customers. I love that I cannot think of a better sort of marching orders to this group which I hope we will end up more valuable at the end of this. But uh I think that's a great way to kick off our summit. Thank you so much Ganesh. Please join me in. Thanking Ganesh Ir and again, thank you to Cognizance.

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