This year's Fortune 500 marks the 65th running of the list.

Fortune 500

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 64th running of the list.

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

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

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

Wal-Mart stayed on top as its sales crept closer to half-a-trillion dollars. Apple moved into the top five. And UnitedHealth Group continued its steady climb. 

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Get insights into USG including business profile, stock information, news, and rankings from Fortune.

USG Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

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USG | Fortune

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

Jim, you have lived through housing recessions, lawsuits, bankruptcy, what does it take to be a successful leader when you have to go through all that? You have to be brave. You have to be visible, you have to make sacrifices like everyone else does. You can't be running around in a corporate jet. You can't have a limo waiting for you outside. I like to say in coming up through the ranks at my company is I'm not gonna ask anyone to do anything that I haven't done as a job or I wouldn't do alongside of them. You have to roll up your sleeves. You have to walk around. It's very basic You have to ask people how their weekend went and not have an assignment for them. You have to make some strategic moves that will continue to give people hope and you have really trust your people. You have to say, we're in this together. And when they see a leader making sacrifices along with them Then they, you know they jump into the fox hole with you. Mm- hm. You also have to think ahead. But I think being a leader, you have to think ahead that thousand days assuming you're gonna get out of that situation. What's the most important leadership lesson that you learned during those tough years? Having faith that you're gonna get out of it. Having, working hard is great, but working smart, having the instinct that we are going to get out of it. What is the leadership lesson that you know now but you wish you knew when you had your first leadership job? Trust your gut. Trust your gut. You can look at all the different options, you can have wonderful analysis, someone will run in your office and want you to make a quick decision and sometimes you're like, I don't, it just doesn't feel right. I have found your gut is probably 95 % of the time right. If you're looking for the next generation of leaders What do you think makes a great leader? EI is so important, that emotional intelligence. You know, you can be the smartest person in the world but have no EI and I'll tell you what, you are not a leader. Your people won't follow you, your peers won't respect you and at the end of the day You're going to fail. So Jim, you came to USG straight out of Ohio State University after you graduated. As you rose up the ranks, what's the best leadership advice that you ever got? My father, steelworker, growing up in the Ohio valley. And he said, at the end of the day, work harder than anybody else. And I still do, I get in early, I love turning on the lights, work ethic. Work ethic has been the greatest foundation I've ever had, working hard, working smarter, you know, being, you know, thinking differently, but having that work ethic and along with that Having a personality that goes along with it. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

USG CEO: This Is What Makes a Successful Leader

Real_Estate

Jim, you talk a lot about innovation and yet most people wouldn't put the words sheetrock, USG and innovation in the same sentence. Tell us, what are we missing? [ LAUGH ] A lot. What's interesting is USG has invented so many building products over the last a hundred and, basically, fifteen years. In fact, this year Is the hundred anniversary of plastic board, dry wall, sheet rack as our brand being invented. And we invented a lot of products that you take for granted. You go up with elevators on this building. We invented the elevator shaft that makes it very efficient and safe to go up the building. We invented steel studs, we were the first introduction to plaster to the United States in the early 1900s. So we have a history of innovation. Well I think it's especially interesting because USG went through bankruptcy And survived it and has been coming out with all of these new and innovative products. What changed? We came out of bankruptcy in 2006. The housing market went away 24 months later. And we had to make some very tough choices. And one of the choices that we made and I made as a leader is We have to continue anyway. So we made strategic decision to really focus on innovation. It was a great morale position for us because there was a lot of bad things happening. A lot of companies would eliminate R & D. We did not. We focused on R and D and we said this is the path to get us out of the dark days. You have said that you're not comparing U. S. G. to other building product companies. You're looking at Amazon and Google. What are you learning from those companies? You know, we're learning to think differently. And if you look at, what we need to do in the future of construction, is we have to get new ideas. And so we're tapping into the Silicon Valley, alliances there, so thinking outside the box, using, using laboratories at universities. People who have worked in different industries not in construction. So some people would say, how can a 100 plus year old company based in Chicago out innovate the disruptors in Silicon Valley and the startups. What do you say to that? Well, I don't know if we can out- innovate them. Maybe we can use their thinking and work with them. Because we have critical mass and we have a product that has been around for, as you said, over 100 years. And so instead of out- innovating them, how about Partnering with them and learning from each other. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

And CEO James Metcalf says collaboration is key

Innovation Is the Name of the Game at USG

And CEO James Metcalf says collaboration is key.

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