The Highs (and Lows) of a Remarkable Year in Business
Tariffs! Twitter Tirades! Stomach-Churning market volatility! The year in business did not lack for memorable moments (Yup, we’re looking at you, Elon musk). But amid the drama, corporate america also recorded some memorable firsts.
Here, the highs and lows of a remarkable year.
▪ FIRSTS IN CORPORATE AMERICA
Six Milestone Moments that Emerged from an Eventful Year in Business
Apple and Amazon become America’s first companies to reach $1 trillion in market cap. California passes a gender-quota law mandating female representation on public company boards. Land O’Lakes’ Beth Ford becomes the first openly gay female CEO in the Fortune 500. An Uber AV becomes the first self-driving car to be involved in a fatal crash, hitting an Arizona woman. Jordan Peele becomes the first African-American Best Screenplay Oscar winner; Get Out, which he also directed, earns more than $250 million worldwide for Universal Pictures. Starbucks opens its first U.S. “signing store,” accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing customers, in Washington, D.C.
▪ BEST ZINGER
“While all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication.”
Statement from Sanofi, maker of Ambien, in response to Roseanne Barr’s claim that she took the drug before firing off offensive tweets.
▪ VENTURE CAPITAL
Hey, Must Be The Money!
Megarounds—raising $100 million or more—used to be a rarity. But in 2018 they became NBD. July saw an all-time single month record of 55 $100-million-plus venture deals, according to Crunchbase. A few that made headlines: Bulk-shopping startup Boxed raised $111 million; cars haring platform Get around raised $300 million; and Slack raised $427 million.
▪ OUT OF THIS WORLD
What Didn’t Elon Musk Do in 2018?
Be it business or pleasure, he couldn’t stay out of the news. Here, a few of his greatest hits.
▪ SORRY!
Apology Matrix
It may be hard to say you’re sorry, but CEOs were tripping over themselves in 2018 to apologize to customers they (or their predecessors) had wronged.
This year’s corporate confessions came in many forms, from 54-character tweets to million-dollar advertising campaigns. Here are some of this year’s most memorable mea culpas.
▪ IRL SHOPPING RIP
Sears, Nine West, Claire’s, Bon-Ton, The Walking Company, Mattress Firm, and Brookstone all declared bankruptcy in 2018.
▪ BIG MAP
Legalize It!
We all have vices. For some, it’s a nightcap; for others it’s betting on sports while puffing on a joint. In what feels like a long time coming, American states are moving toward legalizing the latter. Ten states and Washington, D.C., have sanctioned medicinal and recreational marijuana for those over age 21, and 33 more states allow medicinal use. Sports betting has been fully legalized in six states, with three more on the way, and 15 more with bills pending.
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▪ UNEXPECTEDLY SUCCESSFUL ENDEAVOR
Uniqlo
Uniqlo’s rollout of vest vending machines. The company says its San Francisco airport unit racks up $10,000 a month in sales.
▪ TRUMP
The Trump Test
In Trump world, things can get personal—fast. Here are the business leaders that took on Trump—and those who had his back—in 2018.
▪ ODDEST ENDORSEMENT
Chicken Little
KFC promises $11,000 to the first baby born after Sept. 9 with the first name Harland, after Col. Harland Sanders.
▪ TOP SHELF
Best Reads
These standout tomes made our must-read list this year.
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
BY JOHN CARREYROU
The WSJ’s Carreyrou digs deep into the Theranos backstory, weaving together a wide swath of characters and story threads to keep readers hooked.
Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys’ Club of Silicon Valley
BY EMILY CHANG
There are two Valleys: one for men and another for women. Chang chronicles this 21st-century boys’ club—and the women trying to navigate this scene.
Red Card: How the U.S. Blew the Whistle on the World’s Biggest Sports Scandal
BY KEN BENSINGER
An engrossing look at how the FBI, IRS, and several international intelligence agencies brought down corruption-riddled FIFA.
Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World
BY TOM WRIGHT AND BRADLEY HOPE
The story of 1MDB, a fraudulent web spun by a social-climbing con artist turned Wharton grad who is responsible for swindling $5 billion from Goldman Sachs.
▪ IPOS
Largest IPOs of 2018 listed on U.S. Exchanges
▪ BEST NON-FEELING
“It certainly doesn’t fee like [a monopoly] to me.”
Mark Zuckerberg, to senators asking if Facebook is a monopoly.
▪ TOO CHEESY?
The Lady Dorito
Talk of the “Lady Dorito” on Twitter spread faster than cheesy dust shortly after PepsiCo’s then CEO Indra Nooyi commented in a January podcast that women “don’t like to crunch too loudly in public, and they don’t lick their fingers generously.” Though PepsiCo has said it’s always exploring new snacks, it confirms it already has a chip women love “called Doritos.”
▪ HYPE
Hype Index
▪ BEST INTERNSHIP
$1,000,000
Why ride the bench when you can be an All-Star intern?
So much for making minimum wage while you fetch coffee and make copies—18-year-old Darius Bazley is the Million-Dollar Intern. After de-committing to play basketball at Syracuse in March, NBA prospect Bazley will spend the mandatory one-year wait between high school and entering the NBA as an intern with New Balance, which will pay “$1 million ‘no matter what happens’ with his NBA career—and can pay up to $14 million if he reaches all performance incentives,” according to his agent, Rich Paul.
▪ THE MARKETS
The Six Most Buoyant Stocks in the S&P 500
Investors had a wild ride in 2018, but these six stocks notched standout returns with low volatility.
▪ BEST COUNTRIES TO DO BUSINESS IN
New Zealand, Singapore, Denmark, Hong Kong, China, Korea, Rep., Georgia, Norway, United States, United Kingdom, Macedonia.
▪ ET TU, TINSELTOWN
Yeah That Proved Hollywood’s Conventional Wisdom Wrong
You can’t make a hit movie with an all-Asian cast.
Outcome: Crazy Rich Asians, based on the bestselling book, grosses nearly $173 million globally.
Don’t remake a film that was well received the first time.
Outcome: A Star Is Born glitters at the box office with almost $260 million worldwide and rave reviews.
Comic book audiences don’t want to get political.
Outcome: Earning $1.3 billion worldwide, Black Panther, which tackles race head-on, is the highest-grossing solo superhero film ever.
▪ NO LIKES
Founders that fled Facebook
Amid Facebook’s challenges—Russian interference, privacy violations, and increasing regulations, to name a few—the company has recently had to contend with departures by founders whose companies Facebook acquired.
WhatsApp: Cofounder Jan Koum leaves Facebook reportedly over data privacy issues in April.
Instagram: Founders leave Facebook “to explore our curiosity.” in September.
Oculus: CEO Brendan Iribe quits in October, following his cofounder, who left in 2017.
The Best in Business Contributers:
Carson Kessler, Michal Lev-Ram, McKenna Moore, Scott DeCarlo, Polina Marinova, and Rachel King.
A version of this article appears in the December 1, 2018 issue of Fortune with the headline “The Best In Business 2018.”