THE 2016 Fortune's annual ranking of the top 500 American companies was published recently. America's most admired and world's largest retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. took the top spot with annual revenue of $482.1 billion, where Exon Mobile, the runner-up made $246.2 billion in revenue and Apple, the 3rd place holder earned $233.7 billion in revenue.
Surprisingly, revenue earned by Wal-Mart is nearly double the revenue earned by Exon Mobil. It was not the first time that Fortune recognised Wal-Mart as the world's top company in terms of annual revenue. Wal-Mart secured the top spot 12 times (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016), 2nd place 5 times (2000, 2001, 2006, 2009 and 2012), 3rd place (1999) one time and 4th place four times (1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998) respectively. It may be mentioned that Fortune 500 is a recognition of 500 largest U.S. companies accorded by Fortune magazine since 1955.
Besides, The Fortune Global 500 is also an annual ranking of the top 500 Global companies worldwide that measured by revenue and published by Fortune magazine, too. Since 2009, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. captured 1st place four times (2015, 2014, 2011 and 2010), one time 2nd place (2013) and two times 3rd place (2012 and 2009) in the Fortune 500 Global recognition. The 2016 Fortune Global 500 recognition is yet to be announced.
Recently, online retail market is spreading fast in the U.S. Amazon's e-commerce is leading with sales revenue of $79.3 billion. Wal-Mart stores, Inc. is second with e-commerce sales of $13.5 billion and Apple is third with e-commerce turnover of $12 billion. Amazon secured 18th place in the 2016 Fortune 500 list with $107 billion revenue.
I reckon the day is not far, Wal-Mart will occupy the top spot if it carries out the philosophy of late Mr. Sam Walton (1918-1992 who once said, "I had no vision of the scope of what I would start, but I always had confidence that as long as we did our work well and were good to our customers, there would be no limit to us."
Iftu Ahmed
Aurora, IL
USA
[email protected]