As companies restructure to focus on areas of growth, government is proposing bold strategies to foster everything from clean energy use to greater social inclusiveness. Japan is changing – for the better.
（動画スクリプト） The Global 500 is Fortune’s ranking of the world’s largest companies, ranked by revenue for their most recent fiscal year. It’s the ultimate scorecard for big business around the world.
In sum, the total revenue of the companies on this list was $28 trillion dollars. That’s equal to about 37% of global GDP. And the Companies in the Global 500 earned a total of $1.5 trillion in profit.
The result is a list of companies that are shaping the way people all over the world work, live, play, shop.
The number one company on the Global 500 this year for fourth in a row is Walmart. It’s the only company on the Global 500 with more than $400 billion in revenue and it’s pushing $500 billion. That’s followed by three Chinese companies, State Grid, Sinope Group and China Natural Petroleum.
The United States had 132 companies on this year’s list. That’s down two. It’s kind of held steady around that number for a while. China, on the other hand, gained six companies last year and came in at 109.
One trend that we see in the Global 500 this year is that we saw in the Fortune 500 is continued weakness in the energy sector. Companies like Royal Dutch Shell, and Exxon Mobile, they’r still in the top, but they’re sliding a few spots this year.
There are 33 new companies to the list this year. Most of those are technology companies. You have Facebook making Global 500 for the first time. Tencent out of China, Alibaba out of China. Hewlett-Packard Enterprises, Dell made a comeback this year. And in terms of profit and revenue growth, technology sector leads both of those numbers.
I think one thing you can take away from the Global 500 this year is there’s a lot talk and debate about globalization. But the really big companies, the multinational companies, continue to grow and thrive in the global economy.
グローバル企業というとThe social responsibility of business is to increase its profits.という経済学者フリードマンの言葉にあるような新自由主義的態度を想像しやすいですが、世の中をよくしようとする試みをしている企業を評価しようというのがこのランキングの目的です。
In an interview this summer, Microsoft MSFT 0.03% CEO Satya Nadella was asked whether he thought companies creating technology had a responsibility to consider the effects of that technology on social equity.
The late Milton Friedman had a ready answer. “The social responsibility of business,” the economist often said, “is to increase its profits.” Period.
But Nadella took a different approach: “I think we don’t have a long-term business if we don’t address the inequities.”
伊藤園はTea-Producing Region Development Projectの取り組みが評価されてのランクインとなりました。
Growing new jobs in Japan’s struggling farming sector. Green tea is the drink of choice for many Japanese, but going green has been the mantra of cool for Ito En, the largest green-tea beverage manufacturer in the country. Since 2001, the $3.9 billion soft drink maker has been driving the Tea-Producing Region Development Project, an enterprise that attempts to put Japan’s 400,000 hectares of abandoned farmland and its unemployed workers to use. Partnering with regional farmers and governments, Ito En has earmarked nearly 1,000 hectares for tea plantations, procuring raw tea leaves and bringing technological assistance to revitalize dormant farms. This has led to an annual production capacity of around 3,300 tons, roughly 40% of the raw tea leaves that the company uses annually in its beverage production. The company has also found a way to transform 49,000 tons of used tea leaves into 50 million cardboard boxes for its own products annually.
Tea-Producing Region Development Projectというのは「茶産地育成事業」のことで伊藤園のサイトで日本語、英語の説明を読み比べることができます。
The Fortune Global 500, our annual list of the world’s largest corporations, represent the best in global business. In 2015, revenue for the Global 500 declined 11.5% to $27.6 trillion, and total profit declined 11.2% to $1.5 trillion. The decreases are largely the result of the oil glut and all-time lows for crude prices—last year, mining, oil producers, and metal companies lost a combined $70 billion on $1.3 trillion in revenue. And a strong U.S. dollar also cut into the revenues for U.S.-based corporations operating abroad. For more about the economic impact of the almighty buck, read How a Spike in the Value of the Dollar is Hurting the U.S. Economy.
The blood-testing devices that Theranos Inc. touted as revolutionary often failed to meet the company’s own accuracy requirements for a range of tests, including one to help detect cancer, according to a federal inspection report.
A redacted version of the report was released late Thursday. A full version was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The 121-page document details deficiencies found by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services during its inspection of the closely held company’s Newark, Calif., laboratory last fall.
冒頭の文でThe blood-testing devices that Theranos Inc. touted as revolutionary often failed to meet the company’s own accuracy requirementsと動詞toutが使われていますがここでは「実情はわからないが売り込んでいる」というニュアンスですね。
（オックスフォード） tout [transitive] tout somebody/something (as something) to try to persuade people that somebody/something is important or valuable by praising them/it She's being touted as the next leader of the party. Their much-touted expansion plans have come to nothing.
Another punishing article in the Wall Street Journal Thursday evening, revealing the depths of the problems that led federal regulators to cite a Theranos lab for multiple “serious deficiencies” in January, raises the question of how many more setbacks the young blood analytics company can survive.
According to the article, regulators at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have so far found the company’s plan to fix deficiencies at its Newark, Calif. lab last January “inadequate” and they plan to impose sanctions against Theranos that could range from fines to suspension of their right to test human samples.
The 1,400-word Journal article provides a close analysis of a nonpublic, unredacted version of the highly technical, 121-page CMS inspection report. A redacted version of that report was publicly released only minutes before the Journal article came out. To me, the ongoing boldness of the leaks to the Journal suggest a level of outrage about Theranos’s conduct on the part of either CMS officials or among Theranos’s own high-level employees or, again, both.
In any case, even if the CMS gives Theranos another chance, it’s highly unclear whether Walgreens—which hosts 43 of Theranos’s 45 blood collection centers—will be as charitable. (It already suspended the operations of its Theranos’s wellness center in Palo Alto, which had depended on the Newark lab.)
Theranos Statement on CMS 2567 Report PALO ALTO, CA (March 31, 2016) – Quality and patient safety is our top priority. Theranos submitted a Plan of Correction to CMS and related evidence that addressed how the company has actively ensured that our lab operates at the highest standard. We’ve made mistakes in the past in the Newark, CA lab, but when the company was made aware of the deficiencies we have dedicated every resource to remedy those failures. As part of that comprehensive review and our review of CMS’s survey findings we have taken the following actions:
（中略）
We will continue to work with CMS to ensure every issue has been fixed completely. We recognize the critical role they play in the laboratory industry, and will continue our work to implement best-in-class policies and procedures. Theranos shares the same goal as CMS, which is to provide best quality care to our patients. This has only made the company stronger and we are better for it today. Brooke Buchanan Vice President of Communications Theranos Inc.
There are two main issues for .... First, .... Second, ....
There are two main issues for Theranos that are not fully put to rest by its statement, however. First, part of the problem the CMS seemed to find—the use of proprietary equipment that was not producing results within acceptable levels of precision during proficiency testing—suggests that its proprietary methods may simply not work well enough for certain kinds of tests, or at least that they are still not yet ready for prime time more than two years after the company started offering tests to the public. Second, the notion that problems of this gravity resulted solely from certain failings of the previous lab crew at Newark is not credible. The lab was also the responsibility of the chief operating officer, Sunny Balwani, who is president of the company. A former Microsoft official and entrepreneur, he comes from a software background, not a lab background, which may be part of the problem.
There are a few pols on our list, but not the next President. The first thing you’ll notice about our 2016 World’s 50 Greatest Leaders list is that it doesn’t include any of the current candidates for President. That’s not an accident. The U.S. political system is broken, and we see little reason to think the current contenders can fix it.
By Adam Lashinsky Bezos Prime Amazon’s CEO has driven his company to all-consuming growth (and even, believe it or not, profits). Today, though, as he deepens his involvement in his media and space ventures, Bezos is becoming a power beyond Amazon. It has forced him to become an even better leader.
80年代社会派ロックで育った者としてはU2のボノが紹介されていたのは嬉しいことです。
By Ellen McGirt Photograph by Sam Jones Bono: I Will Follow Irish rock icon Bono leads a widely acclaimed, data-driven, global organization that influences governments, rallies C-suites, and raises hundreds of millions of dollars for people living in poverty. What’s his secret? An ability to convince others that they are the true leaders of change, not him. Here’s what business can learn from a music legend.
