Fortune December/January 2022

Hello! I’m Alyson Shontell, Fortune’s newly appointed editor-in-chief. When I was first approached about the opportunity to lead this storied publication, I was 278 days pregnant. Zoom ahead, and I now have a 5-month-old daughter, and I’m writing to you as Fortune’s first female top editor in 92 years. One interesting thing about being a woman in business is there are a lot of barriers that still need to be broken. In every industry, there’s an opportunity to build a historic career. Before joining Fortune, I was editor-in-chief of Business Insider. I joined the founding team there in 2008 and cut my teeth as a startup reporter, where I was first to cover some of today’s most valuable companies. One of those companies was a dating app called Bumble. I met founder Whitney Wolfe Herd…

THIS EDITED Q&A CONTAINS FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS AND HAS BEEN CONDENSED FOR SPACE AND CLARITY. “We used to have 100 sales events a year—two a week. That’s gone down dramatically … but the ‘deal’ is always going to be required.” WHAT’S IN STORE Macy’s has had a strong rebound year—and is projecting a big holiday shopping season. 1 But you’re still not back to pre-pandemic levels. In a world dominated by e-commerce, make the case for the future of the department store. 2 GENNETTE: Our competitive moat is our ability to curate fashion for someone’s individual style—either for themselves or for whoever they buy for. When we do that right, and we do it across all of our touch points [stores and digital], that’s really our reason for being. Just think about the origin of the…

BUSINESS. DISTILLED. It’s been a remarkable year for American labor, as workers across the job spectrum have either pushed for better conditions or simply walked away. But next year promises to be even more remarkable, as the tense relationship between U.S. employers and workers enters a new phase. A possible sequel to the Great Resignation is already coming into view for 2022—the Great Raise. Companies may wince at the thought, but upping workforce salaries may turn out to be not just necessary but also a smart long-term strategy, perhaps even an opportunity. Multiple macro forces have converged to create this scenario. First, and maybe most significantly, the labor market remains incredibly tight, as the pandemic-sparked trend of rethinking work shows no sign of slowing. In September, 4.4 million people quit their jobs, a…

FIRST CAME the shipping containers. Then came the atmospheric river. In mid-November, Vancouver’s port was already piled high when record-setting rains resulted in flooding and mudslides that destroyed roads, bridges, and train tracks, effectively cutting off North America’s third-largest trade hub from the rest of the continent. The unfolding disaster is expected to tangle up supply chains for months if not longer. “There’s $550 million a day of goods that normally traverse the gateway,” said Peter Xotta, vice president of operations and supply chain for the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority. “This event obviously has had far-reaching implications, not just for the flow of goods but for the residents of the area.” The Port of Vancouver has not been directly affected by flooding, but rail shipping has been suspended, and the highways that…

HOW MUCH GOOD can business do? That’s the question that animates Fortune’s CEO Initiative (CEOI), a by-invitation-only forum for leaders who are committed to using their companies’ business models to solve global social problems. This year’s convocation brought together more than 100 CEOs and other luminaries for two days in November in Washington, D.C. The group shared ideas around the theme of public-private collaboration. Facing economic and environmental problems too weighty for business to tackle alone, what are the most effective ways for the private sector to partner with governments and nonprofits? Some highlights: STEPPING UP ON SUSTAINABILITY Two executives who came to Washington straight from the COP26 climate talks—Banco Santander executive chair Ana Patricia Botín and Boston Consulting Group global chair Rich Lesser—said the private sector’s turnout in Glasgow had encouraged them.…

IN THE WAR for talent, some major employers—and smaller ones too—could be making a strategic blunder. They’re driven by desperation. Frustrated business owners in Springfield, Mo., for example, joined to put up billboards: “GET OFF YOUR BUTT! Get. To. Work. Apply Anywhere.” The U.S. labor market hasn’t been this tight in decades, and the emerging consensus is that employers can gain a competitive advantage by adopting liberal remote-work policies. Laszlo Bock, Google’s former HR chief, tells Fortune that “traditional banks, which emphasize primarily in-person cultures, are indeed worried about losing top talent to tech companies that offer more flexibility.” At least at first glance, those banks are right to be worried. Surveys consistently show that remote workers overwhelmingly want to stay remote, and some tech firms are offering them the world. Twitter…