Indice dei contenuti per October 1, 2016 in Fortune

ONE ENTREPRENEUR helped start a trading platform that's taking on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. Another executive oversees North American ride-sharing operations for Uber, the world's most valuable unicorn. A third runs a $3.2 billion Internet empire. Another helped turn a novel food-delivery startup into a company with an estimated $1 billion in annual sales in just four years. That all four of these men and women have accomplished as much before their 40th birthdays is yet more noteworthy. Noteworthy, yes—and, we think, even worth celebrating on the cover. But honestly, no longer surprising. Indeed, for our eighth annual 40 Under 40 list, which begins on page 53, we found dozens of strikingly innovative entrepreneurs, company leaders, philanthropists, and creative geniuses—still in their twenties and thirties—who are transforming…

WHEN ACTIVIST investors want a seat at the table, should restaurant investors give them a warm welcome—or ask for the check? That's the question for shareholders at Buffalo Wild Wings and Chipotle. Both had suffered sharp stock declines from their summer 2015 all-time peaks—that is, until Marcato Capital Management took a bite of Buffalo Wings and Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital recently got a craving for burritos. Both activists will have a lot on their plates. B-Dubs's same-store sales are falling after years of consistent growth that was once the envy of the industry. And at Chipotle, a carefully curated "Food with integrity" mantra became a liability after a prolonged E. coli crisis. Revenue slipped 20% this year, to $1.83 billion, and more pain is expected. Yet restaurant companies make…

EVERYONE KNOWS that the iPhone handily disrupted the smartphone market, but that's not the only industry that was crushed in Apple's wake. As they say, the best camera is the camera you have with you, and almost half of U.S. adults now carry one built into their iPhone (that number climbs to almost every U.S. adult if you count Android models as well). As smartphone sales have grown—and Apple and others have continually improved their cameras—fewer people see the need to spend more for a dedicated photo snapper. And sorry, camera makers, the latest iPhone 7 has the best camera yet. [The following text appears within a chart. Please see hardcopy or PDF for actual chart.] 250 MILLION UNITS 200 150 100 50 0 2009 2016 230 ANNUAL GLOBAL IPHONE…

CHRISTOPHER Descours will never forget the delicious moment when he tasted the champagne that would be called the Piper-Heidsieck Rare Rosé Vintage 2007. First came the trademark pop, then the satisfying sip: distinctly crisp, fruity, and full-bodied. "When I tried it, I knew it was that special champagne I had been waiting for," says Descours, chairman of Européenne de Participations Industrielles SAS (EPI), a privately held conglomerate. For Descours, the pink-tinted sparkler wasn't just another champagne to add to Piper-Heidsieck's lineup, which includes five others. It was the first one that Descours helped bring to fruition after acquiring the 231-year-old label from French spirits company Rémy Cointreau in 2011 for $531 million (the sale also included the prestigious boutique champagne label Charles Heidsieck). Until then, the family-owned EPI was known…

FOR AN ELECTRIC UTILITY, a technical glitch could trigger a huge blackout, plunging entire cities into darkness. Typically such an event would require utility workers to scramble to a faraway substation. But what if they instead strap on virtual-reality headsets and walk through a model of the facility to troubleshoot? Could technology once seen only in sci-fi films help a utility company save precious minutes diagnosing a critical problem? This is the future as envisioned by California utility PG&E, which is working on virtual-reality technology with data-crunching startup Space-Time Insight. PG&E says virtual reality could provide a quicker and safer way for workers to inspect equipment without the risk of getting zapped. At this point, the experiment is still more dream than reality. Space-Time has created a 3D copy of…

THIS IS THE LAST COLUMN I'll be writing for this magazine. After 21 years and tens of thousands of words under the banner While You Were Out, I'll be the one who is out and about. Now, now, Virginia. Don't cry. These things happen. The world has changed. How? My first column, back in 1995, was about something funny. I disremember what. But my editors at the time thought it would be amusing to slap the following headline on it: "You're in Deep Kimchi." This offended some people of Korean extraction, and rightly so, since it compared their national condiment to something marginally less pleasant. Several wrote letters of complaint to the magazine. I believe they received polite replies. And that was that. But oh, my, Virginia, just think of…

IT HAS BEEN more than 200 years since the U.S. waged war with a European power over taxes. But now a more modern transatlantic struggle is brewing over much the same issue—this time with enormous sums in play. In August, European Union officials ordered Apple to pay a whopping $14.6 billion in back taxes to Ireland, where it stations key parts of its business. Stunned at the giant fine, the U.S. Treasury told EU officials the ruling would have a "chilling effect" on trade and alleged that Brussels wanted to inflict pain on the largest U.S. company by market cap. But this battle extends far beyond Apple. At stake is what happens to about $2 trillion that U.S. companies are estimated to have stashed abroad, out of reach of the…

The specter of technology automating all our jobs has loomed over American discourse for so long it feels as if it must be exaggerated. But Economist senior editor Ryan Avent argues in his compelling new book, The Wealth of Humans, that as computers more seamlessly integrate into everything, mass-employee displacement is inevitable and imminent. Government and societal institutions must reform (think new welfare programs) in order to handle the change, he says. COCKTAIL-PARTY FODDER Good news for investors, bad news for workers: The share of all income earned from labor has been shrinking since 1990.…

"The preoccupation with this election is keeping them at home glued to their TVs and their desktops." LEONARD RIGGIO BARNES & NOBLE FOUNDER, CHAIRMAN, TOP SHAREHOLDER, AND EX-AND INTERIM CEO "[Consumers are] trying to gauge their financial security going forward, whether through elections or through global events ... When families are uncertain, caution starts to prevail, and they start to hold back on spending." STEVE EASTERBROOK MCDONALD'S PRESIDENT AND CEO "There's this incredible uncertainty, distraction, negativity. I would even say, in a small way, fear." MINDY GROSSMAN (TO CNBC) HSN CEO "When a consumer is a little uncertain around their future and really trying to figure out what this election cycle really means to them, they're not as apt to spend as freely." TODD PENEGOR WENDY'S PRESIDENT AND CEO…

DIANNE MCKEEVER doesn't like to talk about the fact that she's a woman. But her gender has made her a groundbreaker on Wall Street: The moment she launched Ides Capital last year, the 38-year-old became the only woman running an activist hedge fund shaking up U.S. companies. And her firm, which takes its name from the day of each month on the Roman calendar thought to portend dramatic change (made famous by Julius Caesar's assassination on the Ides of March), is already showing companies that they ignore her at their peril. Shares of Boingo Wireless, a provider of Wi-Fi hotspots (you've likely used it at airports) have risen more than 20% since McKeever revealed her campaign to amplify the company's value in March. For Ides, the rewards have been even…

1972 WATERGATE The scandal to name all scandals brought down President Richard Nixon for campaign abuses. 1976 KOREAGATE South Korean officials allegedly lavished gifts and money on U.S. congressmen in an attempt to buy influence. 1978 SHOULDERGATE The Pittsburgh Steelers were caught holding practice in full pads—against league rules. 1985 IRANGATE It's better known now as the Iran-Contra scandal, but media at the time also called the illicit arms deal with Iran "Irangate." 1993 NANNYGATE Two of President Bill Clinton's nominees for attorney general employed undocumented immigrant nannies. 1998 ZIPPERGATE Monikers for Clinton's indiscretions with a White House intern also included "Monicagate" and "Tailgate." 2003 STRIPPERGATE A Seattle scandal over a strip-club owner who funneled thousands in campaign cash to city council candidates. 2004 NIPPLEGATE Better known today as the…

There were nearly 3,000 Zika cases in the U.S. this past summer, including 43 locally acquired in Florida. A vaccine is a long way off, but progress could come from an unlikely place. Dr. Mariano Garcia-Blanco of the University of Texas Medical Branch says several drugs approved long ago to fight other diseases could be effective against the virus. Garcia-Blanco and colleagues recently found that at least 20 existing treatments show promise, including ivermectin, the common head lice medicine. But more studies need to be done to show whether the new (old) drugs will be both effective and safe.…

"IT WAS LIKE REVENGE of the nerds," Troy Carter, 43, told his wife after leaving a 2010 barbecue at the Silicon Valley home of investor Joe Lonsdale, where he met a coterie of startup founders. He was dumbstruck, he recalls, by how different their worldviews were. The trip left Carter with an unsettling feeling—he needed to be part of this changing world of mobile-phone apps, ride sharing, and more. At the time, Carter was the manager for Lady Gaga, a musician he met in 2007 and helped launch to global stardom. Gaga fired Carter in 2013—but by then he was already enchanted by the tech world. Over several years, through a mix of "dumb luck and desperation" he had taken stakes in companies like eyeglasses upstart Warby Parker, file-sharing giant…

AS A CHILD growing up in Florida, Alfonso Albaisa heard endless tales about his relatives in Cuba: A great-aunt had been married to José Martí, considered a national hero; a grandfather had been a governor at the time of the revolution; and a great-uncle was an important architect. In August 1962, two years before his birth, his parents fled the island on a secret night flight, paid for with his father's Rolex and Edsel sedan. "My only experience of Cuba was through my family's stories and photos," says Albaisa, Infiniti corporate vice president and design chief. So with restrictions on Americans traveling to Cuba loosening, this summer Albaisa visited his family's homeland for the first time. And with Infiniti's blessing, he brought with him his latest effort, the new Infiniti…

AGE: 44 FROM: Australia CHANGEUP: After 13 years at American Express, Lambert leaped last year to PayPal, where she is vice president of global consumer products and chief of one of the company's biggest hits: Venmo, a payments app that is popular with millennials. HOT HAND: Venmo, which lets users send cash to one another, processed $4 billion in payments in the most recent quarter, up 140% from the same period a year earlier. FEEDBACK LOOP: To learn what consumers want, Lambert makes it a point to meet with people outside of the payments world. Most recently, it was a team from a perfume maker. "It's important to get outside your current frame of reference," she says. TRUSTED MENTOR: A key adviser for Lambert has been Dan Schulman, PayPal's CEO.…

Q What surprised you most about the Hamilton phenomenon? Um, everything. Honestly. I knew we'd be a hit with history teachers. Everything else has been sort of a surprise. Do you have a process, a formula, for your creative work? Not really. One of the best things about the success of Hamilton is that this is an idea that sounds crazy when you say it in one sentence. I had that experience over and over again. When I performed the first song at the White House, on that YouTube video in 2009, I said, "Someone who embodies hip-hop, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton," and the room laughed. Then by the end of the song they're in it because they're sucked into the story. Which is what happened to me. I picked…