Fortune

LAST OCTOBER, when Fortune published its 25th Most Powerful Women list, I wrote that I had mixed feelings about the franchise. On the one hand, we’re far from equity in the leadership ranks, so it’s important to spotlight diverse executives. On the other, I can’t wait for the day when we can simply rank the world’s “most powerful,” knowing that women and people of color will naturally be all over that list. There are signs of progress—slow, but real—in this year’s Fortune 500. Fifty-two women run companies on the list, up from 44 at this time last year, meaning more than 10% of the nation’s biggest businesses are run by the “opposite sex” for the first time ever. The top-ranking woman is CEO Karen Lynch of CVS Health, which ranks No. 6 with…

FOR CENTURIES, THE SUCCESS OF THE HVAC industry has been driven by technological breakthroughs—and as the market enters the digital age, that need for innovation only continues. Watsco, the world’s largest distributor of HVAC products, is helping to lead the industry’s tech transformation. Over the past decade, the Miami-based company has contributed more than $200 million to implementing scalable technologies across its operations—and it’s paying off. “Our investments to build and launch the industry’s leading technologies are unheard-of in our industry,” says A.J. Nahmad, Watsco’s president. “These solutions are transforming our business, our customers’ daily lives, and ultimately, how homeowners and businesses buy our products.” Through this transformation, the company has created an intuitive and contemporary digital experience, including robust B2B e-commerce, mobile apps, and the industry’s largest source of digitized product…

“Salesforce is amazing at leading enterprise relationships, and we want to bring more of that to Slack.”LIDIANE JONES, SLACK CEO LAST FALL, LIDIANE JONES discovered that Slack founder and CEO Stewart Butterfield was leaving Salesforce—by learning that she was a candidate for his job. Jones was blindsided by the news but immediately interested in the “dream job” that combined her love of consumer-focused design with enterprise technology. “I was so emotionally invested because I was so excited,” she says. But she worried she “wasn’t going to be picked.” Jones was a somewhat unlikely contender for the role. For one, she didn’t work for Slack, the workplace productivity platform Salesforce acquired in 2021 for $27.7 billion. The 43-year-old was a Boston-based executive vice president overseeing Salesforce’s experience cloud, commerce cloud, and marketing cloud products—all…

In the last decade, the attention to detail and high quality of her Haifa Humaid brand of shoes have earned the designer the loyalty of discerning women from Milan to Riyadh and beyond. Alhumaid is now ramping up production not only of her traditional leather footwear but also of an innovative range of shoes made out of a renewable, animal-free alternative: mushroom fiber. “Using this alternative leather, we can save animal lives and reduce our carbon footprint, without any negative impact on the performance or quality of the shoes,” Alhumaid says. “It is just as good as ordinary leather, but much more ecologically sensitive.” After experimenting with fibers from other exotic sources such as coconuts and tea leaves, Alhumaid made her first mushroom-based prototype in 2018. Thanks to innovations in nanotechnology, the alternative…

It may seem like a harsh assessment of human nature, but people don’t generally do the right thing simply because it’s the right thing to do, says Natalie Gillard, who has worked in diversity, equity, and inclusion for over a decade. That’s why laws and mandates exist. And that’s why Gillard has been anxiously watching the Supreme Court. While the ruling had not come down when this issue went to press, court watchers say the conservative majority is very likely to strike down or severely restrict race-based college admissions programs in June. Many fear that prohibiting the use of race as a factor in college admissions will unleash a legal dismantling of over half a century’s worth of laws and rulings aimed at remedying the systemic inequities racial minorities face in…

IN TODAY’S ECONOMIC CLIMATE, THE ABILITY TO meet changing consumer demands, stay ahead of the competition, and drive sustained growth requires highly personalized and effective marketing strategies that truly target the right people at the right time. How are those strategies achieved? With the help of data. “Marketers are under increased pressure to demonstrate and substantiate value by obtaining more data and insights to ensure they’re effectively reaching consumers,” says Garry Capers, division president, data solutions, at Deluxe, a payments and business technology company and leading data aggregator. Because there are billions of data points available and separating the signal from the noise can be challenging for businesses, Deluxe provides expert guidance to help its partners reconcile, analyze, and activate the highest quality data. “Marketers are under increased pressure to demonstrate and substantiate…