Fortune 500 Daily

The next time you whip out your credit card or send off a mobile payment… consider this statistic: There are two billion people in the world who still lack access to basic financial services. It’s an issue that Mastercard is tackling head on. The Fortune 500 company has pledged to deliver half a billion people into the world’s financial system by the year 20-20.

What started in 19-09 as a French company selling hair dye to beauticians has grown into the world’s largest cosmetics company. Landing at number three-ninety-six on Fortune’s Global 500, L’Oreal makes seven-billion beauty products yearly for one billion customers worldwide. Jean Paul Agon (zeohn paul ah-GOHN) has served as L’Oreal’s C-E-O for the past twelve years, but he’s been at the company for forty.

Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in twenty-seventeen. The category four storm killed thousands, caused billions in damage and left much of the island without power for months. It dealt a blow to the pharmaceutical industry too. The island was home to nearly 50 parmacuetical plants - and their products accounted for seventy-percent of Puerto Rico’s exports.

When it comes to who handles your money, chances are it’s a man. In the traditional boy’s club of America’s financial industry, just thirty-two percent of financial advisors are women. Of those who have earned the designation C-F-P - certified financial planner - only twenty-three-percent are women. It’s become such a hot button issue that Maxine Waters - the chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee - got involved.

Record high temperatures this summer have people across the globe seeking out the nearest source of A-C. But while that electricity may be cooling you down – it’s heating up the earth. Burning coal, natural gas, and oil to make electricity and heat accounts for twenty-five-percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. That’s more than both agriculture and transportation.

Ten years ago, if someone told you that you would be having a conversation with a black cylinder on your kitchen counter – you’d probably think they were crazy. But since its launch in 20-14, more than one-hundred-million Amazon Alexa devices have been sold - making Alexa a household staple. The voice assistant now works with more than 60-thousand smart home devices and offers more than 90-thousand different skills.

Developing new drugs or patient protocols used to rely only on highly-regimented clinical trials. But new health technology has created some new sources of data. The F-D-A is figuring out how information from these sources - like your electronic health records, and even your FitBit or Apple Watch - may be useful. The term for this data is - appropriately - “real world data.” And the findings from it are referred to as “real world evidence.

Any time you are forced to deal with change, that’s a good thing according to Darius Adamczyk (DARE-ee-us Ah-DAHM-check), the C-E-O of industrial manufacturer, Honeywell. He should know. Adamczyk (Ah-DAHM-check) emigrated to the U-S from Poland at age eleven - and didn’t speak a word of English. He credits hours of sitting in a classroom, not understanding what was being said, with helping him develop perseverance. And he says that trait is key to being a good leader.

For only the second time in Fortune 500 history – automotive giant Ford Motor Company has passed up its rival General Motors, landing at number 12. General Motors is right behind it at number 13. But in order to hold on to its lead, Ford will have to stay ahead of the changes happening in the automotive industry.

Many people were first introduced to blockchain as the technology underpinning the cryptocurrency bitcoin. But the business world now realizes the technology - a shared, secure, digital ledger - has other useful applications. The question is, how exactly can blockchain benefit companies? Julie Sweet is the North American C-E-O of consulting firm Accenture. On September first she’ll become C-E-O of the larger company.