Our Tradition Of Smart Advice
For the last five years I’ve chronicled dramatic change at FORBES—how we confronted marketplace challenges by upending the labor, compensation and advertising models of traditional media. The results propelled our magazine readership and digital audience to record levels. Throughout there’s been one constant: our journalistic commitment to de-liver the smartest financial advice possible. This Investment Guide, one of two we publish every year, delivers on that promise in unique ways.
This issue’s theme is “The Future of Money.” Our cover-age features an exciting new list: TheFORBES Fintech 50, or the companies that will change your financial life and disrupt your portfolio. We interviewed hundreds of experts and CEOs to come up with the list, which includes startups that are involved in investing and trading; personal finance; lending; payments; small business; crowdfunding; digital currencies; and institutional processes. As always, we pay close attention to real estate, retirement, funds, bonds, stocks, alternative investments, taxes, estate planning and philanthropy.
From her perch in Washington, D.C., Janet Novack has played an infuential role in our investment coverage for 29 years. “The core of our philosophy hasn’t changed,” she says. “We believe investors should diversify, hold down taxes and investment costs when they can and approach skeptically anything that sounds too good to be true.” Janet and our money team work hard to provide the sophisticated investing and tax strategies that high-net-worth FORBES readers of our magazine expect from us.
FORBES is well-known in media circles for its cutting-edge approach to digital journalism. That spills over to our financial coverage on the Web. Our expert-contributor model enables us to provide great financial advice to readers of every age and level of wealth. Three reporters, Samantha Sharf, Maggie McGrath and Lauren Gensler, along with dozens of contribu-tors, focus their energies on Millennials, who now make up 45% of Forbes.com’s 38 million domestic monthly visitors. “I’m particularly proud,” Janet told me, “of our coverage of student debt, credit, budgeting, spending, saving and the human side of money decisions.”
For 98 years FORBES has tracked financial markets during good times and bad, always with audience interests in mind. Magazine and digital readers of every age can rest assured we have their financial lives covered in every way.
editor’s desk
14 FORTUNE.COM March 15, 2016
“Today, human capital is
the most valuable capital in
every company, no matter
what industry it is in.”
So says my colleague Geoff
Colvin, and I’m inclined
to agree. In a world where
many of the most valuable
products can be produced in
infinite quantities at no ad-
ditional cost, where money is
lent by central banks at zero
interest rates (or less), and
where innovation is the only thing that provides
sustainable value, talent is key.
That’s why our annual Best Comp.
Micro-Scholarship, What it is, How can it help me.pdf
Our Tradition Of Smart Advice For the last five years I’ve chron.docx
1. Our Tradition Of Smart Advice
For the last five years I’ve chronicled dramatic change
at FORBES—how we confronted marketplace challenges by
upending the labor, compensation and advertising models of
traditional media. The results propelled our magazine
readership and digital audience to record levels. Throughout
there’s been one constant: our journalistic commitment to de-
liver the smartest financial advice possible. This Investment
Guide, one of two we publish every year, delivers on that
promise in unique ways.
This issue’s theme is “The Future of Money.” Our cover-age
features an exciting new list: TheFORBES Fintech 50, or the
companies that will change your financial life and disrupt your
portfolio. We interviewed hundreds of experts and CEOs to
come up with the list, which includes startups that are involved
in investing and trading; personal finance; lending; payments;
small business; crowdfunding; digital currencies; and
institutional processes. As always, we pay close attention to
real estate, retirement, funds, bonds, stocks, alternative
investments, taxes, estate planning and philanthropy.
From her perch in Washington, D.C., Janet Novack has played
an infuential role in our investment coverage for 29 years. “The
core of our philosophy hasn’t changed,” she says. “We believe
investors should diversify, hold down taxes and investment
costs when they can and approach skeptically anything that
sounds too good to be true.” Janet and our money team work
hard to provide the sophisticated investing and tax strategies
that high-net-worth FORBES readers of our magazine expect
from us.
FORBES is well-known in media circles for its cutting-edge
approach to digital journalism. That spills over to our financial
coverage on the Web. Our expert-contributor model enables us
to provide great financial advice to readers of every age and
level of wealth. Three reporters, Samantha Sharf, Maggie
2. McGrath and Lauren Gensler, along with dozens of contribu-
tors, focus their energies on Millennials, who now make up 45%
of Forbes.com’s 38 million domestic monthly visitors. “I’m
particularly proud,” Janet told me, “of our coverage of student
debt, credit, budgeting, spending, saving and the human side of
money decisions.”
For 98 years FORBES has tracked financial markets during
good times and bad, always with audience interests in mind.
Magazine and digital readers of every age can rest assured we
have their financial lives covered in every way.
editor’s desk
14 FORTUNE.COM March 15, 2016
“Today, human capital is
the most valuable capital in
every company, no matter
what industry it is in.”
So says my colleague Geoff
Colvin, and I’m inclined
to agree. In a world where
many of the most valuable
products can be produced in
infinite quantities at no ad-
ditional cost, where money is
lent by central banks at zero
interest rates (or less), and
where innovation is the only thing that provides
sustainable value, talent is key.
3. That’s why our annual Best Companies to Work
For list, now 19 years running, has become our
most popular franchise (see our package of stories
that begin on page 141). Companies fight to get on
this list each year because they know it will help
them attract the very best talent. Potential em-
ployees refer to the list year-round to line up their
dream jobs. It drives change: The best workplaces
get a little better each year in a race to the top. All
we can say is, You’re welcome.
But what defines a great workplace? It’s not
just free food, generous benefits, and nap pods
(although those clearly don’t hurt). You’ll see one
word throughout this issue that attempts to capture
the essence: culture. Today’s workers are looking
for a corporate culture that values them and their
contributions. That’s particularly true for members
of the millennial generation, who are less likely to
be married and less likely
to participate in organized
religion than previous gen-
erations, and therefore more
likely to see their employers
as a principal connection to
society. Closely tied to culture
is purpose. Steve Howe of
EY tells us the two go hand
in hand: “To improve its
culture, a company must first
define its purpose: Why does
it exist, and what greater
good does it serve?”
4. In this issue we offer a
number of stories that
shine a bright light on com-
panies that have successfully
answered that question,
and others that have come
up short.
On the positive side
there is Publix (page 166),
where our own Christopher
Tkaczyk went underground
to capture why the 86-year-
old grocery chain is so
satisfying to employees. That
stands in contrast to Jennifer
Reingold’s story on Zappos
(page 206), which provides
a fascinating window into
a company that has always
attempted to make its em-
ployees’ happiness a top goal,
but has recently faltered.
Geoffrey Smith and
Roger Parloff take a deep
The Pinnacles
and Pitfalls
of Corporate
Culture
alan murray
Editor
@alansmurray
5. dive into Volkswagen
(page 98), a company whose
culture badly failed it—and
then some. We still don’t
know how high up the
corporate ladder knowledge
of the “defeat device” used
to fool U.S. regulators went.
But if higher-ups didn’t
know, that leaves the ques-
tion: Why not? What was it
about the company’s culture
that led engineers to think
they could undertake such a
fraudulent effort and not let
managers know?
Leadership is critical to
culture, but fixing a broken
one is no easy task—as Erin
Griffith’s sharp analysis of
Jack Dorsey’s efforts to turn
around Twitter (page 116)
demonstrates. Then there is
Palantir (page 124), which
began life in the defense
business but has readily ad-
opted the “change the world”
rhetoric of Silicon Valley and
now finds itself on the knife’s
edge in the battle between
security and privacy, as
Michal Lev-Ram writes.
So read this issue and
6. take heed. Creating a suc-
cessful business culture isn’t
easy. But it is more impor-
tant than ever before. We
hope these stories will serve
as a guide.
p h o t o g r a p h b y WESLEY MANN
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.
O F F I C I A L A I R L I N E P A R T N E R
I N T H E A T E R S M A R C H 2 5, 2 0 1 6
YOU ARE ONLY AS GREAT AS
THE CHARACTERS ON YOUR TEAM.
THANKS TO THOUSANDS WORKING TOGETHER
HELPING MILLIONS PLAY TOGETHER.
FORTUNE and FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For are
registered trademarks of Time Inc. and are used under License.
FORTUNE and Time Inc. are not affiliated with, and do not
endorse products or services of, Activision Blizzard.
®
®
10%25% 15%20%
Lower Risk
9. Standard Deviation of Annual Total Returns (1985–2015)*
Health Care
Health Care
Consumer Staples
14.5%
Consumer Staples
14.3%
Energy
Financials
Consumer Discretionary
Materials
Industrials
Technology
Technology
Telecom
Utilities
Consumer Discretionary
Financials
Industrials
Materials
10. Utilities
Telecom
Energy
Greater Return
Annualized Total Return by Sector (1985–2015)*
6% 8% 10% 12% 14%
Before investing in any mutual fund or exchange-traded fund,
you should consider its investment objectives, risks,
charges, and expenses. Contact Fidelity for a prospectus,
offering circular or, if available, a summary prospectus
containing this information. Read it carefully.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Because of their narrow focus, sector funds tend to be more
volatile than funds that diversify across many sectors and
companies.
* Source: Haver Analytics, Fidelity Investments, as of July 31,
2015. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Sectors are defi ned by the Global
Industry Classifi cation Standard (GICS) and are based off the
top 3,000 U.S. stocks by market capitalization.
Annualized Total Return by Sector (1985–2015): Health Care
(14.93%); Consumer Staples (14.47%); Energy (11.15%);
Consumer Discretionary (11.13%);
Industrials (10.94%); Technology (10.73%); Utilities (10.49%);
Financials (10.41%); Materials (10.04%); Telecom (9.16%).
Standard Deviation of Annual Total Returns (1985–2015):
Technology (25.45%); Materials (20.73%); Consumer
Discretionary (19.27%); Financials (19.26%);
Energy (19.08%); Telecom (18.93%); Industrials (17.72%);
Health Care (15.93%); Consumer Staples (14.32%); Utilities
