Good morning.
The biggest business trend of the last 50 years has been dematerialization. Creating economic value has become ever less about making, mining, and selling physical stuff, and ever more about software, services, and the like.
But if you look at this year’s list of Fortune’s 100 Fastest Growing Companies, you may think you’ve entered a time warp. Gone are the tech companies—Amazon and Facebook are off the list this year—as well as the many finance and health care companies that dominated past lists. What’s in their place? A variety of companies that make, mine and sell physical stuff.
Both the top and the bottom of the list are marked by homebuilding—Builders FirstSource of Irving, Texas, is No. 1 on this year’s list while homebuilder TopBuild is No. 100. No. 2 on the list is Tesla, which of course makes cars. And then Encore Wire (No. 3), which makes, you guessed it, wire. Also in the top 10 is Steel Dynamics (No. 9), which makes and recycles steel, as does Olympic Steel (No. 13) and Nucor (No. 14). Mining and oil companies also rank high, like Civitas (No. 8), Pioneer (No. 16), and Arch Resources of St. Louis (No. 18). Exxon Mobil (No. 60), Chevron (No. 57) and Conoco Phillips (No. 34) all make an appearance, as do Freeport-McMoRan (No. 68) and Winnebago Industries (No. 84). Oh yes, and Crocs comes in at an impressive No. 20, which may make you reconsider this fashion trend.
Does all this portend an end to dematerialization? I doubt it. I’d expect to see any number of AI firms popping up on the list in the coming years. But it does suggest that virtualization got a bit ahead of itself during the pandemic. There’s still plenty of money to be made the old-fashioned way.
Also this morning, we are publishing the first of three reports from our CEO Initiative annual meeting last month. Today’s piece, authored by Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson and Insight Enterprises CEO Joyce Mullen, explores how to use AI to empower people rather than replace them, and make companies more nimble and productive.
More news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
