Sometimes it takes removing oneself from the familiar context of the current day to realize just how much the world has evolved.
Each year, Fortune publishes its flagship Fortune 500 list (U.S. companies only) approximately two months prior to its Global 500. (This timing is largely determined by when companies report their financial performance following the end of their fiscal years.) Given that many of the world’s largest companies by revenue are American, the upper echelons of the Global list often echo the American domestic list published a few weeks prior. Most recently, Walmart has been No. 1 on both lists, year after year, and U.S. companies on the Global list appear in largely the same order as they do on the domestic list, with non-U.S. companies scattered in between. Trends such as which sectors dominate are similarly parallel.
