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As a journalist, it often feels like we've all become tech writers in this age of AI. Covering Nvidia, for instance, is a must, regardless of your job description.
So for the inaugural ranking of our Best Companies for the Future from the WSJ Leadership Institute, I was hardly shocked to see the chip maker in the No. 1 position on a list top-heavy with tech companies. Our newsletter today features these rankings, which we partnered with Bendable Labs to create.
My colleague Theo Francis wrote about how Nvidia got the top spot, along with tech companies such as Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta Platforms and Cisco Systems, which round out the top five ranked companies.
Theo writes that many of the tech companies scored well because of their innovation, financial strength and AI readiness, three of our six categories. You can read more about our rankings here. And WSJ Leadership Institute members get exclusive access to insights from our competitive intelligence tool. (See more on the ranking’s methodology here.)
I caught up with Theo about his reporting on this project. Here is a condensed, edited version of our conversation:
What struck you most in your reporting?
Theo: Economists have been watching consolidation and business formation closely as well. I've heard some talk about the emergence of a "winner-take-most" economy, where the biggest and most successful companies are best positioned to get bigger and more successful—even more than usual, in historical terms. The project didn't include company size in its analysis, but there's real overlap between the biggest and the top-ranked companies. That makes sense for a couple reasons: The market is valuing future prospects, much the way the ranking is—but also, deep pockets give companies the resources they need to pivot in a time of big changes.
Are there any key trends that you noticed recurring across certain industries or companies?
Theo: It isn't surprising that the tech giants are out in front on artificial intelligence and other measures of innovation. But for just about every category and measure, there are companies from unexpected parts of the economy that break through—Baker Hughes and Ulta Beauty on AI readiness, for example—Nike and Iron Mountain in innovation—Mastercard, Visa and some of the pharmaceutical companies on the overall ranking.
It will be interesting to see how these companies fare compared to their competitors over time. And it gets even more interesting if you drill down into a particular industry group—which food and beverage companies are leading or lagging on talent readiness? Where do semiconductor companies fall on resilience, which gauges how protected companies are on supply-chain, geopolitical and climate factors.
Why is this story important for companies and company leaders?
We can all look at the market to see what it thinks of companies' futures. But that's a black box—one number for any given company that encompasses countless factors. These rankings, and the dozens of metrics that went into them, provide tools for digging into divergence across companies and areas that might need attention from managers—or where they can lean into competitive advantages. For investors, it offers a roadmap to warning signs or opportunities that the market may have overlooked. In that sense, the range and depth here is less like a traditional ranking and more like a Swiss Army knife.
—Walden Siew
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