So, here is a handy list of the Fortune 500, with their websites. For no real reason, I was wondering about big companies that a lot of people haven’t heard of. As you look down that list, what’s the first company that makes you go, “what do they do?”
For me, it’s #10, Valero Energy. I mean, I used my keen power of deduction to decide that they were probably in the oil and gas industry, but I had never heard of them before. $137B in revenue, 22K employees. I had no idea they existed.
Valero (10) was the first one I wasn’t 100% positive I knew what they did. I’ve heard of them but couldn’t place them.
I’d never heard of Cardinal Health (22).
For me, it was #28, AmerisourceBergen. I suspected that they might be a HR outsourcing firm, but it turns out that they seem to be a generic healthcare conglomerate.
Valero has gas stations in many areas, including much of Virginia.
But I’ve worked with business schools/students in several regions of the country, so that has expanded the number of them I could easily point to what they do.