Subscribed Magazine: Spring Edition

The spring issue of Subscribed magazine is here!

Dear Readers,

Welcome to the second issue of Subscribed, the first business periodical dedicated to the Subscription Economy.If this issue has a recurring theme, it’s one of digital transformation. As Aaron Levie and Robert Siegel point out in their trenchant piece “The Industrialist’s Dilemma,” since the first Fortune 500 ranking was published in 1955, a remarkable 89% of the list has turned over: gone bankrupt, merged, or fallen off the rankings.

Today most of the American post-war corporate giants are gone and, as for the ones who are left, the “systems,management and assets that led to success in the industrial era are holding incumbents back, in some cases fatally.” To make matters worse, several legacy players here in Silicon Valley continue to warn their clients of the perils of the cloud and the evils of multi-tenancy!

Is it reasonable to assume that most of the companies on today’s Fortune 500 won’t be around in 60 years? Of course it is. The average life expectancy of a large multinational firm is around 40 years. Dead companies always start out as successful mediocrities, relentlessly cranking the one lever that works, until it doesn’t.

But many Fortune 500 management teams are starting to respond. General Motors just acquired a 40-person autonomous-vehicle technology company. Walmart is merging its San Bruno and Bentonville labs. General Electric is moving its corporate headquarters from Fairfield to Boston, to take advantage of the city’s thriving technology sector. SaaS metrics are showing up in annual reports.

In an effort to stay informed and eclectic, we followed an array of stories for this issue. We talked to Faraday Future about cars, Crunchyroll about streaming media, ClassPass about fitness, and Workday about cloud security. We looked at the way subscription services are changing the physical spaces in which we work. We recommend some great podcasts (including our own!).

Last but not least, we’re very proud of the CFO feature we put together, featuring insights from over 100 senior finance executives. Be sure to visit our online Academy for more prescriptive, role-based advice.

– Gabe Weisert,Executive Editor

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