#1 Company; 5 Ways to Connect with Children; Animal Core Values; 13 Fun Facts

Wal-Mart Back On Top
— with almost $444 billion in revenue in 2012, Wal-Mart
is again #1 on the list of the Fortune 500 released yesterday. The
other big news is that Apple broke into the top 10 and Facebook made the list
for the first time. Rounding out the top 10: Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Phillips 66,
Berkshire Hathaway, Apple, GM, GE, Valero Energy, and Ford – six of the top 10
fueled by the auto industry.

Fun Facts Fortune 500
— revenue was up 2.7% for the combined Fortune 500
last year, but profit was down .5%. These
are two of the 13 fun facts Fortune details as a sidebar to the list
– worth the 2 minutes to glance through especially if you're a "student of
business" and enjoy business trivia. One sad fact – there's one company that's
been on the list since the beginning – 1955 – that didn't make the cut this
year. I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. Anyway, find this answer and 10
more interesting facts like the company with the highest 5 year stock market
return (not Apple) at this link.

Core Value Characters
— as follow-on to the McIntosh
Perry core values from last week, Rachel Farris, Chief of Staff for
Austin-based

Pet Relocation, sent a list of her company's core values modeled after
animals that best represent each value. Notes Farris "we worked on the values at
the end of December and since we're a pet company we chose to model our values
after animals that best represent those characteristics. We have chosen a value
per quarter and have been placing animal decals on the wall representing that
quarter's theme (right now we have penguins all over our walls as our Q2 theme
is teamwork!)." Again, great to anchor each value with a visual image. Here's
a link to the list with pictures – I particularly like the third one!!