The one metric we track diligently for all the companies in the database is annual revenue. That is the measure by which we compare all companies for ranking and determine which are the Global 5000.
While some companies can catch a shooting star and see their revenue climb to unthought of heights — those are rare. Most firms grow along at a rate similar to their industry peers. The one thing that makes a material difference is tied to M&A activity. Whether merging with another, acquiring some business or spinning off a portion of an existing portfolio – those are the actions that make a material difference in revenue.
For sales & marketing teams, keeping track of when those events are announced and transpire will make a decided difference in the business activity you are likely to generate when those accounts are in your base.
To that end, we watch these transactions continually and have them as part of our database. We tie the announcements to the company records of The Global 5000 – but don’t add or remove them from the list until the transaction is finalized. Too often these things fall apart on the way to the finish line.
Here’s a little comparison of M&A activity for the Global 5000 companies for January & February showing which industries have the most activity:
January –
- Healthcare – 19
- Industrials – 15
- Business Services – 13
- Technology – 13
- Financial Services -10
February
- Financial Services – 13
- Industrials – 10
- Construction – 9
- Business Services – 8
- Healthcare – 8
- Oil & Gas – 8
- Technology – 8