Business insurance

We knew it was a bad time for commercial real estate. We didn’t imagine it was this bad.

Among CEOs, 76% told Fortune their company will need less office space in the future. And 28% say they’ll need a lot less office space. That’s the finding from a Fortune survey of 171 CEOs in collaboration with Deloitte between September 23 to 30.* 

If those reductions come to fruition, it could have a big impact on everyone from restaurant owners in central business districts to the financial institutions holding commercial real estate.

CEOs are finding that without a draining commute or office distractions, some employees are thriving from remote work. Among CEOs we surveyed, 40% say virtual working has increased employee productivity.

On the flip side, 31% say it has decreased productivity. Fortune Analytics has found the results are split among age groups, with Gen Z struggling the most to … Read the rest

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With less than two weeks until Election Day, Joe Biden’s heavy lead in the polls is not enough to convince many that President Trump is doomed to defeat. The polls notoriously got it wrong four years ago when Trump shocked the world by beating Hillary Clinton despite trailing Clinton in most polls for virtually the entire campaign.

Because of 2016, there has been heightened public interest in an alternative means of predicting which way the 2020 election may go. And many are choosing to follow the money: looking to political betting markets, as well as free-to-play prediction markets, for a better read on who will be the next President of the United States.

While betting on political elections remains illegal in all 50 states—and is subject … Read the rest

With just over two weeks to go until Election Day, voter enthusiasm is the highest it’s been in the past three presidential elections—but the majority of Americans won’t turn up to the polls on Nov. 3.

With the coronavirus pandemic still raging across parts of the country, just one third of Americans (33%) plan to vote in person on Election Day, according to national survey by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) released on Monday. Another 17% said they plan to vote in person, but before Nov. 3, while another third of Americans (32%) said they plan on casting their ballots by mail.

Of the 2,538 respondents, the remaining 18% said they were still unsure how they planned to vote. 76% of Americans said they are absolutely certain they will vote in the 2020 election, which is higher than both the 2016 election (66%) and 2012 election (71%). Including this … Read the rest

For the 2020 incarnation of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women in Business list, the criteria have changed somewhat. As the pandemic and the protests after George Floyd’s death have made clear, serious problems need to be addressed in society. Add in climate change and the #MeToo movement, and it was time to add a new dimension to the MPW selection process. As Fortune’s Kristen Bellstrom and Beth Kowitt, who lead the project, explain:

“Simply put, 2020 is the year when we said a final goodbye to business as usual…We wanted to understand how an executive is wielding her power. In this moment of crisis and uncertainty, is she using her influence to shape her company and the wider world for the better?”

How has that changed the list? For the most part, 2020 has shined a harsh light on the tech industry’s failings, whether in stopping the spread of … Read the rest

“The key to investing is not assessing how much an industry is going to affect society, or how much it will grow, but rather determining the competitive advantage of any given company and, above all, the durability of that advantage.”
—Warren Buffett, Fortune, 1999

Few business models are more reliable than a casino’s. People love to gamble, and because the house has a statistical advantage over its customers in every game it runs, the more people play, the more the casino makes. Factor in all the cash people spend on dining and entertainment inside those bright, windowless boxes and you’ll understand why casinos are inherently good businesses.

In normal times, that is.  

COVID-19 turned the world upside down, especially for businesses that depend on big crowds: theme parks, cruise ships, concert halls, and, of course, casinos. While most of these businesses remain severely depressed, casinos—especially the regional ones, where people drive … Read the rest