Not Why CEOs Get The Big Bucks and More

FORTUNE Magazine reports “Secrets of the FORTUNE 500”. Among those “secrets” are:

(Proof That Capitalism Works: America’s Pie Gets Ever Bigger...Lawyers, Liberals and Even Some Engineers Never Seem to Believe This):
GM (No. 1 in 1955) had $9.8 billion of inflation-adjusted sales which was 7.2% of Fortune 500 revenue; Wal-Mart (No. 1 today) had 2004 sales of $288.2 billion, which is only 3.5% of the current Fortune 500 pie.

And, (Not Why CEOs Get the Big Bucks) Trivia:
Michael Dell of Dell (No. 28) works standing up at his computer terminal. According to The Register he does not wear cowboy boots, doesn't eat lunch and there's no chair in his office as he always stands up.

The boyhood home of Warren Buffett (CEO of No. 12 Berkshire Hathaway) was built by the grandfather of Katie Couric of the Today Show. (Was he a media slave?)

Remember the Alamo? Valero Energy (No. 22) does. It drew its name from the landmark’s historical name. The Alamo was originally named Misión San Antonio de Valero. (Thank goodness someone is patrolling our southern border. Otherwise, we might soon have a company called ENDRUN down in Texas.)

Herb Kelleher (co-founder and chairman of No. 318 Southwest Airlines speculated in inventory of Wild Turkey bourbon after a huge fire in 2000 at the distillery. He bought hundreds of cases of the bourbon in the event the company didn't recover.