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Fortune 500 USA: The Power of Three

FAS.research, Vienna

2005

Project Description:
The image shows director interlock relationships between Fortune 500 companies in the US. We looked at how companies are connected with one another through their board of directors, i.e. Apple and Disney are connected through Steve Jobs. Our focus here are strong and robust structures, we refer to as triangles. A and B are connected. With every additional "friend" they make their relationship gets stronger and more robust. The more shared interests at other companies embodied through a director the more structural force for A and B to find an agreement and persue similar goals. This graph is based on data from www.theyrule.net, SEC filings 2004, thanks to Josh On and team.

Legend:
Triangles represent fortune 500 companies in the US in 2004. The larger the triangle, the more influential the company is in the overall network. Companies of the same color belong to the same network cluster. If company A and company B share a mutual director on their board of directors, they are linked through a line. The thicker the line, the more directors are shared at third party’s boards.