When it comes to consumer-facing, consultants say companies are coming to the realization that they need a leader at the top who understands the American consumer, and that most people driving purchase decisions in households are women, and with a record 41 female CEOs are heading to lead\u00a0Fortune 500 companies come February<\/a>, it seems that 2021 arrives with a general notion of the size and importance that woman have in business and in the global economy.<\/p>\n Since 1998, when Carly Fiorina took the #1 spot,\u00a0Fortune\u00a0has ranked the Most Powerful Women (MPW) in Business using these criteria, but with COVID-19 disrupting everything we know,\u00a0the approach with this ranking turned into revealing the\u00a0how\u00a0an executive is wielding her power, especially in this moment of crisis and uncertainty, is she using her influence to shape her company and the wider world for the better?<\/p>\n This new\u00a0criterion has paved the way for 13 newcomers to be added to the list (up from 10 newcomers in 2019, and 7 in 2018). It has also led to a drop in the ranking of executives like Facebook’s COO\u00a0Sheryl Sandberg<\/span>\u00a0and YouTube’s CEO\u00a0Susan Wojcicki<\/span>, whose “failure to rein in misinformation on their platforms overshadows their companies’ strong financial performance.”\u00a0The top\u00a05\u00a0women on the list are the CEOs of their companies: Accenture, General Motors, Fidelity Investments, Anthem,\u00a0and\u00a0UPS.<\/p>\n From\u00a0
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