McDonald's generates revenue through company-owned restaurants, franchise royalties, and licensing pacts. Restaurants offer a uniform value-priced menu with some regional variations. As of June 2019, there were roughly 38,100 locations in 120 countries: 35,500 franchisee/affiliate units and 2,600 company units. After reorganizing the company into segments based on the maturity and competitive position of its different markets, refranchising 4,000 locations, and eliminating $500 million in net annual SG&A expenses the past several years, the company is focused on "velocity growth accelerators" such as an Experience of the Future layout (counter, kiosk, web ordering and table service/curbside delivery), mobile ordering and payments, and delivery alternatives.

Charter is the product of the 2016 merger of three cable companies, each with a decades-long history in the business: Legacy Charter, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks. The firm now holds networks capable of providing television, Internet access, and phone services to roughly 51 million U.S. homes and businesses, around 40% of the country. Across this footprint, Charter serves 27 million residential and 2 million commercial customer accounts under the Spectrum brand, making it the second- largest U.S. cable company behind Comcast. The firm also owns, in whole or in part, sports and news networks, including Spectrum SportsNet (long-term local rights to Los Angeles Lakers games), SportsNet LA (Los Angeles Dodgers), SportsNet New York (New York Mets), and Spectrum News NY1.

Illinois Tool Works is a diversified global manufacturer that produces specialized industrial equipment, consumables, and related services. The firm operates 87 global divisions through seven distinct operating segments: automotive OEM, construction products, food equipment, specialty products, test/measurement and electronics, polymers and fluids, and welding. About half of its revenue comes from its operations in North America, with the remainder originating from international markets. ITW takes a bottom-up and decentralized approach to portfolio management, with the exception that each segment must apply its 80/20 operating process modeled on the Pareto principle.

Phillips 66 is an independent refiner with 13 refineries with a total throughput capacity of 2.1 million barrels per day. Its DCP Midstream joint venture holds 61 natural gas processing facilities, 12 natural gas liquids fractionation plants, and a natural gas pipeline system with 64,000 miles of pipeline. Its CPChem chemical joint venture operates facilities in the United States and the Middle East and primarily produces olefins and polyolefins. Phillips 66 also holds a 75% interest in Phillips 66 Partners after exchanging its GP IDR interest for LP units.

Twitter is an open distribution platform for and a conversational platform around short-form text (a maximum of 140 characters), image, and video content. Its users can create different social networks based on their interests, thereby creating an interest graph. Many prominent celebrities and public figures have Twitter accounts. Twitter generates revenue from advertising (90%) and licensing the user data that it compiles (10%).