Has Labor Day lost its meaning? The holiday was intended to set aside one day to pay tribute to the achievements of working people, but the modern version, circa 2007 seems to have more to do with shopping sprees.

In 1882, when the first Labor Day was celebrated in New York City, workers were fighting for the 8-hour day because they believed people should have time to spend time with their families. In 1912 New England, hundreds of young girls from Vermont farms had gone to work in the local textile sweatshops They were part of over 30,000 women and young girls, many of them immigrants, who walked off the job and organized the famous "Bread and Roses" strike.

Workers taking action ended child labor. It was not war with other countries that won the pillars of our democracy: freedom of speech, the right to vote, the right to organize, public education for all. It was the struggles of working people here that won these things. Our history is one of working people being pitted against each other by race and creed, and also of the gains made when we have been able to unite together for the benefits of us all, against the greed of the few.

Management-consulting firm Accenture, No. 50 in the Top 50, estimates that intangible assets such as employee engagement and innovation are now worth 70 percent of the market cap of companies in the S&P 500 compared with 20 percent in 1980.

Annual productivity rates will grow nearly three times faster than the work force from 2000 to 2014. Simply put, talent matters, perhaps now more than ever.