Most Admired Companies
March 1 2004
Wal-Mart has retained its position as the 'World's Most Admired Company' in FORTUNE magazine's 2004 All-Star list, on sale from today. General Electric and Microsoft (respectively) retain the next two positions, but Johnson & Johnson and Berkshire Hathaway climb over Dell into 4th and 5th positions.
IBM, Toyota Motor, Procter & Gamble and FedEx round out the top ten. Details can also be found at www.fortune.com
Thirty-six of the 50 companies on the list are American, and of 30 industry categories 26 are led by US companies. There are nine European companies in the top 50:
- 15 - BMW
- 19 - Nokia
- 21 - Nestlé
- 27 - BP
- 35 - L'Oréal
- 38 - Royal Dutch/Shell Group
- 43 - Unilever
- 47 - Vodafone and
- 50 - GlaxoSmithKline
.Only two European companies topped their industry groups: Nestlé (Consumer Food Products) and BP (Petroleum Refining). The most admired company in Britain was Tesco, the British retailer. In France, it was Carrefour; in Germany, BMW; in Switzerland, Nestlé; and in Finland, Nokia. Tesco was rated highest worldwide on the industry attribute of 'Quality of products and services'.
Nine attributes are discussed - Innovation, Use of Corporate Assets, Globalness, Quality of Management, Employee Talent, Financial Soundness, Long-term Investment Value, Social Responsibility, and Quality of Products & Services.
Introducing the lists, FORTUNE's Paola Hjelt suggests that the top ranking companies represent 'time-tested, world-class performers that have navigated stormy waters before and are able to exceed expectations in bad times as well as good', adding that US companies would have been buoyed by the changing focus of corruption stories: 'after several years of high-profile scandals in the US... European companies such as Royal Ahold and Parmalat made it clear that questionable accounting is not a uniquely American phenomenon'.
More than 10,000 directors, executives, and managers at 346 companies around the world were surveyed by management consultants the Hay Group. Each respondent was asked to rank the other companies in his or her industry on the nine attributes, and the average of those scores was used to compile the industry and country lists. Respondents were also asked to rank their top ten companies across all industries.
Founded in 1930, FORTUNE has grown to a worldwide circulation of over one million and a readership in excess of five million.
All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.
