Apple has been selected the “World’s Most Admired Company” by Fortune for the sixth time in a row. All the top ten in the list were US based companies.
Fortune Magazine partners with Hay Group to select the most admired from a list of 1,400 companies including 1,000 from the US and almost 500 global companies with revenues more than $10 billion. They sort the companies based on nine parameters. These attributes are innovation, people management, use of corporate assets, social responsibility, quality of management, financial soundness, long-term investment, quality of products/services and global competitiveness. The panel is made up of 3,800 respondents who are asked to select the 10 companies they admire most from a list made up of the companies that ranked in the top 25% in last year’s survey, plus those that finished in the top 20% of their industry.
Apple has been in a rough spot lately. Without major product launches and falling stock price, it was not expected of the company to retain its position. But, conversely, sales of Apple products have never been better with the iPhone 5 being the best selling smartphone. An extremely loyal user base and with $13 billion net income last quarter, Apple remains the most profitable company in the world, reports Fortune. They are also the World’s Most Admired for Innovation.
Internet search giant Google came in second, being the most attractive place to work. Google is set to surpass Apple in OS popularity through Android and Google Play is to have more apps than Apple’s App Store before the end of the year.
The largest online retailer in the world, Amazon came in third. In fourth, came Coca Cola, the most valuable brand globally by Interbrand, a global branding company. With 60 million Facebook “likes”, it is also one of the most popular brands in the world. Ranking industry first in innovation, social responsibility and quality of products/services, the world’s largest coffee chain, Starbucks came in fifth.
In the 6th position was IBM which ranked first in IT services and Southwest Airlines, in 7th, for being “nice” with free re-booking and its “bags fly free” policy.
Warrens Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate employing almost 300,000 and with revenues of more than $140 billion, came first for Insurance, Property and Casualty and overall 8th in the list. Warren has pledged half of his massive wealth to charity.
Number one in entertainment, Walt Disney, the iconic entertainment company came 9th. Disney acquired LucasFilm, owner of the Star Wars franchise, for $4.05 billion in October.
Though hurt by a slow growth in economy, FedEx was in the 10th position with the top place in its industry for quality of management and quality of services.
BMW, at 14th, is the highest ranked non-US company. In the Interbrand list however, Samsung came in the 9th position.
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