World’s Most Admired Companies 2014
– 13 points –
– 15 points –
– 13 points –
– 11 points –
– 52 (out of 60) –
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points
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- Global, e.g. North America, Europe and Asia (5 points)
- Regional, e.g. Europe or North America (3 points)
- Large national market: e.g. US, China, Japan, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Brazil (2 points)
- Mid-sized or small market, e.g. Switzerland, Netherlands, Argentina, Singapore (1 point)
Ranking will be recognized by key stakeholders:
- Opinion Leaders (Politicians, Professors; NGO’s) (2 points)
- Business Advisory Board, C-Level Executives (CEO, CCO, CFO, CMO) (2 points)
- High Potentials & Top Talents (employer market, students) (2 points)
- Financial Market (2 points)
- General Public (2 points)
Aggregated points: 13 (of max. 15)
- Ranking owner has limited credibility and reputation. (1 point)
- Ranking owner has fair credibility and reputation. (3 points)
- Ranking owner has excellent credibility and reputation. (5 points)
What is the ranking owner’s intention to produce and disseminate the ranking?
- Ranking is predominantly a tool to raise awareness for the owner with the possible intention to sell consultancy services. (1 point)
- Ranking is partly a tool to raise awareness for the owner with the possible intention to sell consultancy services. (3 points)
- Ranking is predominantly a tool to surface and share important insights on the subject surveyed. (5 points)
Comment: HayGroup invests a lot of efforts and money in producing the ranking, but at the same time intends to sell more of their consultancy services via the ranking.
Is/Are the media outlet(s) where the ranking is published of high credibility and reputation?
- Media outlet(s) has/have limited credibility and reputation. (1 point)
- Media outlet(s) has/have fair credibility and reputation. (3 points)
- Media outlet(s) has/have excellent credibility and reputation. (5 points)
Aggregated points: 13 (of max. 15)
- limited orientation only (1 point)
- fair orientation provided (3 points)
- very good orientation (5 points)
Comment: More than 692 companies are rated from 30 countries to create 57 industry lists.
Is the Ranking published in the same format on a regular basis, e.g. annually, which allows to track developments and comparisons over time?
- ranking is published for the first time (1 point)
- ranking is published for the second time in the same format (3 points)
- ranking is published for more than 3 times on a regular basis in the same format (5 points)
Do the ranking results provide added value and further insights on how companies are evaluated in in their industry, e.g. detailed ratings in various sub-dimensions of the overall result?
- limited added value only (1 point)
- fair amount of added value (3 points)
- high amount of added value (5 points)
Comment: Provides results on 9 separate reputation dimensions for each company rated.
Aggregated points: 15 (of max. 15)
- Ranking is based on a jury’s opinion only. (1 point)
- Ranking is based on a small survey or only on a limited group of stakeholders. (3 points)
- Ranking is based on a robust and representative survey. (5 points)
Comment: The ranking reflects the perception of 3.920 executives, directors, and financial analysts from global blue chip companies, which is a large number for not easy to reach groups. Due to the focus on these groups the ranking has a financial bias.
Is the ranking methodology easy to understand and reasonable – even for non-statisticians?
- Methodology not easy to understand and not reasonable. (1 point)
- Methodology fairly good to understand and reasonable. (3 points)
- Methodology very easy to understand and reasonable. (5 points)
Comment: The methodological differences between the All Star ranking and the individual industry rankings are not very clear.
Is the ranking methodology easy to access and transparent?
- Methodology not easy to find and not sufficiently transparent. (1 point)
- Methodology fairly good to find and of medium transparency. (3 points)
- Methodology very easy to find and of high transparency. (5 points)
Aggregated points: 11 (of max. 15)
- Product / Service Brands
- Company Brands
- Corporate Reputation and Company Esteem
- Social Responsibility, CSR & Sustainability, Ethical Business Practices
- Innovation & Technology
- Employer Attractiveness & Diversity
- Leadership
- Nations & Destinations
- University & Other Institutions
- Sports
- Lifestyle
- Social Media
- Personal Branding & CEOs
Ranking statistics
- Name of Ranking: World's Most Admired Companies
- Ranking managed/produced by institute/organization: Hay Group
- Ranking published by media outlet: Fortune
- Date of recent publication: March 12, 2014
- Date of previous publication: February 28, 2013
The ranking “World’s Most Admired Companies”, published by Fortune, reflects the perception of 3.920 executives, directors, and financial analysts from global blue chip companies, who rated their peers on a 10 item scale on nine specific attributes such as “Innovation” or “Social Responsibility.” Due to the respondent groups mentioned above, the ranking has a financial bias. Mid-sized and small companies are not rated.
The ranking comprises 57 different industries lists as well as cross-industry rankings for several countries/regions and globally. The differences in methodology between the two ranking categories – all industry vs. individual industries – is not very easy to follow and leads to sometimes confusing results, e.g. Southwest Airlines ranks No. 9 on the overall list, far ahead of No. 48 Delta. But within the airline category Delta leads the ranking, and Southwest is only the seventh Most Admired Company.
In the 50 All-Stars list Apple, Amazon and Google have defended their top positions from last year, followed by Berkshire Hathaway on No. 4 – which confirms the financial bias mentioned above. Daimler should ask themselves why they are not covered in the Top 50 list, while rivals BMW (No. 14), Toyota (No. 25) and Volkswagen (No. 36) are listed.
With regards to the industry rankings, it is remarkable that Johnson&Johnson, after several years of reputational problems, has returned to the top in the pharma category and that Roche (No. 2) for the first time has surpassed its Swiss rival Novartis (No. 3).
Summarizing, Fortune’s “World’s Most Admired Companies” is a highly valuable tool for managers of large corporations across almost all industries to find out how they are perceived in terms of reputation overall and also in the nine specific reputation dimensions. Results are accessible via the Fortune website. As the ranking has a long history comparisons and developments over time are possible.