America’s Most Admired Companies 2008: Top 20
What do you think of the corporations on Fortune’s top 20 Most Admired Companies list? Should they be in the top 20? Have you worked for any of the companies, or bought their products or services? What makes a company admirable - social responsibility, excellent talent, sharp marketing, smart managers, or just plain profits? What companies do you admire most? Tell us what you think. The best replies will be published here, and possibly in a future story on CNNMoney.com.
SYMANTEC is missing!
Why?
Because we secure your data, keep your IT systems up and running.
And I am only 1 of 18.000 people who protect YOU, every second.
Regards from Munich in good old Germany.
A Symantec Employee
Guido
BMW is becoming complacent in it’s attitude toward customers thinking that if they continue to build people will come. Not the case, try calling customer service in New Jersey sometime and you get answers to problems with each dealership is independently owned and operated and that BMW really has no hammer over them to perform. BMW of New London for example is probably the most independent minded that I have dealt with and they tout their Strategic Vision is if it were a gold badge and people should not question their practices. BMW needs to get hold or people will bring their business elsewhere. They are great cars but not at the expense of being treated to a substandard degree by dealerships.
Has anyone ever looked at the Perrigo Company? They are the leading producers of OTC medications and are global. Regardless of the state of the economy people will always buy their products. Take a look….see for yourself.
To see BMW listed as one of the most admired companies, especially in the area of People Management and Quality of Managment, clearly illustrates how perception is all that matters. I worked for BMW for over 6 years and even spent 18 months working on assignment at the R&D Headquarters in Munich. Based on my experience BMW is a great company provided that you meet one key requirement, that requirement being that you are German or have a German parent.
I was a little surprised to not see The Home Depot in the “least” categories, especially for people management. They have a bad reputation in Atlanta.
Always admired GE,but,no more.Hear their stock is dropping like a rock since Americans have learned of their doing bus. with Iran.The fact that you list them in your top 20,says a lot about you.Also,how many of these have exported jobs from America?We’d all like to know.Thanks.
UPS does not exist in this list is exactly as what i expected as they are terrible in Vietnam market and this was the reason for them do not emerge on this most admired companies list in the last 2years.
Cheers
After leaving UPS and looking over this list of America’s Most Admired companies, if this list is accurate, I really feel sorry for the individuals that company did not make the list.
Safeway should be ranked one of the WORST companies to work for! I ought to know I have been there 7 years, just this week. If the company was sound then why is it discussing layoffs? Each week more memos come in about how to march rank and file to Steve Byrd’s disasterous leadership. The Executives in Pleasanton spend more time patting themselves on the back about being in HR Magazine and donating to the special olympics than trying to maintain its workforce. I don’t think the executives at Safeway HQ are at all in touch with their stores.
Indeed these are amongst the most admired companies overall. One that could have been there is Ebay. However due to it’s increasingly willingness to self implode, I see why they did not make the top 20. The chaos that is unfolding within it’s confines are truly news worthy. CNN should take a look into the deep regions of the ebay blogs and community to get a glimpse of what’s going on and bring it to light?
I work for the IKAN CORPORATION in Houston Texas. We sell video products including monitors, lighting, teleprompters. The first words spoken to me from the owner KAN YEUNG during my first interview, were. “Family is the most important thing in life. If you want a day off to go on a field trip with your kids or just want a day off to be with them. Take it, just let me know. The company will do okay” He lets us continue to free lance work so that we can make even more money. In over 40 years of working I have never met a nicer person and a nicer company owner. He never is angry at anyone. We are a small company of 12 employees.
bonjour de France
désolé de vos choix mais je trouve que les entreprises qui fabriquent des choses universelles avec de vraies valeurs ne sont pas assez représentées
exemple 3m boeing welch allyn etc…
Banks,financials and industries independently from the sector with many debts in this list are damned.
Thanks.
If UPS hired donkeys to work on the preload, they would be charged with animal cruelty. The union/manager working environment is always confrontational and we can never work hard enough. There is never recognition for attendance,safety or production goals and safety issues are a daily occurrance. Oh! and dont forget that whole 10 minute morning break we get after working in 90 degree heat in a non-temperature controlled hub, unless you are a supervisor that smokes. Then you can take as long and as many smoke breaks as you wish then come back and hide in your air-conditioned office. But when friday comes I pick up my 17 hour paycheck and go buy a happy meal.
FedEx cuts costs off the backs of its employees. They won’t pay a living wage to there employees. There game is constant changing of policies & rules this way the employee never qualifies for anything. They are just another Walmart want a be.
On the surface, Travelers Insurance appears to give a wonderful persona of great personal responsibility with a committment not only to their customers but also to their employees. But dig down deeper, and they play a mean and nasty game with their employees. They shower them with impossible goals to reach for the mere reason of trying to force them to quit in order not to pay compensatory severence, when the going isn’t so good in a particular area - they strip them of their self esteem, dignity and all that these people had worked so hard for, after having previously received recognition for their hard work, dedication and committment to Travelers. But they no longer serve Travelers needs - we are not talking older folks that are being forced out to retirement, these are young, dedicated, hard working individuals that are being stripped of all that they committed to this corporate giant that doesn’t really do what they try to get us to believe about how wonderful they are, a great and caring company. It is nothing more than mental and physical torture of what they are doing to their employees that will take years for them to recover from, once Travelers finally gives them that final walk out the door. My heart goes out to all of these people that are having their lives ruined by Travelers Insurance Company and I hope someone finally realizes how bad it is and bands all of these wonderful people together to get the truth out about Travelers for what they really are - a truly heartless and unethical employeer. This may not be widespread through the company, but it sure is happening to many of these folks in Florida.
Some of the companies on the list deserve to be here…Microsoft revolutionized the PC, Starbucks created cool shops to drink coffee with an inviting atmosphere and BMW has produced cars that noone has been able to duplicate….the 3 series has been produced for over 25 years and no other manufacturer has been able to duplicate it.
This goes against popular opinion but, I would not put Toyota on this list. Toyota has been reaped huge rewards by having a favorable enchange rate, a government that is very supportive (Jim Press just admitted that the Japanese Government developed the Hybrid technology that Toyota took credit for) and by a perfect negative storm against US automakers. After all of this, it should be the largest car company in the world but, it had a ton of help getting there.
I think that GE should be number one for there innovations in trying to make the world a better place to live. I haven’t seen the management slipping either. If it is, then they will come up with a way to regain that leadership position.
I was looking through the top 20 most admired companies and thought it was ironic that earlier today I read this article about FedEx. After reading the article, I think FedEx is another Wal-Mart, who cuts costs at the expense of your employees, which is by no means admirable. Please read the story below and be a judge for yourself.
I don’t agree. I purchased a “certified used” toyota camry about 3 years ago. Needless to say my transmission went out recently at a cost of $2000.00. I wrote the company about my complaint and received a check with your dealership. I had always heard toyota was the best, well my next car WILL NOT BE A TOYOTA.
General Electric is by far the #1 Corp: Safety, Growth, Income, and it owns “everything!” Stay with it..over time it will be the locomotive, as always!
I heartily agree with the choice of Procter and Gamble from both intellectual and emotional perspectives. It shines like supernova of quality, reliabilty and excellence in the business universe. My dad and two uncles started working for P&G in 1920’s and retired in the 1970’s. Their loyalty to and love of the company was unshakeable. My mom, until her death in 2003, was always overjoyed when she received the basket full of goodies that Procter and Gamble sent at Christmas time. They’ve never missed in my 68 years on this planet and I believe they never will. I loved the basket too but I was even more impressed by the message it conveyed about the sincerity, humanity and integrity of this stellar company. My grandchildren will certainly be similarly enthralled when Grampy pesents them with their DRIP accountapproximately 100 years after my dad started.
I had applied and interviewed for a job at Goldman Sachs in the Dec. 2007 and Jan. 2008 timeframe. Granted, it was a contract position. The recruiter so much as told me I had the job. Then it all went South. Goldman’s outsourced HR firm stopped talking. After nearly 3 months of waiting, the recruiter finally told me that the job was, in all likelihood, never going to be filled. I was dumbfounded that a company with the stellar reputation of Goldman Sachs would act as heartlessly as they did in my situation. This doesn’t even take into account that the department I interviewed with was down 3 FTEs out of 5; those positions will go begging. My sympathy to the 2 that are doing the work that 5 had done at the beginning of 2007. Great place to work? I’m not so sure.
I don’t agree with your choice of JNJ as an admirable company. My husband took 3 tablets of Levaquin as directed by his urologist in October 2007. On the third day, both of his achilles tendons ruptured. He was confined to a wheelchair after surgery for six weeks. When we requested financial assistance from JNJ the response was that they warn about possible tendon ruptures in the PDR. It is in the PDR. It is buried in the fine print on page 2361, the third page of the Levaquin description.
We borrowed money from a friend to pay routine bills during that two month period. This is not ethical behavior from a top ten admirable company.
In mid December 2007, I interviewed for an IT position at Goldman Sachs. At the time of the interview, it was apparent that the current employees were overworked/understaffed. I interviewed for the open position and was received positively. Then, the dance began. Long story short: the position was no longer available. This, after 2.5 months and after Goldman did very well on earnings and had offered millions to women hoping to become successful in financial careers. Thanks, Goldman Sachs, for wasting 2.5 months of my job searching efforts.
J&J may be a great company to turn a profit and produce quality family products, but behind the scenes it is anything but “Family Oriented”. More a like a soap opera. It would be pretty revealing if someone were to truely report what happens behind the scenes at some of these major corporations gatherings.
Try being a supplier to Toyota. Read the Toyota Way and you find out that it is alright to abuse suppliers. They are very good at using their position and making everyone jump through hoops - their employees love it because they have a job for life as long as they don’t make waves and follow the process and every month they get a refresher course to make sure. When they have no one left to copy then it will become a different story. It was GM and Ford that dropped the ball on Hybrids and Toyota picked it up. Its all about setting expectations and in many ways they set it low to make sure they always pass with boring reliable cars. But when you have all the money you can afford to wait for everyone else to fail.
I can’t possibly understand why Johnson and Johnson would be anywhere on this list, having been the horrible congolmerate who constantly sues the red cross.
What does Fortune look at to base companies in catagories? For example, industry.
Proctor and Gamble continues to do cruel testing on animals, claiming it’s done as a last resort. They also claim the animals receive the best care at the testing facilities. How is it a last resort, when MANY other companies have found other ways to test products without using animals? Also, how is cutting a dog’s vocal cords so they can’t bark or whine, because the so called vet was irritated by their cries for attention considered care? Not only are they LYING to their consumers, but they have a clear lack of compassion for much loved animals! Britain has banned products that have been tested on animals. America should follow suit, but we all know that won’t happen under George Bush’s reign of terror. This Country has clearly lost many of it’s values when a EVIL company like Proctor and Gamble is praised!
Medco should not be on any list except one that says biggest rip-off. The company I work for, Duke Energy, ‘bundled’ our prescription program into our medical benefits and chose Medco. Employee and after employee has decided it’s cheaper to go to WalMart, Kroger, etc. to get their prescriptions and pay for them out of pocket, rather than go through Medco - they tell the doctor’s what prescriptions they can prescribe, they tell the employees what we need or don’t need and they are hateful people to deal with.
I don’t understand why Microsoft would ever be an admired company.
That’s all I have to say.
I’m not sure how Fortune does arithmetic but the top 20 list isn’t supported by the scores. My fifth grader figured that out.
I used to work for the best company for 12 years.company with excellent benefits,good pay and respect for your employees.that company is costco wholesale and I’m wating for then to re-hired me,for costco is one of the top five
I was a 20 year kid when I started working for Costco. Almost instantly I was looked at as a celebrity in the town I worked. People would stop me on the street and ask me about Costco and tell me about their love of the store. In the eight years I worked there I was wa paid well and given full time employment. I worked in the regional office and learned more about the company then I ever thought I would. I know that they are not perfect and have some improvements to make but they do a good job taking care of their employees despite pressure from Wall Street to limit their compensation. I personally met the CEO. I bought in the company philosphy that the member comes first and I felt good about making sacrifices for company (like time away from my family and not getting everything to make my work life better). Costco is truely an innovative business model that could treat their employees a lot worse but they don’t because they chose not to. Needless to say I drank the Kool-Aid and 4 years away from the company I still shop there every week just to remember how it tastes. If Costco doesn’t deserve to be there no company does.
I have owned GE stock and sold it recently. For 2 reasons: 1, they trade with Iran 2, Mr Imelt along with other ceo’s makes way too much money for what he does. It seems to me all the rankings are too high. The stock goes nowhere, reflecting the market view.
It is funny how many people in America worship a company that has been the prime reason for Detroit’s job problems. I hope the Japanese are so gracious if we are ever allowed to put a company in their country that does this same kind of damage.
Apple admired ?
They have had a great quarter but have not kept their promise on products (yet - and we will see) and have a lackluster year ahead.
Asking “experts” in the industry? This is why I think picking Apple is bogus. They should make a clause when asking the experts ‘that they or their company, in no way, accepts gifts from, or advertisement revenue from APPLE!’
The game is basically rigged by Apple bribing “the experts” in this category.
Regarding FedEx’s “environmental friendlyness:”
See Wesner v FedEx Ground/Fred Lukachinsky (in Western District court of PA) where VP Lukachinsky admits in depositins that he wrote notes to Wesner stating “All environmental whakos whould be banished to a part of the earth that only a nuclear missle could hit.” He still works for them
It’s great to see Textron in the number 1 spot for aerospace/defense. Great year in 2007 and deserve the title.
It seems like anything with a title containing “top 10″ or “top 20″ or “five things you need to know — so buy this magazine or face the consequences!” is all the editors look for these days.
I normally make a point of reading Fortune when it comes to these sorts of analysis pieces that require deep resources and significant research efforts, but in this piece, apparently sourced from CNNMoney, I think Fortune has put out some woefully second-rate material which is bordering on laughably thin verbiage.
I don’t anticipate Forbes or CNNMoney.com wanting to “publish” my comment — I think it’s a tawdry attempt to illicit praise that there’s any mention of fame and Fortune for someone will to pen the best fan mail. Good grief.
As for the information in the article, perhaps I should balance my criticism by noting that I tend to agree with the criteria, though the definitions tended to slip and morph from one company to the next. Still, I’d like to think I’m one of thousands of small business owners looking to the success of household name and world leading companies for clues towards improving my business, being a better employer and a better business partner as well as holding my customer ever more jealously as the USA and the world begins the slow and painful work to recover from the disastrous wake of George Bush, Dick Cheney and their henchmen.
Adam
As a proud employee of Toyota, I was extremely excited to see that we ranked #5. That is until I read Fortunes article regarding Toyota. It is sad to see that Fortune focused on al of the negatives (3 executives leaving, NASCAR failure, etc) and not on the extreme positives and strides Toyota has made in North America and the world. With all the negativity we see in the press on a daily basis due to the diminishing economy, it would have been nice to see you focus on the good. Just to name a few: Toyota’s expansion of new plants in North America, Toyota’s commitment to being “green”, Toyota’s amazing benefits that they offer offer to all of their employees, Toyota’s commitment to the communities that they are in, Toyota’s focus on continuos improvement or kaizen and the Toyota Production System. I would like to suggest Fortune spends a little more time doing research on a company that is such a wonderful place to work and really focus on why they are admired.
I love how Fortune posts random lists like this, but in order to get to the methodology they want to charge you $10,000 per industry. Talk about journalistic integrity. (EDITOR’S NOTE: The methodology is here: http://money.cnn.com/.element/ssi/sections/mag/fortune/mostadmired/2008/box_how.popup.html)
You said Toyota has been embarassed in the first season of NASCAR racing but last night Kyle Busch won a Sprint Cup event. With over 15 top 10 finishes, I wouldn’t call it an embarassment.
Apple certainly deserves the top spot. the innovative, reliability and beauty of the products they manufacture will take us into the future. that is if we can afford their products with gas going to $6/gallon.
Costco? Possibly if you are an actual employee, but work for them as a Vendor. Costco Management & Employees treat Vendors like Cr**!
And as a Customer, do you realize how many Vendors they have working in the stores?
IMO, Apple’s single biggest decision that resulted in their current success was to choose UNIX as the basis for their many products. UNIX is the greatest OS of all time. It was UNIX that allowed their PCs to finally be taken seriously (i.e. preemptive multi-user and multi-tasking) and also allow them to “rapidly” port to other hardware (i.e. PowerPC, intel, ARM,etc). UNIX RULES !!!
I think the only good share is GE.The other are too expencive considering their prices.
Thanks.
Apple rips off it’s own customers by having a closed system and charging a lot for it. And SW Airlines on the list after flying unsafe planes.
I worked for GE Transportation for 2 years. Worst job I ever had, they talk about the ethics of the company - what a big load of crap. Managers and above are treated ok - they do not really do anything - the front line people have to beg for the basic tools to do the job required of them. I waited 3 weeks for shipping tape to ship the product where it needed to be,I bought my own tape for 3 weeks. I cannot speak for other GE companies, but GE transportation is horrible. I would not reccomend working there to my worst enemy.
I think the best american societies considering the fondametal criteria are GE and Pfizer.Many athor shares are too expencive and destined yo be out of money for long long time.
Thanks.
Funny ! I too observed that though IAC is above google in its industry and has a 8.61 score, and google 8.07 how did google come in top 20 ? It seems there is something flawed with the top 20 concept.
wohoo expedia is in the list now .. i work at expedia and i love it … congrats !
The GE ranking is a joke. Just ask any low to mid-level employee who has actually made a complaint using the company’s vaunted “Integrity” policy, as posted on ge.com. Complaints about EHS, Integrity, etc. don’t get listened to or acted on, and the treatment of the low and mid-level employees is sometimes shameful. They certainly didn’t ask the right people for this survey.
I have worked in management for other retailers, and have been fortunate to join Target 15 months ago. As a member of management I have never enjoyed such a true work/life balance. That was what brought me to Target when I was recruited, and the company has delivered. At the same time I see more customers enjoying their time shopping at Target than at any other retailer. The #12 ranking is an honor, and I suspect we will continue to rise in these rankings.
Having a list such as this without mentioning USAA is absurd. They may be open only to the military and those associated with the military, but their service ranking is consistently number one. Check out jdpower.com under insurance and see for yourself. I have been a customer there for 11 years and now work for them, and I wouldn’t be anywhere else.
I have more respect for Google than I do for Microsoft, but I see evidence of the former’s capitalizing on mediocrity just as the latter has done. Gone are the days of powerful search engines like the World Wide Web Worm (WWWW) that accepted Perl regular expressions. The Internet has been dumbed down to the LCD and is the worse for it.
J&J owns McNeil which makes the potentially carcinogenic and undeniably dusgusting Spleccchhhhda. WaMu is a usurer just like Providian, only more subtle. Apple, via their iPod, is an enforcer of the RIAA ripoff and has their docking software vaporize any music that isn’t on your new PC when the old one dies.
Why would I put any credence in a conservative capitalist rag like Fortune anyway?
Those complaining about Apple and Microsoft - you must not have worked on computers when they required punch cards and knowledge in applied mathmatics. I admire those companies for bringing PCs to the masses and maneuvering the incredibly difficult ecosystem (think about all the parts that need to work together). Bravo to Bill & Melinda for using their wealth to help eradicate global illnesses we no longer see in the US. But my vote goes to American Express. Before CEO Chenault, Amex was a stuffy-only-for-rich credit company and his innovation breathed new life into the company. That Chenault was Exec of Year for Black Enterprise is even more to toast!
Why don’t you go ans ask the people that do the real work. SWA has some of the lowest salaries in the industry. They expect you to do the work of 4 or 5 people and work 10 to 12 hours a day. When you need off for a doctors appointment or so forth you have to take vacation. It’s ok to work all those hours.
You see the Servant Leaders going to play golf during company time or traveling to out of state to play gold on Must ride tickets but if the average employee wants to go they must take vacation time and travel as Standy By passengers.
They promote there leaders and then the next thing you know those leaders are promoting there friends. What happened to promoting individuals for there abilities and not friendship.
Southwest Airlines is not the way that it presents it self
CNN as our Government is totally out of touch with the REAL NEWS.We have become a Distributor Nation. 65,000 jobs lost in Feb and Bushmeister says the economy will rebound after everyone receives their $600 check. Starbucks does not support the war and neither do I–but why not send some help to the poor soldiers there who are trying to do the right thing. Starbucks is an arogant company that has no place on any list but perhaps convenient apathy
I noticed cnnmoney only talks about public companies.
These are all public companies.
What about Trader Joe’s!
It’s pretty entertaining to read some of the statements that are somewhat in the dark about the research on Starbucks in this column. I’m sure that there’s an impressive stigma associated with the firm that as it has a strong corporate base, that it MUST be evil. The question then to ask is, have any of you really done your homework before bashing the firm?
I am by no means a supporter of unethical corporate enterprise, irresponsible corporate enterprise, and I am by no means a sympathizer to a great many of the so called “most admired” firms on this list. To establish myself, forgive me for not buying in to the insider voting of what a small number of privileged executives and owners decided were stellar models for their own endeavors to strive towards matching. But when it comes to two names there, Starbucks and Johnson & Johnson, I have to say that the fact they were selected is indeed at least hopeful for the status of corporate morality. For those unaware, Starbucks has made grand strides in the fields of climate defense and social work in developing nations. The firm is supported by the African Wildlife Fund, SaveTheChildren.org, and MercyCorps for their support of the communities chiefly responsible for growing the coffee used in your morning brew. In fact, a large portion of Starbucks’ profits are indeed used to stimulate education, development, and ecological protection within those areas.
In addition, Starbucks maintains several rather impressive programs within the firm itself for local community support as well. For example, the “Make Your Mark” program. For every hour a partner (employee), or customer of the firm spends in volunteer work, Starbucks donates a total of $10.00 to designated NPOs, up to a grand total of $1,000.00. The firm also matches, again up to a $1,000 limit, any contributions to charity that a partner of the company makes. Add to this the C.U.P. fund the company has in place, their Executive Community Leadership program, and the Starbucks Foundation and you have a very socially minded as well as financially strong company.
I’m not saying go out and ravenously support your local store, since it’s obviously a matter of personal preference. But, what I AM saying is that merely because a company is strong in influence and reach does not mean that they’re in any way a blight to the community. If you’re going to point fingers at anyone for being destructive to not only the environment but the people who work for them, the people who purchase from them, and the people indirectly affected by them then save it for those that you know, or show to deserve it. I’m looking at YOU Halliburton, GSG, and Wal-Mart.
With the large number of “Cast Members” fleeing from Disney ship, their reputation for managing talent is vastly over-rated. The reality inside is not a pretty one, many of us can attest to this. Hopefully, Iger can shift the stagnant and restrictive culture. They are well known locally for their extrememly tight promotion, raise and bonus structure, which is more political and attrition based, not results based. They try to keep their people with smoke, mirrors and trinkets that they couldn’t sell.
Definitely not Microsoft. Their software still doesn’t work after all these years. How about Gates giving money back to company to actually make his product work?
Tried to do business with WaMu and I’ve never had a more frustrating experience. They are the polar opposite of a customer-focused company.
Target? Ask the people who try and do the real work and see if the outcome’s the same?
To JM near the beginning of this list, I’m not sure what department you work in but from many people I’ve spoken with, and the department I’m in, there are not many happy “team members.” The last few years the Best Team Survey’s have gotten worse and worse. In all the companies I’ve worked for in the past, all of them combined have never had the amount of turnover Target has. The only reason the company can still find people to hire is because when those people hear what the company is like to work for, it sounds so ridiculous they can’t believe it. Those that do still work here at HQ are either looking for a way out, on anti-depressents or the very few who have been sucked into the bs of this company. The total lack of valuing dedicated, productive, hard working individuals who actaully want to contribute is unbeleivable. I’ve never known a company that awards people who schedule way too many absolutely worthless meetings, “coffees,” and “statuses” and waste more time creating ridiculous processes and spreadsheets quite like Target does. Half the workforce could be cut and it would operate fine if the company would just open up their eyes and start recognizing and strive to retain the “team members” who are actually busting their butts on real innovative, creative and productive work and products. If Target starts losing key vendors, the company is going to be hurting because a large percentage of what’s in the store is only there because the vendors came up with the product.
Target, look at the talent you have, it’s there, start recognizing it and it will make the company truly worthy of the Top 20.
Having worked at WaMu for many years I can say that the climate there has deteriorated steadily for the last 24 months making it a depressing work environment.
P&G — personally worked for Gillette 8 years +1 unfortunate year in P&G after the acquisition. The company is great in building brands and making employees unhappy. Good to start as a novice and then — run, run,run — or you will become brain-washed, arrogant, unable to learn and deprived of drive for result. Regarding the shareholders value — tell it to Gillette shareholders: market leader and innovator became part of the company that after acquisition performs lower than DJIA. Not worth an admiration at all.
I don’t think SW Airlines is so deserving of their spot after the whistle blew on their lack of safety inspections….
JCPenney comes across as a “Family” first kind of Company.
When in reality, alot of their faithful, long-time, exemplary workers have gone OVER 5 years without a raise. Pitiful…….what happened to cost of living, and being rewarded for a job well done. JCPenney does NOT believe in ANY of this, don’t let them fool you.
My son worked for FedEx. He worked out on the “ramp” loading and unloading planes in all kinds of weather. Freezing cold, sweltering heat, rain, snow, etc. He had to drive 1/2 hr. each way for a 3-hr. shift; ridiculous. Oh, and while he and his co-workers were doing all the physical labor, busting their butts, the execs were getting the millions in pay and bonuses. As always, pay your workers peanuts, and sit back in YOUR easy chair and reap YOUR millions. Oh, and don’t take time off for a needed surgery; you’ll be fired, because you’ve gone beyond their irrational and not feesible attendance policy. WHAT A CROCK.
Did Four Seasons Hotels make the list at all this year?
Why not include private companies (i.e., Cargill, PwC, etc.)?
Having worked for a supplier owned by Toyota, I agree with the comment way below, that their treatment of people needs to improve greatly. Especially those who are not Japanese and male. Any wonder why less than 50% of the vehicles in the parking lot were NOT Toyotas. Their turnover rate is exceptionally high as well.
Having worked at United Parcel Service for over 17 years, I will say it is not a place for worker empathy. Stress and injuries are a serious problem. Chronic worker pain is not uncommom. The bottom line has a high priority at United Parcel Service.If it were not for the cosignees and shippers I serve everyday, I would retire.The relationships with the customers are what it is all about, in my humble opinion.
I too admire Apple’s products and its resurgence under Steve Jobs and team. Nevertheless, I dont get how it can be voted most admired company when it has such poor corporate governance/ethics as evidenced by the stock options backdating. Steve Jobs wanted to make sure his team was provided incentive/ well compensated to orchestrate Apple’s resurgence that he threw all known rules/caution to the wind and made his own rules which were border line illegal - making to himself the ends justfies the means Teleological ethical rationalization.
It came as a total shock to me that Intel despite the recent news (not proven/confirmed) that it had a significant role in the ethically questionable “Vista Capable PCs” marketing fiasco during christmas season couple of years ago. And Intel is supposedly really up there when it comes to corporate governance/ethics historically/on paper. So the recent emails from folks at Microsoft as part of a class action law suit they were slapped with about Intel’s role is truly disappointing.
To me Microsoft and Bill Gates have set a really high bar/standard when it comes to corporate governance and ethics. If I remember right they are possibly one of the only rare companies that got scrutiny from the SEC for potentially under reporting revenue numbers and their extra highly conservative accounting practices. Even so, I am disappointed even with their final decision making in the “Vista Capable” marketing program although it seems that they did it to please their PC eco system partners and after the landmark antitrust case have lost their resolve to fight for what they think is the right/just move.
Success always seems to be tainted.
Anheuser-Busch and quality? It’s the worst beer in the world. What rubbish.
These companies are admired because of how much money they make for the investment community, not how much they give to their employees or local communities. While upper management sees their incomes grow in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, the average worker sees little or no wage increase. In fact, they see their jobs being shipped off shore. Still, companies wonder why consumer confidence is so low.
What a bizarre article on Jobs. Personally, he’s a jerk, by all accounts, but so what? He’s taken Apple from death’s door to a huge tech success story, and made his shareholders a mint besides, and yet your reporter complains that he’s “hurt the shareholder.” If Jobs has hurt Apple shareholders, there are a lot of other companies who would love to dole out that much pain. Aside from making money honestly, selling a powerful operating system on elegant hardware that also does Windows, Jobs has given us the iPod and iTunes and much else besides. The stock price has gone from about 25 to over 200 until it “fell” to about 125 in the current stock market turmoil. There are many, many shareholders that would love being hurt that way.
The ’scoop’ about his pancreatic cancer seems to say that he should have asked the shareholders which doctor to go to. He owes us no such thing. Andy Grove doesn’t think so, either, and there is no clear principle that says so. Your reporter seems to have the impression that he is Ahab and Jobs is Moby Dick.
seeing this list and knowing some of these ‘top’ companies they way i do… as an EX-employee…youtr list for Va. is BUNK! freddie and fannie and Accenture are misreable places to ply a trade…ESPECIALLY Accenture…aka EVIL incorporated…if this is your investigative inside reporting, you aer obviously just taking the corprate by line that they feed to the street…Accenters motto was “a great place to work” …we in HR changed it to “Great…a place to work…”
they were doing you a fvor by letting you show up… just my .02
Since only executives, directors, and securities analysts were asked to participate in this survey, Fortune needs to rename this list “Companies Most Admired by the People (Business Executives, Investors and Analysts) Who Make Gobs of Cash Off Them Regardless of How The Companies Actually Treat Their Employees, the Environment or the Consumer or Whether Their Products are Any Good.”
Goldman Sachs is one of America’s most admired companies? By who? Other rich CEO’s who invest with them? What about the 300 million of the rest of us Americans? Goldman Sachs is an evil, profit at all human, ecological, and ethical costs, organization.
One of their most egregious recent investment schemes is to sell investment portfolios dealing with the expansion of privatized tolling of Americas highways and roads at State Capitol buildings across this once great land. In Goldman Sachs dreamworld where everything the middle class does–walk, talk, breathe, eat, and now drive–costs more money than it has to just to line top executives pockets with billions and provide hundreds of $200K mundane paper pusher gofer jobs to cowed workers in dingy basement offices.
Their little toll road scheme involves forcing the vast majority of Americans to pay twice to drive on existing American highways that were already paid for and are currently being maintained with our tax dollars. Under their little toll road scheme, if you, the American public, want new roads and highways you must pay for them with tolls where 40 cents of every dollar you pay goes to corporate profits.
Funny, in our Fathers road building system, 95 cents of every dollar went into the actual building and maintaining of our road system. Goldman Sachs and their worker bee marks who are swarming our state capitols as we speak call it “Innovative Creative Highway Financing”. I call it “Innovative Creative Highway Robbery”.
Tim Horton’s absolutely the best coffee company. Needs to be found in the U.S.A. - they are missing something truly great !
To create the top 20, an overall list of Most Admired Companies, the Hay Group asked 3,721 executives, directors, and securities analysts who had responded to the industry surveys to select the ten companies they admired most.
Ask enough of the wrong people and you’ll eventually get enough wrong answers to support any spin.
Who is UPS admired by? It’s shareholders? The stock has been sitting at the same place since the IPO. It’s employees? They’d get gentler treatment at Guantanamo Bay.
Apple ranks #1 in the computer industry but got praise fot iPod and iTunes, that are hardly believed to be computers. Canon and Xerox make printers, not computers. So they should be considered in the Computer Peripherals business, where EMC ranks #1, but EMC is also the 6th largest computer software vendor…
I work for Corning Inc. in R&D and their people management is very poor. They reward (greatly) those who make the most, but for those of us actually in the lab trying to insure that Corning’s innovations succeed there are only paltry pay raises, no PIP (a large bonus called performace incentive payout)and no chance for advancement.
Have any of you read who was asked to participate in this survey? Not customers, not regular employees but executives, directors, and securities analysts. They admire the companies for how much money they make for them and not how the employees or customers are treated.
I work in Hardware Engineering at “The Most Admired” company. If you work here and don’t have a degree, they treat you like cr*p. The department manager & director rarely show us any appreciation for a job well done. But they always tell us when something goes wrong. Nearly 2 years ago they gave us a survey asking us how we felt about our jobs. It took them a year to provide us the results. The results showed we were dissatisfied with our jobs, the lack of advancement, the compensation and the overall poor treatment we receive. They acknowledged it and promised to make changes. Four months later they said the results were invalid because not enough people responded to it and was therefore discarded. The survey was never mentioned again nor were we ever offered to retake it.
Last year the company gave us a communication device which was, at that time, cool of them to do. Since it was valued at $599, it required us to pay ~$175 in taxes. Not all of us wanted a phone that required a 2-year contract & a $60 a month service plan. So we tried to sell it. But 2 months later when the phone price dropped to $399, we still owed taxes on the original amount. Nice huh? On top of that, If we were to activate the phone, the company would get $6 every month. What kind of company makes their own employees pay for something they don’t want, devalue it by 33% and then try to make money from them?
I was jaded when I first started working here. But like in the Wizard Of Oz, after I threw back the curtains and saw what really happened, I was very disappointed. Whenever I mention the company I work for and see peoples eyes light up, I can’t help to feel how foolish they are and how foolish I once was.
I bet if you ranked the top 20 most despised companies that Microsoft would make that list too! Getting to the top by steeling competitor innovations, giving them new names and claiming them for Microsoft is not admirable. Scaring users from using competitive software while continuing to sell the same users buggy software is not admirable. A company which is constantly sued here and abroad for antitrust and unethical business practices is not admirable.
Just reading the thoughts of the Apple converts sort of makes me chuckle. How incredibly blind some people are.
I think Apple does deserve the number 1 position because they have sold themselves to these people and so many others. I still find it amazing how many Apple computers I end up fixing compared to PCs for friends and family. In general and in all honesty I find Mac users inept - even some of those in comparable positions.
Apple is a design house. They have slick looks but you pay for them. If I were to suggest to you go out and buy a PC that normally costs $600 for $1800 you would laugh at me. That’s a Mac. The difference? Apple has been very smart about their marketing and has included all the slick little things. Is it worth three times the price? To many apparently it is, but those same people would complain about that on a PC. The “look at me” style factor alone is worth it to many though.
The problem is at the core Apple (and Microsoft for that matter) is not an admirable company in many other ways. They have some of the most restrictive licensing you can find. Their security patching is among the worst of the worst; but of course users do not know that because Apple has not yet become a target. If I was a hacker, they would be. A group of people with too much money, no concept of security, in general a better then you mentality and no idea of how vulnerable they are to me smells like easy pickings.
Have admired Apple computer since I first was told to Learn It now……back in 1987-88. Worked at Price Waterhouse and their new IT group had Macs, and soon all of us did.
I taunt my friends and family about my Mac…..and even my nephew who is doing great at CISCO…has purchased the Apple product, the best they have to offer. He is close to genius…..
Love my Imac and hope this computer will be the computer of the future, and Steve Jobs has started and will finish the finest the computer business will ever see. Kudos to him and to you for recognizing GREATNESS!
I have been using Apple Computers since 1983 with a Centris 550, then moved to an iMac G3, an iBook G4 and
finally a Macbook to finish my home network. They all are running OS X perfectly and are as easy to use as when they came out of the box. Kudos to Steve Jobs!!
Aetna is a true innovator in the area of transparency (disclosure) of data to their clients and should be commended for their practice.
I am currenly assigned at GE on a one year contract. I am happy with the workplace here. It has been awesome, but only one year.
Apple should not be #1. Their future is bleak. competitors will chip away at market share for the iPhone and iPod. They are losing $350 million USD yearly for all of the “lost” unlocked iPhones. Bad choice for #1.
IBM should be in the top 5 on this list. You have to be nuts not to place them on this list.
Toyota has a lock on my consumer loyalty and respect. After 1 Corolla and 6 Camry’s I am now driving my first Lexus and hate getting out of the car. I would live in it if I could. I have NEVER experienced one problem with my cars and all I’ve had to do is routine maintenance. I drive 15,000 miles a year and have long hours dealing with snow, ice, etc. My cars have always gotten me home. Oh what a feeling…
Apple is innovative however that is not carte blanche to poor customer service. Their store help is becoming more obnoxious by the day with poor attitudes as if they don’t need the business. Careful Apple, don’t get too big for your britches and forget when you are the top you have nowhere to go but down unless you work hard at it in all fronts!
YRCW being ranked anywhere on this list is a joke. Management is running the company into the ground and is destroying their “financial soundness” in the process.
Who could the competition have been for this award?? PJAX??
I have put some serious air miles on the old keyster this past year and want to say Southwest is my ride of choice. On time, affordable (they don’t gouge you), and generally a safe bet. The others tend to treat me like they treat their employees - with contempt.
I work for GE overseas and am not surprised they are right up their - Probably the most socially responsible company in the world , they treat their employees fantastically, they do run programs like ecomagination for profit - and thats the point if doing the right thing is profitable then it will work - and they are the most highly focused company i have seen on integrity and honesty and great management and people developement - Oh and fantastic products
I would love to see your evaluation process, when UPS shows as Number 1 in their Industry segement, but scores lower than FEDEX overall….makes no sense to me. But you guys are the experts, I’m just the consumer who uses these services…..
Apple does in fact rank #1 in the computer business. Whether you agree or disagree whether some of their products are pure internal Apple innovations, they have packaged and brought those products to market and impacted the market. As a business person, having ideas is one thing, bringing them to market is what separates the men from the boys so to speak.
They have continued to develop and refine their computer hardware and operating system products. As products, people still buy them and more people are choosing the Apple platform over Windows based systems.
The I-pod and I-tunes has assumed the dominate role in the portable music space. The recent rankings show I-Tunes as the #2 music retailer behind Wal-Mart.
The I-phone has captured people’s interest and whether it is right for you or not in its first incarnation. The idea of a software driven mobile communication / application device has caught the market and will lead to new devices not only from Apple, but others.
The Apple retail store is the first successful implementation of the computer manufacturer owning the customer retail point of sale experience. Others tried it and failed. Apple made it happen and work.
How can you rank Fedex above UPS when UPS is overall ranked higher? This doesn’t make sense to the common person!
Apple is the most innovative company I know and they continue to deliver what the customer wants.
Apple has renewed my faith, that in the large corporate world it is still possible to do what you advertise, and genuinely care about a customer beyond the credit card processing.
After fifteen years of being what I call a “forced PC mechanic”, I finally got smart enough to give a Mac a try. From the first use of this new iMac, I have become a “Mac Switcher” and now, for the first time ever, I find my computer working for ME, not me working for my computer.
And the fact that it “just works” is surprisingly just where the experience begins. Since my purchase last November, Apple has reached out to me with full-blown, professionally produced, video tutorials on how to use and get more use out of the machine itself, the very functional and solid software that is included as well as software that I’ve added on and software that I’m thinking of purchasing. The cost? Nothing. “Just want to make sure you’re getting all you can out of your new iMac, Steve.
Let’s compare that to all of the similar streaming productions and tutorials that I NEVER got while using PC’s, shall we?
I own a small company with a fairly strong dependance on a network and IT sector. I have ordered my computer gurus to take a wrecking ball to our old system of patches, add-ons and endless bloating, and change it all over to Apple solutions.
With each step forward, our system is changing from a source of constant problems into a source of constant solutions.
My biggest problem right now is trying to forget about all of the money, time, frustration and personnel we’ve invested into a Windows-based black hole over the years.
And now Gates wants to spend all his time and winnings on charitable endeavors and social ills. Well, all I can say is, he damned well better.
Is this America’s most admired companies or Most Admired American companies? If it is the latter, then toyota should not be included on the list. They are a japanese company, not an American company.
Proctor and Gamble not only refuses to stop testing NEW products on animals, they continue needless animal testing on products that have been on the market for years. They do it to protect themselves from consumer lawsuits. So they can say “Aha, we know you couldn’t have suffered any damage to your eye by getting some Crest toothpaste in it, because we had to put 49 (or whatever) drops of Crest into the eye of a rabbit before it ate a hole in it’s eye.”
The ads for the IPhone made it irresistible to me. I made the plunge in December ‘07. The innovative features and fun impressed me greatly. It cost a lot but I have told friends it was worth every penny. Because of the quality, dependability and fun of the Iphone, my wife and I ended up buying two Apple computers within 60 days of the Iphone purchase. Neither of us had owned an Apple before. We LOVE them.
Seeing Medco in the Top 10 on the scale, can only be due to one thing - you pay a premium for coverage, only to find out that your medication is not on their “hard formulary.” It should be the doctor, not the insurance provider who decides which medication you need to keep your quality of life.
Most pharmacies will not participate with Medco because of their very low reimbursement rates. Most consumers who have no choice other than Medco (because it comes bundled with your medical insurance) are finding that with the outrageous prices some of the major drug companies are charging for meds that have gone generic, it comes down to a matter of whether or not to feed your family, gas your car or buy your necessary medication.
As for being applauded by leading the push to generic, that accolade is appalling. Generics are not held to the same standards as name brand medications. Government standards for generics are not the same compared to name brand meds. Generics have a 15% leeway with the amount of the actual medication in each dose. Name brand meds can only vary by 3 %. Generics are less expensive for a reason - they use less expensive binders in the formulation of your medication.
Some drugs work just as well in their generic version, while others are the equivalent of taking a placebo.
Medco is making money by charging for a service that doesn’t deliver. Why praise that type of company? It’s totally undeserved.
Why would I admire a company? It seems very strange to be empathetic to an organization who’s purpose it to create wealth solely for its employees and shareholders.
I admire people, not companies. Companies will survive and compete without my adulation.
We LUV Southwest Airlines!!
I can’t wait until they one day fly international! Keep up the good work SWA! You’re the BEST!
I recently purchased my first laptop for college and made the transition from PC to apple and it was for the better. I bought my Macbook Pro 10 days before the new Macbook Pro came out and at first was angry because they didn’t tell me. They explained that they did not know, and I could return my old for the new and that they would wave the re-stock fee. I am very pleased with apple and I am glad they are number one.
Amazing, Apple has a small piece of the PC market at about 5 percent. They are good at using others technological developments, paying royalties on them. I love my IBM and Windows OS. Enjoy your overhyped and overpriced hardware. Enough said
MY IMAC HAS BEEN JUST GREAT. I COULD NOT ASK FOR BETTER. USE A PC AT WORK AND MAC AT HOME.
i have only owned macs from day one,and have never been sorry, we now have 6 mac book pros in our family and love them all!!
How does Google get ranked in the top 20 list and IAC doesn’t when IAC is ranked higher than Google in the Internet Services and Retailing Sector?
Even with innovation being an 8, Northwestern Mutual has stood the test of time and has led their respective industry for 25 years in a row. For a company to be honored that way in an industry with a lot of turmoil, it has to say that Northwestern Mutual has the staying power and courage to stand by their convictions of putting policy owners first rather than developing du jour products that don’t fit the long term picture.
I was disappointed to see Procter & Gamble amongst the most admired companies of 2008. P&G continues to test on animals, despite there being no legal requirements to do so, and in opposition to repeated demands from consumers, requests from its own shareholders, and ever-increasing public pressure. Non-animal tests such as cell cultures, corneal and skin tissue cultures, and sophisticated computer and mathematical models are more reliable and less expensive. Yet, P&G persists in performing cruel and unnecessary animal testing, which involves burning, blinding, poisoning, and killing tens of thousands of fully conscious animals each and every year. How is this admirable?
I am actually not all that surprised with the results. Apple has always been the better company it just took a while for people to see it. Google also deserves their high ranking for being the frame of the internet.
Can not believe Microsoft made it. Lousy operating system. I ditched MS two years ago for a Mac computer. No turning back. I am very pleased with with Apple.
Target and Costco? I guess retailing is really in a slump. Its admired, guys. These two don’t don’t exactly roll off the tongue.
I am happily now merely a SHAREHOLDER of Goldman Sachs and no longer an employee … admiration comes in many forms, and I am thrilled to say I too benefited from the fact that the partners decided to monetize 125 years of value creation in their 1999 IPO (which netted so many $100MM+ fortunes that few pre-IPO partners are left). The firm’s culture since the IPO, however, has evolved to something unrecognizable to those of us who saw before and after.
The ruthlessness that used to be saved for its competitors is now thrust upon its own employees — it’s become a place where “throwing someone under the bus” is not just accepted but rewarded with prestige, compensation and title.
Teamwork does not exist in the way it did before the FICC coup d’etat occurred sometime after the tech bubble burst. Those guys were shown the abyss and clawed their way back to power, so they’ve made those sissy bankers and wussy equity guys pay and pay dearly.
Admire them for their ability to squeeze ever more out of employees and for finding new and better ways to rip off customers. ‘cuz that’s what they do best.
Congrats to Apple. I have been an apple user since the mac plus days. I consider Steve Jobs a true innovator. I am glad he went back and rescued his company because finally now others can see what this is all about…fun and ease of use!!
How could have you left Verizon off of this list?
I started with Bell in 1966. They made promises to me with regard to health care and pension promises.
Here it is 2007 and they have kept every last promise. I’m retired now and this company deserves a round of applause. Thank you Verizon. For taking care of your employees.
Fun read. I think though, that NIKE deserves a spot somewhere in the top 20. They own their space, set the marketing and branding bar, sign the top athletes in every major sport, influence fashion trends, and are thought of as a “cool” brand. There have been issues with exploitative foreign labor, but to some degree, the same could probably be said about half of the other companies on the list.
Jones Soda should be #1, they use real sugar and consumer submitted photos for the bottle lables.
As for Apple, the new MAC laptops look/feel like mass produced silver tin cans, compare an HP Pav to a MAC lappy and see for your self. The phones and Ipods are nice, although priced high.
Congratulations Apple Inc. and Walt Disney Company. I recently went to work for them both as a part-time employee. Their training and focus on the customer/guest put them above the rest. We are always reminded the customer/guest experience is the most important role we can take. I have worked for large companies in the past and did not enjoy the experience. At Apple and Disney it is like family. I had enjoyed the products and services of these companies before I went to work for them. Now I am increasingly impressed with their character and dedication to providing quality products and services.
All GE has going for it is history. They aren’t well run at all. They’re an old school corporation that works its employees to death and cares about nothing but the numbers.
The last package I shipped via FedEx is just that - the last package I’ll ship via FedEx. They tried their darnedest to destroy it.
OH YEAH SURE, Apple the most “Admired Company 2008″, that must be why Wall Street buyers said today 3/3/08 - AAPL 118.83 -6.19. A 46% LOSS in value in just TWO MONTHS.
Sounds more like either Apple paid off someone at Fortune and / or all the Apple Kool Aid Drinkers were rallied to stack the vote like they do on polls for “most reliable” (another joke).
After thoughtfully reviewing these lists and how the survey was completed, congratulations to CNN and Fortune for excellent work. I work full-time in technology for a major university and I concur that Apple is tops. Hewlett-Packard is the best across the board for PCs. The worst is Dell–for its lack of quality and poor service.
In my opinion now us is very very high and the fundamentals and technicals make me think there will be a stron but graduall downward trend. The dollar will rebound over €1.50 to the dollar and in the long term will be at €2 to the dollar. FNM FRE LEH MER will create the conditions for this fall, which will see firstly the financial instituions, then the Technology shares and ultimatley the entire economy.