"America's Most Admired Companies"

Jerry Useem

Fortune

March 7, 2005, pp. 67-70

Each year, Fortune magazine gives its rankings of America's most admired companies, based on ratings made by 10,000 U.S. and 5,000 worldwide executives, directors, and securities analysts. This year's Top Ten in America were:

1. Dell Computer
2. General Electric
3. Starbucks
4. Wal-Mart Stores
5. Southwest Airlines
6. FedEx
7. Berkshire Hathaway
8. Microsoft
9. Johnson & Johnson
10. Procter & Gamble

Though there are some differences in the order of the top ten from last year, the only "newcomer" to the list is Procter & Gamble, which took over the tenth spot from IBM.

Ratings were also made for companies in the respondents' own industries on social responsibility, innovation, long-term investment value, use of corporate assets, people management, financial soundness, quality of products/services, and quality of management. The high scorers on these criteria were:

• Social responsibility—United Parcel Service, CHS, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners
• Innovation—Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, FedEx, Apple Computer
• Long-term investment value—Berkshire Hathaway, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, CHS
• Use of corporate assets—Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, Berkshire Hathaway, Wal-Mart Stores
• People management—Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, General Electric, American Express
• Financial soundness—Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, Intel, Exxon Mobil
• Quality of products/services—Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, FedEx, American Express
• Quality of management—Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, Altria Group, Berkshire Hathaway

The top ten admired companies around the world were

1. General Electric
2. Wal-Mart Stores
3. Dell Computer
4. Microsoft
5. Toyota Motor
6. Procter & Gamble
7. Johnson & Johnson
8. FedEx
9. IBM
10. Berkshire Hathaway

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