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Is Your Company Admirable?
Fortune magazine yesterday published its annual list of the 20 most admired companies, and – surprising very few – Apple topped the list.
The survey, asking over 3,700 people from dozens of industries to select the 10 companies they admire most, ranks firms in such areas as innovation, social responsibility, quality of management, and quality of products/services. “It is a tribute to its CEO that Apple, which ten years ago seemed headed for the slag heap, is No. 1,” the magazine noted.
That Apple is buzzed about and admired by those outside the company isn’t exactly breaking news; 1to1’s forthcoming issue spotlighting Customer Champions finds plenty of non-Apple execs enthusing about how Steve Jobs' firm conducts itself.
What was more interesting, to me anyway, was how some other companies fared.
Starbucks was apparently unable to ride the wave of its “we’re closing for three hours” publicity stunt to overcome, in Fortune’s words, “weak sales, overexpansion, and intense competition.” The magazine noted that the burnt-tasting coffee purveyor fell four slots from 2007, to # 6, which to my mind is good news in that it didn’t plunge out of the Top 10. “Starbucks remains a sought-after employer, and its brand, while bruised, is still powerful,” the publication added, hopefully.
Meanwhile, the much-slagged McDonald's – which despite its various consumer-friendly initiatives and attempts at reinvention will probably always be synonymous for “fast and cheap junk food” – actually topped Starbucks to rank first in the Food Services category. Somewhere the Evil Grimace is laughing, as Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz continues to fret over how to make really good microfoam in a large (sorry, “venti”) soyaccino.
Some of the other categories yielded unsurprising results: Southwest was the top Airline, with Northwest near the bottom (somehow, United finished dead last, indicating that most voters evidently haven’t flown NWA lately). Disney was tops in Entertainment, the McCain-scandal-free Washington Post led Newspapers, and BMW was first in Motor Vehicles.
Again, the Fortune list refers to “most-admired,” not necessarily “best financial results” (though of course that plays into it as well). How do you think your company would fare in such a survey? Is your firm an admirable one from most standpoints – and, if not, what can you do about it?
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