Corporate respectability, hard to earn and even harder to keep

As the corporate scandals and frauds are making headlines all over the world, another group of companies is calmly heading for success, without losing public esteem. At a time when turbulence is a key word in the corporate world, when markets soar and plunge, when technologies promise and fail, the same names dominate the top of the world’s most respected companies and leaders.

Just like in the five previous surveys put together by the Financial Times and PricewaterhouseCoopers, two companies (General Electric and Microsoft) are still ranking first and second respectively in the top of the world’s most respected companies. Another three companies (Toyota, IBM and Coca-Cola) have been among the top ten throughout the same period. A further four of the top ten this year (Wal-Mart, Dell, DaimlerChrysler and Sony) have never been out of the top 30.

In the top of the world’s most respected leaders, Bill Gates, head of Microsoft is still No. 1, followed by investor Warren Buffet, Jack Welch from General Electric (although he has retired), Carlos Ghosn (who rescued Japanese carmaker Nissan from looming bankruptcy), and Hiroshi Okuda from Toyota.

Nothing is forever in the corporate life and crises may lurk for those that made it to the survey’s Top 10. However, the performance of this corporate elite has been extraordinary in the past six years, so it is worth asking how they have done it.

This year, 903 chief executives in 20 countries were asked to name the companies they most respected and three companies operating in the same field. Then, the chief executives had to name the three leaders they most admired and to argue their responses.

Chief executives were also asked to identify those companies that created the most value for shareholders, those that demonstrated the greatest integrity and the companies that approached corporate social responsibility.

Still, the survey authors also wanted contrasting opinions and thus decided to poll 90 journalists and NGOs, which got to state their opinions. The survey was conducted between November-December 2003.

The top two, General Electric and Microsoft, achieved high ratings in almost every area. Chief executives ranked them highly on every count and they also got healthy ratings from fund managers, the media and campaigning organisations. General Electric, for instance, was rated number one for integrity, corporate governance and for achieving shareholder value. The media rated the company world’s sixth best for integrity and fifth for corporate governance.

It is worth noting what the chief executives had to say about their most admired companies. General Electric was commended for the ability to combine “development, entrepreneurial culture and ethical standards.” Comments on Microsoft are interesting every year, since corporate leaders admire the company for the exact same reason that many consumers and commentators dislike it: its power in the market or, as one respondent put it, its “ability to penetrate and dominate the market.”

The world’s ten most respected leaders are, according to the Financial Times/PwC survey, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Jack Welch, Carlos Ghosn, Hiroshi Okuda, Michael Dell (Dell), Lou Gerstner (retired – IBM), Nobuyuki Idei (Sony), Carly Fiorina (Hewlett-Packard) and Jeffrey Immelt (General Electric). In line with the same survey, the world’s ten most respected companies are General Electric, Microsoft, Toyota, IBM, Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, Dell, Berkshire Hathaway, DaimlerChrysler, and Sony.
anca.stoicescu@zf.ro