From The Best-Run U.S. Companies of 2018—and How They Got That Way:
Topping this year’s list is Apple Inc., the world’s most valuable publicly traded company (sic*). The iPhone maker climbed to the No. 1 spot in the 2018 ranking, dethroning Amazon by performing consistently well across each of the five main components of the overall ranking.
Amazon places second this year, followed by Microsoft and chip makers Nvidia Corp. and Intel Corp. Other management highfliers include Google parent Alphabet consulting firm Accenture PLC and Johnson & Johnson, Nos. 6, 7 and 8, respectively. Rounding out the top 10 are Procter & Gamble and International Business Machines.
What sets this effort apart from other “best companies” lists is its holistic approach. Researchers at Claremont Graduate University’s Drucker Institute, which compiles the list, evaluate companies on five dimensions of performance: customer satisfaction, employee engagement and development, innovation, social responsibility and financial strength.
My take: Customer satisfaction? Social responsibility? Financial strength? By those criteria, Apple ought to be a perennial shoe in. And yet last year, its inaugural year, the list was topped by Amazon.
*Overtaken by events. And Microsoft. See here.
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