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As they do every year, Fortune magazine took the largest companies in the world in every industry and gathered the opinions of 3,900 executives, directors, and securities analysts, asking them to rate the strength of each company to create a list of the World’s 50 Most Admired Companies of 2018.
Utilizing this new data, the folks over at the cost information website HowMuch.net took the top fifty all-star companies and placed the logos of each one in a circle within the headquartered country. The size of the circle corresponds to the company’s total market capitalization, with the largest circles representing companies valued at over $500 billion. They then color-coded each company by industry and grouped those belonging to the same industries together.
The result is a kaleidoscopic map of the fifty most admired companies in the world that lets you quickly identify several trends about reputations in today’s corporate world.
The first thing you may notice is that companies headquartered in the United States dominated Fortune’s list.
Apple, ranked number one, is rapidly closing in on becoming the very first trillion-dollar company ever. Amazon and Microsoft are the second and third largest companies on the list, but then there is a huge drop-off in market cap value to Facebook in fourth place.
The map below also illustrates how the most admired companies come from a variety of different industries, which proves that a company can build a solid reputation regardless of what business they are in.
Another interesting trend is that almost all of the companies on the list specialize in basically one specific industry. All of the companies also have one other thing in common: they’ve all been around for awhile. Facebook is the youngest company on the list and they’ve been around for 14 years. Google, the second youngest on the list, has been operating for 20 years, proving that it takes time for a company to build one of the best reputations in the world.
Top 10 Most Admired Companies In The World By Market Cap…
1. Apple: Computers/Software/IT, $905B
2. Amazon: Internet, $7367B
3. Microsoft: Computers/Software/IT, $735B
4. Facebook: Internet, $443B
5. Berkshire Hathaway: Insurance, $237B
6. JPMorgan Chase: Financial Services, $412B
7. Johnson & Johnson: Pharmaceuticals, $354B
8. Alphabet: Internet, $341B
9. Exxon Mobil: Petroleum, $334B
10. Visa: Financial Services, $225B
Top 10 Most Admired Companies In The World By Ranking (Top 50 Ranking in 2017)…
1. Apple (1)
2. Amazon (3)
3. Alphabet (6)
4. Berkshire Hathaway (4)
5. Starbucks (3)
6. Walt Disney Co. (5)
7. Microsoft (–)
8. Southwest Airlines (8)
9. FedEx (11)
10. JPMorgan Chase (–)
11 through 20 are: Netflix, Facebook, Costco, American Express, Salesforce, Nike, Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, BMW, and USAA.
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