© Dr. Terry J. van der Werff, CMC
In its September, 2001,
issue Global Finance
magazine identifies the world's best companies.
For the fourth year, Global Finance in its September,
2001, issue identifies the world's best companies in 25 economic
sectors:
| Airlines |
United |
United States |
| Automotive |
Renault |
France |
| Beverages |
Coca-Cola |
United States |
| Chemicals |
Dow |
United States |
| Computer hardware |
Sun Microsystems |
United States |
| Computer software |
SAP |
Germany |
| Conglomerates |
General Electric |
United States |
| Consumer products |
Colgate-Palmolive |
United States |
| Defense/aerospace |
Boeing |
United States |
| Electronics/electrical equipment |
Samsung |
South Korea |
| Energy services/electricity |
Enron |
United States |
| Energy services/equipment |
Schlumberger |
France/USA |
| Food |
Nestlé |
Switzerland |
| Franchises |
McDonald's |
United States |
| Hotels |
Starwood |
United States |
| Infrastructure |
Bechtel |
United States |
| Logistics |
United Parcel Service |
United States |
| Media/entertainment |
AOL Time Warner |
United States |
| Metals/mining |
Anglo American |
United Kingdom |
| Network systems |
Cisco Systems |
United States |
| Oil & gas |
BP |
United Kingdom |
| Pharmaceuticals |
AstraZeneca |
United Kingdom |
| Retailing |
Wal-Mart |
United States |
| Telecom equipment |
Nokia |
Finland |
| Telecom services |
Deutsche Telecom |
Germany |
Criteria for selection are both objective
and subjective:
|
|
rise in capitalization |
|
|
total global or regional sales |
|
|
percentage of sales outside the home
country |
|
|
total global or regional employees |
|
|
percentage of employees outside the
home country |
|
|
opinions of international equity
analysts, investment bankers, and consultants |
|
|
aggressiveness in securing market
share |
|
|
innovation in technology or products |
|
|
success in handling economic crises |
Each company is given a several paragraph description,
which is well worth reading for the hints at strategies that seem
to work. A table of five quantitative indicators is also given
for each company. The range in these indicators is huge:
|
High
|
|
Low
|
|
|
Sales:
|
$191B
|
Wal-Mart |
$4B
|
Starwood |
|
Sales outside home country:
|
98%
|
Nestlé, Nokia |
17%
|
BP, Wal-Mart |
|
Total global employees:
|
1,500,000
|
McDonald's |
17,000
|
Enron |
|
Employees outside home country:
|
97%
|
Nestlé |
2%
|
Boeing |
|
Countries with employees:
|
219
|
Colgate-Palmolive |
10
|
Wal-Mart |
In addition to the above, Global Finance identified
the top companies in the same 25 sectors for North America, Europe,
Asia, and South America, each with a one paragraph description,
but no data.
Source: Global
Finance, September, 2001, issue.
