Global Finance's World's Best Companies - 2003
© Dr. Terry J. van der Werff, CMC

In its November, 2003, issue Global Finance magazine identifies the world's best companies.

Few companies lead their industries year after year.  This year's Global Finance list again dispels the notion that "the big boys are always on top!"  The comforting thought is the new additions replace worthy successors, unlike some of last year's newbies who deservedly replaced poster children for what ails some of the corporate world, strategically and morally.

For the sixth year, Global Finance identifies the world's best companies in 29 economic sectors, compared with last year's 28 sectors.  The new sector this year is Insurance, and Infrastructure was renamed Construction and Engineering. 13 of the 29 companies are newly crowned as best in their industry on the face of the earth, a substantial 45% turnover rate, though lower than to last year's 61%.

Airlines	Emirates	United Arab Emirates	new
Automotive	BMW	Germany	new
Beverages	PepsiCo	United States	new
Chemicals	BASF	Germany
Computer hardware	Dell	United States	new
Computer software	Microsoft	United States
Conglomerates	United Technologies	United States	new
Construction & engineering	Bechtel	United States
Consumer durables	Samsung Electronics	South Korea
Consumer non-durables	Procter & Gamble	United States
Defense & aerospace	Lockheed Martin	United States
Electronics	Hitachi	Japan	new
Energy services/electricity	RWE	Germany	new
Energy services/equipment	GE Power Systems	United States
Food	ConAgra	United States	new
Franchises	McDonald's	United States
Hotels	Marriott International	United States	new
Insurance	MetLife	United States	new
Leisure	Starbucks	United States
Logistics	United Parcel Service	United States
Media & entertainment	News Corporation	United States	new
Metals & mining	Anglo American	United Kingdom
Network systems	Cisco Systems	United States
Oil & gas	BP	United Kingdom	new
Pharmaceuticals	Pfizer	United States	new
Retailing	Wal-Mart	United States
Telecom equipment	Nokia	Finland
Telecom services	Vodafone	United Kingdom
Tobacco	Altria Group	United States

The selection criteria in the past have evolved slowly and have included both objective and subjective factors.  This year there was no explicit mention of the criteria, so one must assume they were similar, if not identical to, last year's:

	revenue and profit growth
	market capitalization and share price growth
	technology or product breakthroughs
	strategy
	crisis control
	aggressiveness in market building
	social responsibility
	success in expanding outside the home country

Each company has a two or three paragraph description, partly descriptive and partly suggestive of strategies you may wish to think about for your own company.

In addition to the global winners, Global Finance identified the top companies in the same 29 sectors (with a couple extra sectors for two continents) for North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America, with each company being given a one paragraph description.

Source: Global Finance, November, 2003, issue.

	View Global Finance's list of best companies in 2001.
	View Global Finance's list of best companies in 2002.
	View Global Finance's list of best companies in 2004.
	View Global Finance's list of best companies in 2005.

 

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