Fortune has released the 2017 edition of its annual list of the “World’s Most Admired Companies”. And the results for automotive brands are, well, rather interesting…
You see, in the industry rankings for motor vehicles, Toyota takes top spot ahead of BMW, with Honda rounding off the podium. Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Renault and Nissan complete the table.
But in the publication’s overall “50 All-Stars” list (headed by Apple, with Amazon in second and Starbucks in third), BMW places 21st, which puts it ahead of Toyota, which ranks 34th. No other automakers made this top 50 list.
So why the discrepancy?
Well, for the former list, Fortune began with about 1 500 candidates: the 1 000 largest US companies ranked by revenue, along with non-US companies in its Global 500 database that have revenues of $10-billion or more. That list was then whittled down to the highest-revenue companies in each industry, for a total of 680 across 28 countries. The top-rated companies were picked from that pool of 680, with the executives who voted working at the companies in that group.
By contrast, to select the 50 All-Stars list, Fortune and its survey partners asked 3 800 executives, directors, and securities analysts who had responded to the industry surveys to select the 10 companies they admired most. They chose from a list comprising the companies that ranked in the top 25% in 2016’s surveys, plus those that finished in the top 20% of their industry.
“The difference in the voting rolls explains why some results can seem at odds with each other,” said Fortune.
So, which is the most admired automaker for 2017? Well, either Toyota or BMW, depending on how you look at it…
