In Fortune’s annual ranking of the world’s most admired companies, Apple topped the charts yet again for 2014. Amazon took second place and Google took third. Last year, Google was second while Amazon was third.
Fortune says it is admired because:
The iconic tech company known for the iPhone and other stylish and user-friendly products is back in the top spot on this year’s list, for the seventh year in a row. Apple, the most valuable brand on the planet according to Interbrand, brought in $171 billion in revenues in FY2013 and is flush with cash, but fan boys and girls (not to mention the market) are getting antsy to see its next big product. Bets are on a smartwatch or AppleTV, but the company is also reportedly turning its attention to cars and medical devices.
The Most Admired list is the definitive report card on corporate reputations. Fortune started with about 1,400 companies: the Fortune 1,000—the 1,000 largest U.S. companies ranked by revenue and non-U.S. companies in Fortune’s Global 500 database with revenue of $10 billion or more. It then selected the 15 largest for each international industry and the 10 largest for each U.S. industry, surveying a total of 692 companies from 30 countries.
The list is based on responses from business leaders around the world. So, while the grouping is a yearly business vanity test of sorts, it is also a barometer for market opinion on competing firms: who is going up and who is slipping in the eyes of their potential customers.
