The list, part of Fortune Magazine’s special ‘Industrial Edition,’ covers the overall top and bottom 535 companies based on surveys of more than 10,000 business people, in addition to a breakdown of companies by category. The Fortune list is considered by many as the definitive report card on corporate reputations.
Apple slipped from 6th to 8th among most admired computer and office equipment makers, as did Dell Computer, which slipped from 1st to 5th. Gateway took over the number one spot, rising from 4th in 2000, Sun Microsystems stayed in 2nd. Hewlett-Packard moved up to 3rd from 5th.
Here is the list with last years ranking in parenthesis:
Among the top ten companies overall, Dell dropped from 4th to 10th and Microsoft dropped from 3rd to 5th. Cisco Systems jumped from 4th to 2nd this year.
Here is the overall list of the Top Ten:
Executives were asked to select five companies they admired most, regardless of industry. The group choose from a list containing the companies that ranked among the top 25 percent in last year’s survey. To create 61 industry lists, execs, directors and analysts ranked companies in their own industry on eight criteria, ranging from long-term investment value to social responsibility.