German companies assert themselves in the “The World’s Most Admired Companies“ ranking. The Bavarian car manufacturer BMW reached position 9 in this ranking and was thus the only European company which made it into the top ten. The international Hay Group management consultancy in co-operation with Fortune, an economic magazine from the US, each year interviews about 16.000 managers and analysts from 26 countries on their opinions about the most impressing companies worldwide.
For eleven years Hay Group has been carrying out this survey. In a first step experts and competitors assess the candidates in terms of management quality, product quality, innovation, long-term investment strategy, personnel management, social responsibility, use of company capital and global orientation. Based on these data Hay Group in a second step compiles the list of the “World’s Most Admired Companies”.
So far only four companies not being from the US made it into the top ranks of this list. In the current top ten ranking there is just one other non-US company apart from BMW which is Toyota in third position. Thus, BMW is not only Germany’s, but also Europe’s best company.
The “World’s Most Admired Company” 2008 is the Apple computer giant which replaced last year’s winner General Electric.
German companies did generally very well. Daimler came third within the “Automobil” ranking and Volkswagen fifth. Germany’s leading role is also underlined within the list of best companies in the category of suppliers to the automobile industry. Here Robert Bosch came fourth, and ZF Friedrichshafen is in 12th position.
Another top domain of German companies is chemicals: BASF came 2nd, Bayer 4th and Linde 7th.
Arcandor, Boehringer Ingelheim, Heraeus Holding and ZF Friedrichshafen were those four German companies which made it for the first time into the ranking of the world’s most admired companies. Among those companies already recognised as leading ones in the category of industrial enterprises seven could even improve their rankings. ThyssenKrupp made the greatest leap forward by jumping from rank 12 to 3.
In the ranking of best German companies in the overall ranking the following companies did particularly well besides BMW: Daimler, Siemens, BASF and Metro. In the eyes of the managers interviewed they belong to the group of most successful German companies. 