World's Most Reputable Companies

In ascending order..

No. 14: INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES

The Ratan Tata-led group is joined by India's second largest software exporter Infosys Technologies in the Top-50 league at 14th position.
Both Tata Group and Infosys have leapfrogged over 100 positions from their last year's ranks in the annual "Global 200: The World's Best Corporate Reputations" list, compiled by US-based Reputation Institute...

Image: Indian President Pratibha Patil presents the Padma Vibhushan award in the field of trade and industry to Infosys chief mentor Narayana Murthy (right) during the presentation of the 'Padma Awards 2008' at the President House in New Delhi on May 5

No. 10: MIGROS
Migros is one of Switzerland's largest supermarket chain. The Federation of Migros Cooperatives, which owns Migros chain of superstores, ranks number 10 in the world in terms of reputation.
The overall rankings are based on the companies' performance on seven dimensions --- workplace, citizenship, governance, products/services, innovation, leadership and performance.
The global leader Toyota has topped on four dimensions. Among Indian companies, Infosys is ranked fifth in citizenship and leadership categories and fourth in governance and products/services.
Tata Group has been ranked fifth in governance and third in leadership.
Reputation Institute is a private advisory firm specialising in corporate reputation management and Global Purse is its flagship research study conducted annual with about 60,000 consumers in 27 countries, from which it derives the rankings of world's most reputed companies.
The institute said that general public tends to rate makers of consumer products, computers and electronics well above the global mean.
"By contrast, communications companies and utilities largely anchor the bottom of the distributions. Companies operating in these sectors face an uphill battle in communicating with the general public," it noted.
Financial companies also face similar uphill battle, the report said, adding that pharma, conglomerate, raw materials, airline, food/tobacco and chemical industries hover around the middle of the ranks globally.


Image: A Migros supermart in Switzerland.

No. 9: GRUPO BIMBO SA
Grupo Bimbo is a giant Mexican food corporation. It might not be too well known in India, but is considered the world's ninth most reputable firm.
Reputation Institute said that all the 200 companies earned scores higher than the global mean of 64.2 points, but despite earnings better-than-global average, the companies ranked 51-200 have "significantly weaker reputations than the top tier companies."
The top-20 include six from the US, two each from India and Japan and one each from Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.


A customer grabs an industrialized cake of Pullman, a trademark of the Mexican baker products company Bimbo.

No. 8: NOVO NORDISK
Novo Nordisk is a Denmark's largest and one of the world's biggest manufacturer of pharmaceutical products. It is the world's eighth most reputable firm.
Globally, food and beverage giant PepsiCo, headed by a person of Indian origin Indra Nooyi, has been ranked 100th.
Tatas are ranked higher than companies like Walt Disney, Marks and Spencers, Xerox, Colgate-Palmolive, Sony, Honda, General Electric (GE), all of which are in the top-50.
The survey was conducted on 600 largest companies from 27 countries, out of which 200 were selected for the list. Toyota earned the highest ranking with a score of 86.53, followed by Google with 85.23 points.


Image: A Novo Nordisk office building in Denmark.

No. 7: KRAFT FOODS
Kraft Foods Inc of the US is world's third largest food and beverage company. It is also the seventh most reputable firm on earth.
However, the highest jump in ranking has been seen by China's Faw Group (ranked 41st with an improvement of 178 spots), followed by Norway's Coop, Canada's Sobey's and Japan's AEON, all of which have gained over 100 spots..
Maruti, the country's biggest car maker, has been ranked at 77th, SBI at 107th, HLL (now renamed as HUL) at 131st, Hero Honda at 147th, LIC at 161st, Bajaj Auto at 169th, ONGC at 186th , M&M at 191s and IOC at 199th position

Image: A Kraft Foods sign is displayed near its corporate headquarters in Northfield, Illinois.

6 TH: TATA GROUP, 6TH IN THE WORLD
The Tata Group has emerged as the world's sixth most reputed company, joined by 10 others from India such as Infosys, Maruti and SBI in a list of Top-200 firms.
Tata Group is one of India's largest industrial conglomerates and runs more than 98 firms. Click here to find out which are the world's most reputable companies.


Image: Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Group.

No. 5: JOHNSON & JOHNSON
Johnson & Johnson is a global pharmaceutical major. The American major is the world's fifth most reputable firm.
Both Tata and Infosys have gained over 100 spots each to join the top tier of global companies.
"India's Tata Group and Infosys Technologies saw their reputations increase by over 8 points in 2008, and catapulted over 100 spots in the ranking to join the top tier of global companies in 2008, in recognition of their growing role among the world's business elite," the report said.


Image: A box of Johnson & Johnson Kling Rolls are displayed on a shelf at a Walgreens store in Chicago, Illinois.

No. 4: FERRERO
Ferrero is an Italian confectioner. It is the world's fourth most reputable business entity.
While releasing its latest Global Pulse report, Reputation Institute said that Tata Group and Air India have the strongest and weakest corporate reputations, respectively, among the companies from India.
Besides Tata and Infosys, other firms that made to the top 200 list include, Maruti Udyog (Suzuki) Ltd, State Bank of India, Hindustan Lever Ltd, Hero Honda Motors, Life Insurance Corp of India, Bajaj Auto, ONGC, Mahindra and Mahindra and Indian Oil Corp.


Image: A youth photographs the famous surprise-filled chocolate eggs by Italian confectioner Ferrero.

No. 3: IKEA
IKEA is a global home products retailer. It is the world's third most reputable firm. Earlier this year, the Swedish major trashed the Indian retail growth story saying that the country was not even 'an emerging market' ready for big retailers with players making more mistakes than success.
Meanwhile, the other Indian companies that were considered for the list, but failed to make the cut include the biggest private sector lender ICICI Bank, top private and public sector telecom firms Bharti Airtel and BSNL, IT giant Wipro, Birla group's Grasim Industries, tobacco-to-consumer goods conglomerate ITC as well as two state-run firms -- oil refining and marketing major BPCL and national carrier Air India Ltd.


Image: Customers drive to a new IKEA store.

No. 2: GOOGLE
Google is an American Internet company and worldwide search giant, and is the world's second most reputable company.
Apart from Tata and Infosys, 9 other Indian firms, which were among 600 companies considered in a survey to prepare the list, could not make it to the final 200. These firms include Mukesh Ambani-led RIL, the country's biggest by revenue among private sector firms and overall largest in terms of market value

An employee walks past a Google logo at the Google stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair

No. 1: TOYOTA
The global list, which includes 10 other Indian companies, has been topped by Japanese auto maker Toyota. The Japanese giant is also the world's largets car manufacturer.

Image: The Toyota logo affixed to the back of a Toyota car.


Photograph: AFP/Getty Images