For a forth consecutive year, Apple has been ranked The World’s Most Admired company by Fortune. Boasting an overall score of 8.16, the company ousted Google, Berkshire Hathaway and Southwest Airlines once again claiming the number one spot. Cited for its steady release schedule and continued innovations, the Cupertino giant continues to set the standard in the tech industry.
Although the announcement of Steve Jobs’ second leave of absence caused stocks to dive earlier in the year, the combined successes of products such as the original iPad, iPhone 4, and most recently iPad 2 have proven incredibly lucrative for the company. So lucrative in fact that Apple has nearly doubled its quarterly profits since this time last year. With competing computing companies such as EMC and Hewlett-Packard trailing by nearly two points, Apple cleaned up—scoring number one industry rankings almost across the board. Apple ranked number one in all of the following “Key Attributes of Reputation” with the exception of Global competitiveness which went to HP.
- Innovation
- People management
- Use of corporate assets
- Social responsibility
- Quality of management
- Financial soundness
- Long-term investment
- Quality of products/services
The vast majority of these statistics came prior to the announcement of iPad 2. Though sales figures have yet to be disclosed, Apple’s new tablet had a tremendous launch and first weekend. Assuming the company continues to innovate and update its computer and mobile products to the same degree of excellence, it will be a shoo-in for 2012.